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Comment by kodis | Hacker News Reader

This sounds a bit suspicious, but I can't imagine what motive Masden would have for killing a journalist.

I think the headlines are a bit sensationalised. I can't imagine he directly killed her either; it's probably more likely he paniced when it started to sink and fled, shortly realised afterwards that he had a passenger, and tried to cover it up. I'm not saying he's innocent, but people in states of panic can do very irrational things.

The woman was reported missing to the police early morning when she didn't come home/was heard from the night before, so she was reported missing hours before the sub sank.

Police are asking if witnesses saw her after 16:00. The submarine set sail 3hrs later around 19:00. It sank the next day at 11:00.

That means she was probably last seen or heard from that afternoon a few hours before the sub launched.

There's an image floating about of her in the sub with Peter, so there's no doubt that she's been on the sub.

Edit: Here: http://ekstrabladet.dk/112/kim-isabel-forsvundet-i-ubaadsdra...

He's charged with involuntary manslaughter[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Madsen_(inventor)

This story reminds me of Ted Kennedy [1], who somehow got off scot free after a similar incident.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick_incident

More information is out now. There was no body on the sub, and Madsen has changed his story about dropping her off[1]. The timeline[2] makes it odd that she would have been on the sub that long...she wasn't intending on a long overnight trip.

Also, the eyewitness accounts of the sinking make it sound like the sinking was deliberate:

"Kristian Isbak, who had responded to the Navy's call to help locate the ship on Friday, told The Associated Press he first spotted Madsen standing wearing his trademark military fatigues in the submarine's tower while it was still afloat. "He then climbed down inside the submarine and there was then some kind of air flow coming up and the submarine started to sink," Isbak said. "(He) came up again and stayed in the tower until water came into it" before swimming to a nearby boat as the submarine sank, he added." [3]

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-denmark-submarine-idUSKBN...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15000076

[3] http://time.com/4898129/submarine-owner-detained-over-journa...

I'm pretty good at coming up with scenarios where he would have plenty of motive for killing her. This whole thing stinks, but any kind of limiting of the universe of possibilities will have to wait for evidence, which the sinking of the sub certainly didn't help preserve.

I don't really know anything about the people involved. What could be a motive?

We don't know so anything would be unfounded speculation at this point.

No motive. Just an escalating situation. Madsen is known for his flaring temper. Speculation has plenty to feed on.

No one so far has mentioned the interesting idea that he was trying to disappear himself. Check into who picked him up and why they were there, plus the dude's financial situation, has all of the money recently disappeared?

His girlfriend disappears in a normal manner, well, normal for a disappearance, he disappears in outlandish style in a sub sinking, he was going to swim to a pre-prepped dinghy or some quiet boat anchored nearby and disappear from history (perhaps with a pile of money?) but whoopsie a passing boater not part of the plan at all, coincidentally saw him and "helped" him out by declaring an emergency and fishing him out... So much for that tragic disappearance and drowning and missing body.

Now she's disappeared successfully on some tropical island retired wondering when he's gonna get there, or wondering if she should keep all the money (assuming any has disappeared at all, of course) or if she should come forward.

The whole thing sounding like a hollywood movie plot means my speculation sounding like a movie plot isn't necessarily disqualifying.

Its also worth pointing out that this is a "submarine story" only in the sense that the Reiser murder trial was about linux filesystem development.

No one has mentioned it because you are just making it up. Why you think the journalist was his girlfriend btw?

That does seem like a reach.

There is a photo floating around that might be Kim Wall in the tower of the submarine o̶n̶ ̶F̶r̶i̶d̶a̶y̶,̶ ̶d̶u̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶d̶a̶y̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶h̶o̶u̶r̶s̶.̶.̶.̶w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶o̶d̶d̶.̶[1,2] That doesn't imply girlfriend though. Could also be that the "Friday" was a mistake and the picture is from Thursday.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-denmark-submarine-idUSKBN...

[2] http://www.skd.se/2017/08/12/madsen-nekas-forklara-sig-infor...

Edit: Photo was from Thursday, not Friday. Apparently the Reuters caption is wrong. http://www.zoox.se/submarine-inventor-charged-with-murder-of...

Her boyfriend reported her missing.

I am not the original poster that said anything about boyfriends. In fact, I disagreed with the notion.

Could have been anything, including "not murder". Maybe, for example, an accidental death that Masden felt might not look accidental. All the way up to more nefarious motives.

The FBI has some data on circumstances/motives here: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-... You can pretty quickly find a few that might be plausible.

Does he have a "Captain Nemo" complex? Would allow for all kinds of fantastical plots.

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