Speaker 1: Hi, listeners, this is Emily at Morbidology. I want to
Speaker 1: invite you to listen to a special preview of a
Speaker 1: brand new true crime podcast that I think you'll really enjoy.
Speaker 1: It's called Below the Surface from ab Jack Entertainment, the
Speaker 1: team that brought you the amazing DNAID Campus killings, Missing Persons,
Speaker 1: the Murder in My Family and more. It's hosted by
Speaker 1: established Australian podcaster Olivia McKenzie, the co host of True
Speaker 1: Crime Society. In every episode of Below the Surface, you'll
Speaker 1: hear about a new fascinating case with one common theme,
Speaker 1: a water connection. In this preview of episode one, you'll
Speaker 1: hear about the mysterious case of Kim Wall, a journalist
Speaker 1: who went for a ride as a guest on a
Speaker 1: submarine and was never seen again. You can listen to
Speaker 1: episode one Kim Wall in the entirety right now. Just
Speaker 1: search for Below the Surface on your favorite podcast player
Speaker 1: or app. If you like the show, you can also
Speaker 1: listen to episode two, which is out now. I'll include
Speaker 1: links and other info for Below the Surface in the
Speaker 1: show notes. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: Thank you for checking out this special preview of Below
Speaker 2: the Surface, the new podcast from Abjac entertainment that brings
Speaker 2: you fascinating cases with the water connection. I'm your host, Olivia.
Speaker 2: I'd like to play this short preview few of episode one.
Speaker 2: Today I'll be unpacking the case of journalist Kim Wall,
Speaker 2: best known for her articles in The Guardian, The New
Speaker 2: York Times and Vice. The journalist disappeared in a submarine
Speaker 2: beneath the Orison straight after interviewing inventor Peter Madson on
Speaker 2: August tenth, twenty seventeen. We can only speculate what exactly
Speaker 2: happened below the surface, but upon the submarine's resurface, Kim
Speaker 2: was missing and Peter Madsen was not. To listen to
Speaker 2: the full episode, search for Below the Surface on your
Speaker 2: favorite podcast app. You'll also be able to check out
Speaker 2: episode two, which is out now as well. Be sure
Speaker 2: to subscribe to Blow the Surface so that you don't
Speaker 2: miss a single episode. Thank you for listening. Let's dive in.
Speaker 2: Born in nineteen eighty seven, Kim Ware grew up with
Speaker 2: her parents and her older brother Tom in the tiny
Speaker 2: town of Trellabori in the south of Sweden. Her parents,
Speaker 2: Ingrid and Joachim were both journalists. Ingrid in finance and
Speaker 2: economics and Joachim in photography. Their children's lives were filled
Speaker 2: with newspapers every morning as the family ate breakfast. Kim
Speaker 2: often accompanied her mother to interviews and assignments as a child,
Speaker 2: so nobody in the family was surprised when Kim announced
Speaker 2: that she wanted to be a journalist someday too, but
Speaker 2: not the kind that her parents were. She wanted to
Speaker 2: go places and write stories about the people nobody else
Speaker 2: bothered to pose questions too. As a teenager, Kim's family
Speaker 2: and friends described her as extremely driven and very impressive.
Speaker 2: Nothing stopped her, and even after she met her goals,
Speaker 2: she simply moved on to new ones. She never took
Speaker 2: time to sit on her laurels. After high school, Kim
Speaker 2: studied at the London School of Economics before getting her
Speaker 2: masters from the prestigious School of Journalism at Columbia University,
Speaker 2: where she graduated with honors at the top of her class.
Speaker 2: In the years after Kim obtained her masters, finding work
Speaker 2: with particular network or company proved almost impossible, as most
Speaker 2: reporting networks were no longer hiring full time journalists. Instead,
Speaker 2: these companies searched for freelancers who had already written articles
Speaker 2: and paid them for their rights to publish their stories.
Speaker 2: While this wasn't the most financially stable life, it worked
Speaker 2: for Kim. She went on to freelance for some of
Speaker 2: the world's most popular media outlets, including Vice, The Guardian,
Speaker 2: The New York Times, and even the South China Morning Post.
Speaker 2: One of her friends later told the BBC what made
Speaker 2: her journalistic abilities so exceptional was that she looked for
Speaker 2: quirky stories, but with a bigger narrative. Most of the
Speaker 2: stories Kim focused on circled around subcultures, gender, and issues
Speaker 2: in social justice. While her interests were vast and she
Speaker 2: traveled frequently and wrote about her experiences in other countries,
Speaker 2: her stories were always incredibly topical and allowed her audience
Speaker 2: to see a deeper message beyond the reporting. She was
Speaker 2: particularly skilled at digging deeply into her interviews, and she
Speaker 2: never lost the humanity of her subjects the more she
Speaker 2: wrote the more she traveled. By the age of thirty,
Speaker 2: Kim had literally traversed the globe, interviewing everyone from voodoo
Speaker 2: priests in Haiti to individuals identifying as vampires and gang
Speaker 2: members of China's Tumil Tigers. She was quick witted street
Speaker 2: smart and always prepared. Her friend Katerina recalled Kim, explaining
Speaker 2: that she carried a photo of her and her parents
Speaker 2: in her wallet when she traveled. This wasn't because of
Speaker 2: any kind of emotional connection, but as a security measure
Speaker 2: in case she got kidnapped. Katerina explained that's just who
Speaker 2: Kim was. She was never afraid, always aware, and never reckless.
