🔗 Share this article

The deceased of a mother aged 34 and her young daughter, 10 have been located inside freezing appliances in an apartment in the western part of Austria.

The victims, a woman from Syria and her daughter, who had been unaccounted for for several months, were found on Friday. The freezers were hidden behind a false wall in the apartment, located in the city of Innsbruck.

Two men, a 55-year-old Austrian and his brother aged 53, were arrested in June. The older man, a work associate of the female victim, told police last week that there had been an unfortunate event—but disputed intentional killing.

Informing journalists recently, a representative for the legal authorities said the pair were being detained on "serious suspicion of murder".

Personal details of those involved have been withheld by police, in following local legislation.

The vanishing of the mother and child was first reported by the female victim's relative, who is based in Germany, on 25 July 2024.

Investigators revealed the 55-year-old suspect claimed at the time she had gone on an extended trip with her child to visit her parents in the nation of Turkey.

The victim's bank card was then found to have been used overseas several times.

However when officers entered the woman's home, her mobile phone was found.

An individual also reported hearing a commotion in the apartment, and screams of "mother" on the date the pair were thought to have disappeared.

A broader police investigation was started, with officers discovering various messages originating from the woman's phone—among them a job termination message to her company and messages to the male colleague.

Authorities said a amount in the thousands was also transferred to the individual.

Katja Tersch told reporters on Tuesday that a storage unit had been leased before the mother and child went missing and a freezing appliance had been installed within.

The male siblings extracted the appliance from the storage space on the day the woman and her child disappeared, the official revealed. And a seven days after, they purchased another freezer.

Authorities say they think this indicates the deaths were intentionally orchestrated.

"The reason for their demise was not identifiable due to the condition of the bodies," Tersch stated.

The prosecutor's spokesman—representing the state—said the precise timeline is not yet known, but the victims were professionally hidden and went unnoticed during a previous house search.

While the suspects were taken into custody in the summer, it was only on the 12th of November that the elder brother admitted to an event and to storing the victims. He disputes any intent to kill, authorities said.

At the same time, his 53-year-old sibling confessed to a attempt to hide evidence but rejected knowledge of a murder.

The two suspects are presently in pre-trial detention in detention centers in separate locations, around 117 miles (189km) apart.

In a joint statement, the nation's official for women's affairs and Justice Minister stated the "alleged double murder... constitutes the abrupt and violent termination of a mother and child and exposes a brutal scheme".

"Females of all ages are falling victim to homicide due to the sole reason that they are women and girls," they added.

"Gender-based killings are a profoundly embedded and society-wide problem that we must combat firmly."