DAY 19 29TH AUGUST 2017
THE INVESTIGATION
We probably sailed for three hours,
crisscrossing around 13 kilometres south of Avedøre Power Station.
We were spiralling around, and suddenly the dog got up and barked.
And is that where we'll find the rest of the body?
The dogs perceive the scents or gases rising to the surface,
where they mix with the air, and the dogs indicate it.
Do they only respond to human scents?
It's almost too good to be true, eh?
Dogs have 200 million scent receptors.
By comparison, humans have five to six million.
And the olfactory processing part of a dog's brain
is about 40 times bigger than in humans.
Are you sure it's working?
I'm not certain about anything,
but the Swedes have had great success with the dogs.
If so, why haven't the Danish police used them before?
It was you who wanted to be told where to dive.
You have it now, and very precisely to boot.
If my give my lads those coordinates, will they find something?
Yeah, that's what we're hoping.
What are you aiming for in court?
To keep him on remand and get him jailed for murder.
And get a warrant to search his computers, disks and bank accounts.
Do you think he will make a statement?
It's possible.
It'll be interesting to hear how he explains that we found her torso.
Absolutely.
But I also don't want the defence to find out how little we actually know.
We know he didn't dump an intact body.
Yeah.
But we don't know the cause of death.
We have hypotheses and assumptions, but no evidence to underpin them.
But the defence don't need to know.
I can't refute the defendant's account
unless we find the head and analyse the cranial injuries.
No.
But maybe we will soon.
The Swedish cadaver dogs have given fairly precise indications.
DAY 26 5TH SEPTEMBER 2017
-Good morning. -Good morning.
Good to see you.
As you probably know, we're looking for what's left of a body.
We have reasons to believe
that the body parts are weighed down by metal pipes or similar objects.
We may also be looking for a saw
or other implements the suspect has disposed of.
And we continue searching for the missing person's phone and clothing.
That's black shoes, dark trousers and an orange knitwear top.
If you find anything, leave it on the seabed, mark the spot.
A diver will go down and take photos,
you come and get a plastic box from me,
and you then dive and place the bag on top
before you bring it all up.
It sounds troublesome, but we can't risk damaging evidence.
Ten.
Eight, seven, six.
Five.
Four, three, two, one. Drop.
We're putting down a stay at the dog's first indication. Over.
10 metres.
I'm tightening it.
You can let go now.
We're getting ready.
We're there.
Diver going in.
We're sending the divers in. Over.
We're sending the divers down at the dog's first spot.
I repeat: We're diving at the first spot the dog indicated. Over.
Copy. Over.
-Ready? -Yeah.
One, two, three.
No finds. I repeat: no finds.
Remand has been extended by four weeks.
-On what grounds? -Manslaughter.
And we got a warrant to search his computers, disks and bank accounts.
Okay.
And the judge ordered a psychiatric examination.
Things are happening now.
-When will Musa be back? -I don't know.
Get hold of him and search the workshop again.
We could have overlooked something. Hard disks, USB sticks.
Maibritt Porse, Copenhagen Police. May we come in?
-Sure. -Thanks.
We have a search warrant, so please vacate the workshop.
I'll get the gear from the car.
-We're there. -Right.
Going in now!
We're going to the next stay.
The diver is in. Over.
We have a diver on the surface.
Diver's up.
-Are you okay? -Yeah, I'm fine.
The divers are up. Unfortunately, we have no finds.
We'll try again.
We're almost done.
Not much, but we found some books. Like the one about the Amager rapist.
Okay.
Yeah.
Is there any news from the divers?
Okay.
-Will you take the rest? -Yeah.
-May we go back in? -Sure.
Let's go.
We divided the seabed into 20 by 200 metre stays
in this area indicated by the Swedish cadaver dogs.
How far did you get?
We've searched five stays today.
And we found nothing.
The Swedes are sure that there is a body where the dogs indicate.
It's probably not very precise when the wind throws the scent around.
Take a look at this.
In optimal weather,
it takes my lads two days
to search five by five millimetres on this map.
So if the coordinates indicated by the dogs are not accurate enough,
then we could be diving for very long.
-Hi. -Hi.
Hi, Nikolaj. It's Maibritt. I see that you called.
Yeah.
Just some books
and some iron bars that could be like the ones attached to the torso.
And a couple of hard disks we'd overlooked.
Right, yeah.
I'll call you back, Nikolaj.
Musa, it's me. Are you still in the car?
-Do you have my case file down there? -No. You've got it.
Right. It's probably here. Bye.
Maibritt, do you have a sec?
Not right now.
Maibritt. Come in.
I'd like to be taken off the case, please.
I left my case file behind when I left the workshop earlier today.
What do you mean?
I left it on the desk when we drove off with what we'd gathered.
With photos and reports in it?
-When did you become aware? -A couple of hours later.
I don't know if anyone has had a chance to take a look at it.
-There were two men in the workshop. -Did they see the file?
