🔗 Share this article

The bodies of a 34-year-old woman and her young daughter, 10 have been discovered inside freezers in an residence in western Austria.

The deceased, a Syrian woman and her daughter, who had been unaccounted for for several months, were uncovered on the end of last week. The freezers were placed behind a plasterboard wall in the flat, located in the Innsbruck area.

Two individuals, a 55-year-old Austrian and his 53-year-old brother, were arrested in the month of June. The 55-year-old, a colleague of the Syrian woman, stated to authorities last week that there had been an incident—but rejected homicide.

Informing the media previously, a representative for the legal authorities stated the two suspects were being kept in custody on "strong suspicion of murder".

The identities of those implicated have been withheld by law enforcement, in accordance with national regulations.

The family's disappearance was first reported by the cousin of the mother, who resides in Germany, on July 25, 2024.

Investigators said the woman's colleague informed them at the time she had taken an prolonged visit with her daughter to visit her parents in Turkey.

The mother's debit card was then discovered to be utilized abroad several times.

However when investigators searched the mother's apartment, her mobile phone was located.

A witness also claimed listening to a disturbing sound in the apartment, and shouts of "mum" on the date the pair were presumed to have gone missing.

A wider police investigation was launched, with investigators uncovering several texts sent from the victim's mobile—including a job termination message to her company and messages to the male associate.

Officials said a significant cash transfer was also moved to the suspect.

The head of the State Criminal Police Office told reporters on that day that a storage facility had been leased before the vanishing and a cooling unit had been installed within.

The two suspects extracted the appliance from the unit on the date the victims went missing, Tersch revealed. And a shortly afterward, they acquired a second unit.

Authorities believe they think this indicates the demise were planned in advance.

"How they died could not be determined due to the condition of the bodies," Tersch said.

Mayr—of the public prosecutor's office—noted the exact sequence of events is yet to be determined, but the remains were professionally hidden and not discovered during a earlier inspection.

Although the brothers were taken into custody in the summer, it was not until November 12 that the suspect acknowledged an event and to storing the victims. He denies any plan to cause death, officials stated.

Meanwhile, his 53-year-old sibling acknowledged a attempt to hide evidence but rejected knowledge of a homicide.

The pair are currently in detention before court proceedings in detention centers in Innsbruck and Salzburg, approximately 189 kilometers away from each other.

In a joint statement, the nation's official for women's affairs and the top legal representative stated the "reported homicide of mother and child... constitutes the sudden and brutal end of a mother and child and exposes a heartless setup".

"Females of all ages are being murdered due to the sole reason that they are women and girls," they added.

"Murders of women are a profoundly embedded and society-wide problem that we must combat firmly."