Further reading for The murder of Kim Wall:
A Silenced Voice: The Life of Journalist Kim Wall
Just after 9 pm on Aug. 3, 1989. Lawrence Delisle, his wife Suzanne and their four children, 8 year old Bryan, 4 year old Kathryn, 2 year old Melissa, and 8 month old Emily were driving in a Ford LTD wagon in the city of Detroit when the car sped up and went catapulting into the deep and very dark waters of the Detroit river.
Delisle and his wife were able to get out of the car through a open windows, they both survived without serious injury. The children however, all tragically drowned.
Delisle told police that he had gotten a severe leg cramp that had forced him to push his foot down on the gas pedal, and from there the accelerator stuck, making the car speed down the road into the river.
This story was super sketchy the police and they continued to question him at length and gave him lie detector tests until they claimed they got an official confession out of him. Days after the accident Lawrence Delisle was charged with 4 counts of 1st degree murder as well as 1 count of attempted murder on his wife.
The case went on to cause national and international reactions as it was questioned how Delisle known as an all American average dad, with a job at the local tire store, a man with a secure home in Detroit, could murder his own kids? People began to speculate that his wife, Suzanne was in on it with him.
When the case went to trial, a different Lawrence Delisle was painted however. The prosecutor argued that he was a troubled man, downing in debt and overburdened by his wife and kids. It was claimed that he deliberately planned the crash with the intention of dying alongside his family.
Delisle’s attorney argued however, that the car was defective and that he had only confessed to the crime because police wore him down with an eight hour interrogation (no attorney being present at the time) and that the cops has basically brainwashed him into the confession.
The trail lasted 8 days with more then two dozen witnesses called to testify. The jury deliberated almost 9 hours over the length of two and a half days. In the end Lawrence Delisle was found guilty on all counts.
Many appeals have been filed, and attorneys claim the jury was poisoned by the pretrial publicity about his so called confession.
At this time Lawrence Delisle is serving life in prison with chance of parole.
Followed by an underwater murder
Swedish freelance journalist Kim Wall went onboard the submarine UC# Nautilus in order to interview its owner, Danish entrepreneur Peter Madsen. When she failed to return from this trip she was reported missing, the submarine found sunken.
The following morning, Peter Madsen was arrested once he was rescued from the sunken sub in which he had murdered and dismembered the young reporter.
This is a truly crazy story.
Episode 126
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