Only one of them was there when I returned.
He said they hadn't noticed the file lying there.
But I can't be sure.
And you want to be taken off the case?
I can't do that.
We can all make mistakes.
But few of us talk about it.
Go home. I'll see you tomorrow.
DAY 39 18TH SEPTEMBER 2017
We've been diving where the dogs marked, with nothing to show for it.
-What do the Swedes say? -They don't understand it.
They've never had such clear indications and not found anything.
Now, the dogs are trained to search Swedish lakes,
where there is nowhere near as much wind.
Exactly.
Can't we test it in some way?
Have you asked how they train them?
I already asked.
They've offered to put some cadaver fluid underwater.
So if we do like this...
Seabed.
Surface.
Wind direction.
A container of cadaver fluid.
The scent rises and is carried by the wind.
When we know exactly where the fluid is,
we should be able to sail against the wind
until the dog catches the scent, and mark the spot.
If I have the distance from the mark to the cadaver fluid,
then we can compare with indications from previous days,
factoring in wind direction and strength.
Then you ought to know exactly where to dive.
How far from the departure point are we now?
120 metres.
Has the wind changed or something?
Okay. Let's go out, turn around and come back.
We'll go out and turn around.
230 metres.
200 metres.
Your dog's not working.
Yes. He works well, Christian.
He's not picking up anything. He never indicates wrongly.
Does he need a break?
That's up to you.
How soon can you get us ashore?
It's against the current, so 20 to 25 minutes.
The current?
Where's it coming from?
From south-southwest.
What if it's the current that's moving the scent, not the wind?
Okay.
Do exactly what we did before,
but this time don't go against the wind, go against the current.
We're going against the current. Roger that.
200 metres.
Is that an indication?
He's indicating, Christian.
What's the exact distance?
173 metres.
-Was that an indication? -Yes, it was.
Good boy.
Yes!
-That's it. -Yes.
-It's working! -It sure is.
Bloody hell!
It's the current.
We placed the cadaver fluid at a depth of six metres.
And the current carried the scent 170 metres before it hit the surface.
Since the body parts are presumably 12 metres down, we multiply by two.
That makes 340 metres.
So we dived more than 100 metres off.
If the current carries the scent 340 metres north,
then we have to dive here.
DAY 47 26 SEPTEMBER 2017
So the current can carry the scent hundreds of metres?
Yeah. That's where the dogs indicated.
It's unbelievable.
Imagine if that's true.
Are your noses that good? Are they?
Do you have such good noses, eh?
Come. I want to show you something.
It began with somebody laying a stone.
And it became a heart for Kim.
There are more and more now.
Now, almost every passerby lays a stone.
And you knew nothing about it?
No.
Jens speaking.
Yeah.
Okay.
See you at the harbour.
Yeah.
They haven't found anything.
But I'll call as soon as I have any news.
Thanks.
Come on, Iso.
No luck today either.
-How much of an area did you cover? -Four stays.
Exactly 340 metres from where the dogs indicated.
Visibility down there is less than four metres.
We have to come up with something, Jens.
We're groping in the dark.
Let's pack up and go!
I've reviewed the items from the workshop.
Okay.
I noticed something in the book about the rapist.
A passage about false DNA traces made me think.
He wanted his son to smuggle semen out and place it on a rape victim.
to prove that the perpetrator was still at large.
Yes?
And what?
False leads.
I thought about the knickers and tights in the submarine.
Would he have put them in Refshaleøen if he'd made it ashore unnoticed?
Then it would appear she was assaulted after he put her ashore.
And if he'd cleaned the sub, we'd have had no other trace of her.
And it would have been impossible to reject his explanation.
PJ from the Frogman Corps called me.
They're messing around in the Little Belt.
He told me about an oceanographer from Aarhus University
who's supposedly a world authority on sea currents.
He's sailing around in his research vessel, the Aurora.
And?
I called the chap. His name is Torben Vang.
He'd be happy to help calculate where the body parts might be.
Okay.
If you don't mind, he'll come to Copenhagen and help us.
And the Frogmen offered equipment and personnel
so we can cover more seabed.
I gladly accepted.
When?
As soon as they can, in a couple of days.
DAY 56 5TH OCTOBER 2017
-I'm LM. Good morning. -Good morning. I'm Torben.
-Good morning. -Christian.
-Maibritt. -Good morning.
I'm Torben. Welcome aboard.
Thanks for coming so quickly.
-I hear you sailed through the night. -Yeah, we did. Yeah.
The Frogman Corp said it was important, so we dropped everything.
And you're an expert on currents in the Baltic?
Yeah. My whole team studies sea currents and the sea in general.
Focused on the Baltic, Øresund and Køge Bay.
-Do you have the data you need? -Yes, I got the coordinates
for where the dogs gave indications and the route the sub took.
Let's take a look.
Look.
Øresund and Køge Bay are odd because the salinity varies through the year.
This strongly influences the currents.
