Jakob, what do you need to take the case to court?
DAY 119 7TH DECEMBER 2017
A cause of death.
What if we never find it?
Then I'm not sure I can reject his account.
Are you unsure that he did it?
That's irrelevant. I'm not handing down the verdict.
But if I can't dispel any reasonable doubt about his guilt,
then he can't get convicted at all.
In dubio pro reo.
What does that mean?
In dubio pro reo:
All doubt benefits the defendant,
or that any reasonable doubt should always favour the defendant.
That's what we're up against.
Okay. What reasonable doubt do you think there is?
We don't know the cause of death. I can't reject the suspect's account.
Yes, he's given three different accounts, and he's entitled to that.
The burden of proof lies with us.
And any doubt is to his advantage.
Right, let's take it from the top.
What do we have in our arsenal? Musa?
Her blood was found in the sub.
Which he explained by confessing to dismembering the body
before dumping it at sea.
This tells us he tried to remove evidence.
No.
He dismembered it because he couldn't get the whole body up the tower.
Isn't that how he explained it?
In any case, he tried to dispose of the body.
Yes.
But not to conceal anything. It was to spare her loved ones.
He planned everything.
He brought a saw, a hose, strips and metal bars.
He tried to lure other women onboard before she called for an interview.
The saw was there because he was installing shelves in the submarine.
Metal bars and hoses are common items in a submarine.
But not all witnesses agree with that.
But who knows the sub the best?
The person who looks after it or his more or less random acquaintances?
What about the other women?
It's not illegal to invite people sailing.
Okay, we found video and images on his computer,
which indicate a fascination with impalement, decapitation
and violent pornography.
He even watched a snuff video of a woman being decapitated
hours before they departed.
You're making assumptions.
He searched for the video, but we can't prove that he watched it.
Besides, watching or being fascinated by violent porn is not illegal.
It's distasteful but not illegal.
Come on, Jakob!
We all know he killed her, cut her up and dumped her at sea.
Yes, we know. And we know that he planned it.
And that there's a sex crime on top of it.
But can we prove it?
We'll get the result of the mental health check in a couple of days.
If it works in our favour and casts doubt on his mental health,
then our position will be a little better.
And we're awaiting the report from the Institute of Technology
about the technical issues raised by his latest account.
Is death by carbon monoxide poisoning technically possible?
Would it have generated heat, which could be detected on the body parts?
But the crucial question is
whether the coroner establishes the cause of death of soon.
In dubio pro reo.
We have to dispel all reasonable doubt.
THE INVESTIGATION
Hi.
Any news?
We're still waiting for the coroner's report.
Okay.
I don't bloody know what to do if it's inconclusive.
No.
Here. Have some wine.
Enjoy the wait.
I hate waiting.
Yes, you hate waiting.
What have you got there?
Everything I could get on the case.
-What do you need it for? -I'm going to read it.
-All of it? -Yeah.
The lot.
Until I find what we've overlooked.
Why do you think we overlooked anything?
Because...
Because this isn't the perfect crime.
It's a clumsy, disgusting crime.
So we must have overlooked something.
What about you?
Are you going home or are you going to help me?
I was going home, but I'll help you.
Did you read it?
Yeah.
What shall we do?
I'm going to see Jakob.
They're not drawing any conclusions.
All sub-conclusions point the same way.
I'm not a medic, so I don't understand half of it,
but they're obviously not very sure.
Where does this put us?
Not having a cause of death?
It's not good.
What now?
Let's read it closely and see if we can find a way.
But right now I don't even know if we have enough
to charge him with manslaughter.
I have to be back in court in a minute.
We must get them to specify some things in their report.
Klaus?
Jens, I'm on my lunch break.
Eat away, I don't mind.
I don't understand why you didn't draw any conclusions.
We drew lots of conclusions.
-But no cause of death. -No.
Because we can't establish it.
We both know that he killed her.
He dismembered her and dumped her at sea.
I'm a pathologist, I can't conclude something because you need me to.
I have to be 100 percent sure, no more and no less.
What do you want me to say?
That you'll take another look.
Send an email with follow-up questions and we'll take a look.
DAY 126 14TH DECEMBER 2017
"On the whole, he appears perverted and very sexually deviant.
The deviant personality and deviant sexuality in combination
make him a danger to the life, bodily integrity and liberty of others."
-Is it the psychiatric statement? -Yeah.
-He's clearly deviant. -Yeah.
Which isn't illegal.
It may sound good, but it's far from manna from heaven.
But it's very incriminating.
It is, but it can't stand on its own.
-Do we agree that it's good news? -It is.
