🔗 Share this article

The remains of a 34-year-old woman and her young daughter, 10 have been found inside freezers in an flat in the western part of Austria.

The deceased, a woman from Syria and her child, who had been unaccounted for for several months, were detected on Friday. The cooling units were hidden behind a drywall partition in the dwelling, located in the Innsbruck area.

Two men, a Austrian man, 55 and his 53-year-old brother, were detained in June. The elder brother, a work associate of the female victim, informed law enforcement last week that there had been an unfortunate event—but rejected homicide.

Addressing journalists previously, a representative for the legal authorities announced the pair were being held on "high likelihood of intentional killing".

The identities of those concerned have been withheld by authorities, in following local legislation.

Their going missing was initially flagged by the female victim's relative, who lives in Germany, on the 25th of July last year.

Authorities stated the 55-year-old suspect claimed at the time she had embarked on an long journey with her daughter to travel to her relatives in the nation of Turkey.

The victim's bank card was then discovered to be utilized in foreign locations repeatedly.

But when investigators searched the victim's residence, her cellphone was discovered.

Someone also stated hearing a disturbing sound in the flat, and cries of "mum" on the day the mother and child were thought to have disappeared.

An expanded criminal probe was started, with authorities uncovering various messages originating from the mother's device—including a notice of quitting to her employer and texts to the male associate.

Law enforcement confirmed a four-figure sum was also moved to the individual.

The head of the State Criminal Police Office told reporters on recently that a rented space had been secured before the mother and child went missing and a freezing appliance had been positioned inside.

The two suspects extracted the freezer from the storage space on the date the mother and daughter disappeared, she stated. And a shortly afterward, they purchased another freezer.

Investigators state they believe this points to the demise were planned in advance.

"How they died remains unclear due to the state of decomposition of the bodies," she commented.

The prosecutor's spokesman—from the legal authorities—noted the specific order of occurrences is still unclear, but the bodies were carefully placed and went unnoticed during a previous house search.

While the suspects were arrested in June, it was only on November 12 that the suspect acknowledged an occurrence and to storing the victims. He rejects any plan to cause death, authorities said.

At the same time, his brother confessed to a concealment but rejected knowledge of a murder.

The pair are at this time in detention before court proceedings in prisons in separate locations, around 117 miles (189km) apart.

In a joint statement, the nation's official for women's affairs and the top legal representative said the "suspected killing of two... constitutes the abrupt and violent termination of two individuals and reveals a cruel system".

"Female individuals are being killed due to the sole reason that they are women and girls," they added.

"Gender-based killings are a strongly established and society-wide problem that we must address decisively."