Overflow from the Baltic means that the current mostly runs northwards.
And the tide changes the direction and strength several times a day.
And the wind obviously has an effect too.
The rivers of Eastern Europe run into the Baltic.
That water is pushed through Øresund.
Since the river water is freshwater, it lowers the salinity of the Baltic.
If it then rains a lot,
the rivers increase in volume,
and the salinity decreases correspondingly.
This influences the currents.
The fresh water moves over the salty bottom water.
So the specific conditions from the 10th of August until now
-matter for where we should search? -Exactly.
In fact, the most crucial thing is the current when the dogs indicated.
We can calculate backwards from that.
If we take the first indication at 14:30 on the 29th of August,
then we have an indication here,
and we know that the current flows north.
Then it makes sense that the dogs are responding to something
in the southernmost part.
How far is it from the spot the dogs indicated?
Up to 2000 metres.
So smells and gas can travel up to two kilometres under water?
I know this is complicated, and I did see your sketch.
First of all, it's not gases but lipids carried by the current.
And the dogs are responding to lipids.
That's what's tricking you.
Look, we've got the seabed here, and then the surface.
And we'll indicate the flow of the current here.
If an object is dumped in the sea here,
then air and gases rise to the surface in a pretty straight line
because they move quickly.
Lipids, on the other hand, move slowly.
And that's why the area where the dogs react
becomes quite large,
even when the object emitting the scent is small and kilometres away.
Where do you think we should search?
You've searched around here.
I suggest you search down here.
Between 900 and 1200 metres from where the dogs first indicated.
-Hi. -Hi.
-Martin. -Torben. Welcome.
Thanks.
So you're the code-breaker?
Well, I don't know.
Indications are we should search south from here.
Great.
Have you put stays down?
-Of course. -Perfect.
Let's go.
Alright.
Get ready for your first dive.
9-0, 9-0, divers at surface. Awaiting. Over.
Any news?
We're waiting for a report.
LM to Martin. Over.
LM, come in.
We've completed the first six stays in sector Foxtrot 2.
No luck, unfortunately.
We'll move the next stay and do the last two of Foxtrot 2. Over.
Roger. We'll carry on. Over.
Roger. Out.
Yeah. Good dog.
Sit.
-Hi. -Hi.
Did they find anything?
No.
What will you do?
Try again tomorrow.
What if you don't find anything tomorrow?
Then we might have to abandon the search.
Is it a good idea to visit Cecilie and Anders tomorrow evening, then?
Of course.
We can't dive after 17:30 anyway.
-I'll take the dog for a walk. -Yeah.
Come. Nero.
DAY 57 6TH OCTOBER 2017
LM, it's Martin. Over.
It's LM. Come in, Martin.
We have a marker on the surface.
Perfect.
Martin to LM. Over.
Come in, Martin.
We found a bag with something inside.
I sent a guy down to photograph it.
Great.
Okay.
They've found a bag.
Yeah.
Can you open it now?
Yes. Do it.
And call me, no matter what.
Great. Thanks.
They found a bag. The first thing Christian saw was an orange top.
Diver on surface!
9-0. We have a marker on the surface. Over.
Did you hear that?
LM, Martin. We found a leg.
I repeat. We found a leg. Over.
Christian, Martin. What do you want us to do? Over.
Do as we agreed.
Go down with bags, wrap the object with seabed and water.
And get a box, so we can raise the object safely. Over.
There you go.
For the divers' boat. Take as much water in as you can.
And tell Martin to tape it when you raise it.
-All around it? -Yeah. Off you go.
LM, this is Martin. Over.
We have one more find.
Thomas! Come back.
-What's up? -Come in, quick.
-What's happening? -One more. It's speeding up.
Perfect.
-Same procedure. -Same procedure.
-Tape it well. -Well taped.
Martin to LM. Over.
Come in.
We've made another find.
We have a bag with what might be a head. Over.
What's up?
Hello, Joachim. It's Jens here.
Hi.
I'm calling to tell you that our divers went 1200 metres out today.
Yeah. We found what we were looking for.
I'm going there now.
Of course. I'll let them know.
-Hi. -Hi.
Where's my dad?
He's still at work.
For you.
-Hi, Anders. -Hi.
-Come on in. -Thanks.
Can you put these in water?
First, they found a bag with her shoes and clothes.
Shortly after that, they found the legs.
And then they found a bag with a head. It's being examined now.
I'm at the coroner's now.
I won't leave before we have a cause of death.
I'll keep you posted.
Great, Jakob. Bye.
I have something you'll find interesting. Come with me.
Yeah.
What I gather is that the suspect said
a hatch accidentally hit the deceased's head.
-That's how she died, right? -Yeah.
What's this supposed to mean?
As it says, we found no cranial injuries whatsoever.
-None at all? -None at all.
I don't understand.
It surprised me too,
but no broken skull, cerebral haemorrhaging, no fractures.
No bruises or impact injuries.
Nothing.