Speaker 2: She'd interview anyone, but was always able to keep charge
Speaker 2: of the situation with her Swedish bluntness and her carefully
Speaker 2: placed decisions. That's how she got reclusive and shy people
Speaker 2: to talk to her. It was also how she'd won
Speaker 2: a fellowship with the International Women's Media Foundation to report
Speaker 2: on Uganda and Sri Lanka. She'd also lighted a commission
Speaker 2: to write a feature article for Harper's magazine. But the
Speaker 2: world was not enough for Kim. There was always another
Speaker 2: story to be told. So in twenty seventeen, when she
Speaker 2: walked past a warehouse in Copenhagen belonging to the Rocket
Speaker 2: Madsen's science lab, she saw a potential story. Kim had
Speaker 2: no idea that this would be the last story she
Speaker 2: would ever tell. In August of twenty seventeen, Kim and
Speaker 2: her partner, Danish designer Ulla Stobi, were packing up their
Speaker 2: apartment to move to Beijing in China. After almost a
Speaker 2: decade of traveling the world and living in places for
Speaker 2: less than three months, Kim and Ulla had decided to
Speaker 2: settle permanently in Beijing to build a life together. But
Speaker 2: as they walked through their Danish neighborhood a few months
Speaker 2: before their departure date, Kim noticed a warehouse that had
Speaker 2: escaped her previous notice. On the side of the building,
Speaker 2: Rocket Madsen's space lab was painted in large letters. Some
Speaker 2: cursory research informed her that RMS Labs, as it was
Speaker 2: more commonly known, was a company for do it yourself
Speaker 2: rocket and submarine projects. Its founder, Peter Madson, who was
Speaker 2: often referred to as the Danish Elon Musk, was kind
Speaker 2: of a celebrity in Denmark. He was a self proclaim
Speaker 2: in entrepreneur who focused his engineering skills on ocean exploration
Speaker 2: and space travel. In two thousand and eight, he made
Speaker 2: headlines by inventing and building his own submarine, called the
Speaker 2: UC three Nautilus. Peter was very keen on public interviews
Speaker 2: surrounding his inventions, especially after going on to partner with
Speaker 2: former NASA contractor Christian von Benksten. Together they formed Copenhagen Suborbitals,
Speaker 2: which they described as a collective of amateur rocket makers,
Speaker 2: funded by donations and working with the aim of launching
Speaker 2: a manned rocket into space. Despite the co op dismantling
Speaker 2: in twenty fourteen due to disagreements between Madsen and his
Speaker 2: fellow engineers, Madsen went on to create his own company,
Speaker 2: RMS Labs. Kim was enamored with Madsen's story. His world
Speaker 2: was so removed from that of most people. Getting his
Speaker 2: take on submarines and rockets was exactly the kind of
Speaker 2: article Kim would be able to pitch to a media outlet.
Speaker 2: But for all that Peter Madson liked the press, he
Speaker 2: was a difficult man to get an exclusive interview from.
Speaker 2: It took Kim several months before she was able to
Speaker 2: schedule an interview with Peter, but on August tenth, twenty seventeen,
Speaker 2: only a few days before she was due to leave
Speaker 2: Copenhagen for good, Madsen finally agreed to not only give
Speaker 2: her an interview, but a ride on his famous submarine.
Speaker 2: Kim was ecstatic to get such an opportunity, and Ulla
Speaker 2: walked her down to the dockyard. At around seven pm.
Speaker 2: She shook hands with Madsen and bought it the nautilus.
Speaker 2: Ulla snapped a photo of Kim waving from the top deck,
Speaker 2: and then he went home to get ready for the
Speaker 2: going away party that the couple were throwing to say
Speaker 2: goodbye to their Danish friends. Kim's interview was only supposed
Speaker 2: to take around two hours, and then she said she'd
Speaker 2: joined Ulla at the party. By the time if Ulla
Speaker 2: returned to their apartment, Kim had texted him I'm still alive,
Speaker 2: by the way, but I'm going down now. I love you,
Speaker 2: he as she meant Peter Madsen bought coffee and cookies,
Speaker 2: though Ulla texted her back and went to prepare for
Speaker 2: the party. By the two hour mark, Ulla expected to
Speaker 2: hear that Kim was coming home, but his phone remained silent.
Speaker 2: He texted her for an update, and he got no response.
Speaker 2: By midnight, Kim hadn't returned, and Ulla and their party
Speaker 2: guests were getting increasingly worried that something had gone wrong
Speaker 2: with the submarine. When there had been no word from Kim.
Speaker 2: By one forty five am, Ulla contacted the police to
Speaker 2: report Kim missing. Authorities and harbor staff were contacted to
Speaker 2: locate the Nautilus, but since the sub had no satellite tracking,
Speaker 2: nobody could get in contact with Madsen to find out
Speaker 2: if something had gone wrong. Local police and the harbor
Speaker 2: staff watched the water all night for any sign of
Speaker 2: the submarine, but the waters remained empty, at least until
Speaker 2: ten th am. The next morning, the drought and Lighthouse
Speaker 2: of Koha Bay reported that the Nautilus had been spotted.
Speaker 2: Something was definitely wrong with it, though as rescue helicopters
Speaker 2: tried to get in contact. As the subbury surfaced, Peter
Speaker 2: Madsen blew through the top hatch, waving frantically at nearby
Speaker 2: fishing boats. Four fishermen were able to pull Madsen to safety,
Speaker 2: but he was alone. There was no sign of Kim
Speaker 2: wall The fishermen sowed Madsen into Drauerport, where both police
Speaker 2: and the media were waiting for him. Madsen was immediately
Speaker 2: arrested for Kim's disappearance, and the Nautilus was resurfaced and
Speaker 2: searched by investigators. They were hoping against hope that Kim
Speaker 2: was still on board. Somewhere, but the sub was empty.
Speaker 2: There was nobody else on board. Only Madsen knew the
Speaker 2: truth about Kim. Could they get him to tell it?