Divers and members of the Danish Emergency Management Agency were combing the coast of the Amager island in Copenhagen, in the area where Wall is believed to have died. 

A cyclist discovered the torso Monday, and Copenhagen police later said the body's head, arms and legs had "deliberately been cut off.''

Police investigator Jens Moeller Jensen told reporters Wednesday that DNA tests had confirmed the torso was Wall's. And dried blood found inside the submarine was also matched DNA obtained from Wall's toothbrush and hairbrush.

The cause of the journalist's death is not yet known, police said. 

Madsen initially told police he had let Wall off the submarine on an island. 

According to her family, she was working on a story about Madsen, 46, who dreamed of launching a manned space mission. He later told police he buried Wall at sea after an accident aboard his submarine, UC3 Nautilus. 

The story has caught worldwide attention. On Wednesday, a candlelight vigil was held by classmates at the Columbia University's School of Journalism in in New York, where Wall studied. 

Norway-based investor Georg Poul Artmann, who holds about 75 percent of the shares in the Rocket Madsen Space Lab company that owns the 40-ton, nearly 18-meter-long (60-foot-long) submarine, told Denmark's Berlingske newspaper he will "clean up'' within the company following recent events but gave no details.

Artmann said his fascination with space had prompted him to invest 250,000 kroner ($40,000) to support Madsen's space activities. He also said Madsen was the company's day-to-day leader and as "an investor I have not interfered in the daily operations.'' 

Reached by The Associated Press, Artmann declined to comment further.

A self-taught engineer, Madsen was one of a group of entrepreneurs who founded Copenhagen Suborbitals, a private consortium to develop and construct submarines and manned spacecraft. However, the group split in 2014 and the Rocket Madsen Space Lab was created.