If we can get a cause of death, it's beginning to pull together.
But we need a cause of death to underpin our hypothesis.
The report from the Institute of Technology is in.
And it doesn't conclude that this happened,
but it's not inconceivable that strong heat could have been generated
in the sub, and in that case the hatch would have been stuck.
So it doesn't rule out the suspect's account?
No.
We've come no further, then.
What do we do?
I don't know.
What about the mobiles? Is that an option?
LM says we probably won't find them.
And the salt water will probably have destroyed the phones and SIM cards.
Then our only chance is establishment of a cause of death
that indicates murder by decapitation.
When are you seeing the parents?
Later on today.
Thanks for coming in.
But of course.
I asked you to come, so that I could update you on the investigation.
And I promised to share all information with you.
So I owe it to you to let you know
that the report from the Institute of Technology
cannot completely rule out his latest account.
Right.
Moreover, the divers think it's nearly impossible to find the phones.
They're buried under sand and seaweed.
Give me the radar tracking and all your documentation.
Then I'll keep looking.
I can't do that, Joachim.
Jens...
She recorded all her interviews on her phone.
I know.
All of them!
And we'll find it.
Then we'll find out what happened.
The prosecutor doesn't think phones will figure in the indictment.
Any recordings will probably have been destroyed.
I don't understand why you don't just start the legal proceedings.
I know that it looks simple.
Unfortunately it isn't.
He's made explanations, which we can't yet reject.
Why don't you just keep diving?
As long as there's anything to find, I insist that you keep looking.
-Do you understand? -I do.
But what if we never find them?
Without a cause of death,
I'm not even sure I can get him convicted for manslaughter.
Hello?
Hello, Klaus.
Klaus, I'm in the car park. May I call you back?
Thanks.
Klaus speaking.
Hi, it's Jens Møller. What have you got?
Listen, Jens.
I thought I'd save us the time and tell it to you straight
before we submit the report.
What do you have to tell me?
We've corrected the text.
We've added that we cannot rule out decapitation or strangulation
as the cause of death.
That's as close as we can get.
You still don't draw any conclusions.
We're concluding as much as we can.
We just can't conclude what the cause of death was.
Jens, fucking hell, see it from where I sit.
Yeah!
Yes!
Jens?
There's something you have to see.
She was alive when she texted her boyfriend at 20:25 hours.
They dive and come up again at 23:24.
We know because the suspect texted his wife.
Since there's no activity on the victim's phone,
we must assume that she's already dead by this time.
And now it gets interesting.
Because the coroner's report...
regarding the torso...
They were able to conclude about two of the stab wounds on the torso.
According to the report they were inflicted before or just after death.
They conclude so from blood effusion in the tissue,
which presupposes blood circulation in the body.
But...
In the latest interrogation, the suspect said
that the victim died of carbon monoxide poisoning
when accidentally locked in the sub,
and after several hours and many attempts to get her out intact,
the suspect found it necessary to dismember the body
and dispose of it in the sea piece by piece.
Don't you see it?
The coroners say the wounds were inflicted
before or immediately after the time of death.
But the suspect says he sailed around with the dead body for hours
before he did anything.
"Before or immediately after..."
What does it mean? "Immediately after?"
Is it hours, minutes or seconds?
They're not there yet.
-Where are you going? -Forensics.
There he is. Stay here.
Klaus?
For fuck's sake!
Jens, I'm not even at work yet.
Don't worry. I just have a question.
You have two minutes.
When it says a wound was inflicted before or immediately after death...?
Yeah?
What does it mean?
I'm happy to elaborate by email.
What does "immediately after" imply?
It's difficult to say precisely.
Seconds?
Minutes? Hours?
Leaving Christmas decoration making is unpopular in my kids' school,
so this'd better be fucking good.
Take a seat. Would you like coffee?
No thanks.
We don't have a cause of death, but...
Will you begin?
Early this morning I found something that turned out very interesting.
The suspect said the stab wounds on the torso
were inflicted when dismembering the body.
And that this happened hours after the victim's accidental death.
Yes, but...
Although the coroner's report is inadequate in many ways,
a couple of details caught my attention.
One of the report's few actual conclusions is
that two stab wounds were inflicted before or immediately after death.
There.
What does "immediately after" signify?
Less than an hour.
Probably minutes.
Okay.
And the Technological Institute report concludes
that if his story about engine failure and carbon monoxide is true,
there would have been tremendous heat inside the submarine.
But the coroner could not find any effects of heat on the body parts.
Before or immediately after, missing effects of heat,
and they can't rule out decapitation.
We've got it.
