Danish police: Submarine owner says woman died in accident before the ship was sunk

Reporting from HELSINKI —  The owner of a home-built submarine has told investigators that a missing Swedish female journalist died onboard in an accident and he buried her at sea in an unspecified location, Danish police said Monday.

Copenhagen police said the submarine owner will continue to be held on preliminary manslaughter charges. They declined to provide further details.

The statement did not identify the submarine’s owner, Peter Madsen, 46, but the Danish inventor’s financing of the project through crowdfunding and the first launch of the UC3 Nautilus in 2008 made headlines.

Kim Wall, a 30-year-old reporter, was aboard Madsen’s submarine on assignment when she disappeared more than a week ago. Madsen has denied any wrongdoing.

Police earlier said Madsen had reported dropping her off on a redeveloped island in Copenhagen’s harbor about 3 1/2 hours into their Thursday night trip.

Madsen was arrested Friday hours after his 40-ton, nearly 60-foot-long submarine sank off Denmark’s eastern coast.

Wall’s family told the Associated Press that Kim worked in many dangerous places as a journalist, but it was unimaginable that “something could happen ... just a few miles from the childhood home.”

Before his arrest, Madsen appeared on Danish television to discuss the submarine’s sinking and his rescue. It was the journalist’s boyfriend who alerted authorities early Friday that the sub had not returned from a test run, police said.