🔗 Share this article

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

The victims, a Syrian woman and her daughter, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were detected on the end of last week. The freezers were concealed behind a plasterboard wall in the apartment, situated in the city of Innsbruck.

Two men, a Austrian man, 55 and his 53-year-old brother, were detained in the month of June. The 55-year-old, a colleague of the female victim, stated to police last week that there had been an unfortunate event—but disputed homicide.

Informing journalists earlier, a official for the state prosecutor said the brothers were being kept in custody on "high likelihood of homicide".

Personal details of those concerned have not been disclosed by authorities, in following national regulations.

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

Investigators said the 55-year-old suspect told them at the time she had embarked on an long journey with her daughter to see her family in the nation of Turkey.

The mother's debit card was then noted as being active in foreign locations several times.

But when officers entered the woman's home, her cellphone was discovered.

An individual also claimed listening to a loud noise in the flat, and shouts of "mother" on the date the two were thought to have disappeared.

A wider criminal probe was initiated, with investigators uncovering various messages originating from the victim's mobile—including a notice of quitting to her employer and texts to the male associate.

Officials confirmed a significant cash transfer was also transferred to the individual.

The head of the State Criminal Police Office stated to reporters on recently that a storage unit had been rented out before the victims' disappearance and a freezer had been positioned inside.

The two suspects removed the freezer from the facility on the very day the victims vanished, Tersch stated. And a seven days after, they purchased a second unit.

Authorities state they consider this indicates the demise were planned in advance.

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

A legal representative—representing the state—noted the exact sequence of events is yet to be determined, but the remains were professionally hidden and not discovered during a prior examination.

Although the suspects were detained in June, it was not until the 12th of November that the suspect acknowledged an incident and to concealing the remains. He denies any plan to cause death, officials said.

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

The pair are currently in custody awaiting trial in jails in Innsbruck and Salzburg, approximately 189 kilometers away from each other.

Through a combined announcement, Austria's Minister for Women and the top legal representative said the "suspected killing of two... constitutes the sudden and brutal end of a mother and child and reveals a brutal scheme".

"Females of all ages are falling victim to homicide due to the sole reason that they are of the female gender," they continued.

"Murders of women are a profoundly embedded and widespread concern that we must combat firmly."