The doubt is no longer reasonable.
It's Jakob. Christmas is cancelled.
We have an indictment to draft.
London? Okay.
Come home then. Don't they have airports in London?
Jakob, we're getting the last bits done and it's officially your case.
Okay. I got an idea.
What if it's an aggravating factor
that the victim was carrying out her work as a journalist?
Why is it aggravating?
It's because she only went with him in the line of duty as a journalist.
She wanted to tell his story.
And by doing so, she was performing a socially beneficial function.
And he exploited that.
The more I think about it, the more aggravating it looks.
The prosecutor will publicly disclose the indictment later today.
This is above all thanks to your hard, thorough and stubborn work.
Thanks a lot for your effort.
Thank you for your trust.
Thanks, folks.
Why do you sound like you're going to retire?
You hear what you want to hear.
That's what I had to say. Have a nice day.
Do you know how many murder cases I've been involved in?
138.
But I've never seen a case like this one.
We seem not to get enough of it.
I saw a tabloid placard.
They're selling a story about how the suspect celebrates Christmas.
There are 50 murders a year in Denmark.
More or less.
The lowest number ever.
It just doesn't feel that way.
Because we hear about all of them.
Maybe it's that...
the more civilised we become, the more we need to peer into the dark.
Welcome, everybody,
to this press briefing at Copenhagen Police Headquarters
on the occasion of the indictment in the submarine case.
How long a sentence do you think he'll get?
It's difficult to tell,
but if he's found guilty, we're going for life in prison
or psychiatric custody.
Have you decided to come to court or not?
How could we not go?
I don't know exactly how it's going to be,
but it can be very gruesome to see, so be prepared.
All details will be disclosed.
And there will be press attention like never before.
We're still her parents and of course we want to be there.
Yeah.
How's your daughter? Isn't she having a baby soon?
Yeah, she could give birth any minute.
-Is she doing alright? -Yes.
Congratulations, Jens. You're going to be a grandfather.
That's one of the best things you can be.
I don't know how we would have managed all this without you.
How did it go?
-It went well. -Great.
Look.
Everything's black and white.
But even if the colours are gone now...
...they're still there.
But we can't see them until the sun shines again.
Are you ready?
DAY 210 8TH MARCH 2018
We have to leave now. It's time to turn that off.
-Tomatoes? Yes or no? -Yes, please.
Yes, please.
You're going to get quite a packed lunch today, I say.
What will be fine?
It's Dad's first day in court today.
-Haven't you done it loads of times? -Yeah, but...
Got your bag?
-There. -There you go. Alright.
Come on.
ON THE 25TH OF APRIL 2018, THE PERPETRATOR WAS FOUND GUILTY
AND SENTENCED TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT.
JAKOB BUCH-JEPSEN HAD IT PUT ON RECORD
THAT THE MURDER OF KIM IN THE LINE OF HER JOURNALISTIC DUTIES
WAS AN AGGRAVATING FACTOR.
JOACHIM WALL CONTINUES TO SEARCH ØRESUND AND KØGE BAY
FOR HIS DAUGHTER'S PHONE.
Sleepy prince, we've got visitors.
We have visitors. Come and say hello.
Down to Granddad.
Hello, my little friend. Hello there.
-Help yourselves. -Thanks.
JENS MØLLER RESIGNED AS HEAD OF HOMICIDE AT COPENHAGEN POLICE IN 2018
AND RETIRED SHORTLY THEREAFTER.
-It was nice to see you. -Likewise.
WHILE THE INVESTIGATION WAS STILL ONGOING,
JOACHIM AND INGRID WALL FOUNDED THE KIM WALL MEMORIAL FUND.
THE FOUNDATION DISBURSES GRANTS TO YOUNG FEMALE REPORTERS LIKE KIM
WITH A PASSION FOR TELLING THE STORIES OF THOSE WHO HAVE NO VOICE.
Kim became a great journalist.
She had a passion for reporting on
the injustice and beauty of our world.
She wanted to prove that a girl from the outskirts of Trelleborg
could grow up and make a difference in a male-dominated media landscape
and make people more aware of themselves and others
by telling stories from all over the world.
She wanted to show that we can make our lives the way we want
and that this gives us responsibility.
That's what she taught me.
I've learnt that I'm stronger than I thought.
And it's my duty to carry on the struggle.
You have your lives.
Make sure that it's a good life, a rich life,
a beautiful and curious life.
Draw away from the darkness.
Believe in the light.
My name is Ingrid Wall and Kim Wall is my daughter.
IN MEMORY OF KIM ISABEL FREDRIKA WALL