“im still alive btw”

“but going down now!”

“i love you!!!!!”

“he brought coffee and cookies tho”

After that, she went silent.

Forensic experts later found her blood on Mr. Madsen’s face. Her underpants and nylon stockings, with cut marks, were found in the submarine. The courtroom was shown a video tour of the vessel, and the prosecutor showed footage of divers’ efforts to recover Ms. Wall’s body parts from the bottom of the ocean. There were shots of plastic bags, containing clothing and limbs, weighed down by metal pipes.

Mr. Madsen sat calmly, resting his chin on his fists at times, as he followed the proceedings intently. After a lunch break, he took the stand.

At times cheeky, at times condescending, he had an answer for everything. He stuck to his most recent account that the death was a terrible accident caused by a malfunction that made the engines stop, the pressure to drop, the hatch to lock shut and gases to poison the air in the submarine, resulting in Ms. Wall’s death. He said he survived because he was on top of the submarine at the time.

He said a vent suddenly opened, allowing the hatch to open and fresh air to gush in. He said he tried to hide the death out of consideration for Ms. Wall’s family. “I didn’t want to share with the rest of the world the horrible manner in which she died,” he said.

He said he tried for two hours to get her body overboard, but gave up.

“At that point, Peter Madsen can’t do anything else,” he said, speaking of himself in the third person. He said he drove around, rested, then decided the only thing left to do was to cut her up.

When it was suggested that violent online videos inspired the mutilation, he disagreed, saying that he watched them to access feelings of empathy. “I have a tendency to always root for the underdog and the weaker party,” he said.