🔗 Share this article

The deceased of a 34-year-old woman and her 10-year-old daughter have been discovered inside freezers in an apartment in western Austria.

The deceased, a Syrian woman and her child, who had been missing for a number of months, were detected on the end of last week. The freezers were placed behind a drywall partition in the dwelling, situated in the city of Innsbruck.

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

Informing journalists previously, a official for the public prosecutor's office announced the pair were being detained on "strong suspicion of homicide".

The identities of those involved have been withheld by police, in following Austrian law.

The family's disappearance was originally brought to light by the female victim's relative, who is based in Germany, on the 25th of July last year.

Authorities revealed the male associate told them at the time she had taken an prolonged visit with her daughter to see her family in Turkey.

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

But when investigators examined the woman's home, her mobile phone was found.

Someone also stated hearing a commotion in the dwelling, and screams of "mother" on the day the two were presumed to have gone missing.

A wider police investigation was started, with authorities uncovering multiple communications originating from the woman's phone—among them a notice of quitting to her workplace and messages to the male colleague.

Officials stated a amount in the thousands was also transferred to the suspect.

A senior police official stated to the press on recently that a storage unit had been secured before the victims' disappearance and a freezer had been positioned inside.

The brothers extracted the cooling unit from the storage space on the date the victims vanished, Tersch revealed. And a seven days after, they purchased an additional appliance.

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

"The cause of death could not be determined due to the condition of the victims," Tersch commented.

A legal representative—representing the state—stated the precise timeline is yet to be determined, but the remains were expertly concealed and were not found during a previous house search.

Although the men were detained in June, it was only on November 12 that the elder brother confessed to an occurrence and to concealing the remains. He disputes any intent to kill, authorities confirmed.

In a related development, his 53-year-old sibling admitted to a concealment but rejected awareness of a murder.

The two suspects are presently in custody awaiting trial in detention centers in two Austrian cities, situated at a distance.

In a joint statement, Austria's Minister for Women and Justice Minister declared the "suspected killing of two... constitutes the abrupt and violent termination of a mother and child and uncovers a brutal scheme".

"Women and girls are being killed due to the mere fact that they are female," they continued.

"Murders of women are a strongly established and widespread concern that we must combat firmly."