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Not many people were familiar with the chilling story of Peter Madsen before Netflix released its true crime documentary Into The Deep.
But now that viewers are tuning into the Netflix film, they can't believe they hadn't heard of this haunting case sooner.
What makes this documentary so unsettling is the fact that it starter very innocently, almost a year before anything suspicious had happened. But when journalist Kim Wall went missing during filming, it took a very sinister turn:
Filmmaker Emma Sullivan had originally come out to Denmark to make a documentary on the impressive life and work of Peter Madsen – a famous engineer who built a crowd-funded submarine from scratch, and had plans to build his own space rocket and become the world's first amateur astronaut.
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After documenting Madsen, his work, friends, and loyal followers for a year, Emma's film would switch gears in a way she never could have predicted.
On 10 August 2017, Emma filmed Madsen as he set off to sea in his self-made submarine with Swedish journalist Kim Wall.
Madsen had invited Kim to join him on his submarine for an exclusive interview that she had been chasing for some time.
Before the submarine went underwater, Kim sent one final text to her boyfriend which read: "I'm still alive btw. But going down now. I love you!" It was the last message she sent before she went missing.
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Kim and Madsen were only supposed to be gone for two hours, but panic quickly ensued when they never returned to harbour.
Since Madsen's submarine was his own private invention, there was no satellite tracking available to find out where the voyager had gone.
The next morning, Madsen's submarine was spotted, and the engineer was pulled back to safety – but there was no sign of Kim.
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He claimed that he had brought the missing journalist to shore before things started to go wrong with his submarine, which was visibly damaged, but Kim's boyfriend said that she had never returned home.
More than a week later, Kim's mutilated torso was discovered on a beach. In the following weeks, her clothes, head, legs, and other body parts were discovered by police divers.
When questioned by authorities, Madsen changed his story several times, from dropping the journalist off to shore, to disposing of her body after a submarine hatch had accidentally hit her head, to her dying of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.
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What helped police with their investigation was the incriminating footage that Emma Sullivan had unknowingly captured while filming her documentary.
In January 2018, Peter Madsen was charged with murder, indecent handling of a corpse, and sexual assault, to which he pled not guilty.
That April, he was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to life in prison.
Into The Deep is available to stream now on Netflix.
Topics: TV And Film, Netflix, True Crime
Ali Condon