Today, Peter Madsen—the inventor, engineer, and owner of the world's largest amateur-built submarine and head of the eponymous "Rocket Madsen Space Lab"—was formally charged with murdering Kim Wall, a Swedish freelance journalist who had been writing an article about Madsen. Copenhagen Prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen says that Wall's killing was premeditated and called the case “very unusual and extremely disturbing.”

Madsen is also charged with dismemberment, indecent handling of a corpse, and with "sexual relations other than intercourse of a particularly dangerous nature." Madsen's trial is set to begin March 8. If convicted, Madsen would face a life sentence. There is also a petition before the court to have him committed to a secure psychiatric facility indefinitely if he is determined to be mentally ill and to pose a danger to others.

Rocket man, U-boat commander

Madsen, who was once one of the founding members of Copenhagen Suborbitals—which describes itself as "the world's only manned amateur space program"—had what could generously be described as a falling out with the group in 2014. "He had disagreement with the other members of the group for years, including the board," a Copenhagen Suborbitals spokesperson wrote in a statement published in September. "This culminated in June 2014, and created a deep rift between Peter Madsen and the rest of us."

Around the same time, Madsen began to dispute the ownership of the UC3 Nautilus, the submarine he had led the construction of with an association called Ubådsforeningen UC3 Nautilus, which included some members of Copenhagen Suborbitals. Madsen had led a failed effort in 2013 to crowd-fund repairs to the submarine and afterwards continued to declare he had a "moral right" to the sub, which had been used to assist with some Copenhagen Suborbitals launches. The association transferred the submarine to his own space company, Raketmadsens Rumlaboratorium (also known as RML Spacelab) in March of 2015. (Raketmadsen, or "Rocket Madsen," is Madsen's nickname.)

Starting last February, Madsen began seriously promoting his own space race in a series of videos, in which he claimed credit for Copenhagen Suborbitals' previous rocket efforts. It was this effort that drew the attention of Kim Wall, who set out to write about the space quest.

But in the process, Wall apparently shifted her focus to the UC3 Nautilus. And on August 10, she was seen boarding the amateur-built sub with Madsen as it pulled out of Refshale Island (Refshaleøen).

The evolving horror story

Madsen was seen the next day ditching out of the sub as it sank in the shallow waters of Køge Bay. He claimed after being rescued that there had been a problem with the ballast system and that the sub began submerging while he was above decks with the hatch open. He also claimed to have discharged Wall at Refshale the night before. But ten days later his story sank as quickly as the sub had when Wall's decapitated and dismembered body was found washed ashore, and traces of her blood were found in the recovered sub. The autopsy found that Wall had been stabbed several times in the chest and the genitals.

Madsen then claimed that Wall had died when he accidentally dropped a hatch on her head and that he had buried her at sea—but denied having dismembered her body to do so. He also claimed that he sank the submarine deliberately as a suicide attempt, but then changed his mind at the last moment—and that his original statement to police was to buy him time to set personal affairs in order before he was jailed.

But then in October, bags containing her head and limbs, along with her clothing, a knife, pipes used to weigh the bags down, and a saw used to dismember her, were all recovered by divers. There was no sign of trauma to Wall's skull.

Also in October, videos showing the torture and decapitation of women were found on a computer at Madsen's RML Spacelab. Madsen claimed that the videos were not his. But he revised his story again, admitting to dismembering Wall but claiming that she had died of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a leak in the diesel engine's exhaust system.

Prosecutors now say that Madsen deliberately killed Wall, either cutting her throat or strangling her, and then dismembered her body and tossed it overboard. A verdict in Madsen's trial is expected by April 25; Danish officials have stated that they plan to destroy the Nautilus after the trial.