🔗 Share this article

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

The deceased, a Syrian woman and her child, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were detected on the end of last week. The freezers were hidden behind a false wall in the dwelling, situated in the city of Innsbruck.

A pair of males, a 55-year-old Austrian and his brother aged 53, were detained in the month of June. The elder brother, a work associate of the female victim, informed law enforcement last week that there had been an accident—but denied murder.

Informing reporters previously, a spokesman for the state prosecutor said the pair were being held on "high likelihood of murder".

The names of those implicated have not been released by police, in following national regulations.

Their going missing was first reported by the cousin of the mother, who lives in Germany, on July 25, 2024.

Police stated the male associate told them at the time she had embarked on an prolonged visit with her daughter to visit her parents in the nation of Turkey.

Her bank card was then discovered to be utilized in foreign locations repeatedly.

However when investigators examined the victim's residence, her smartphone was found.

A witness also claimed listening to a loud noise in the apartment, and cries of "mother" on the occasion the pair were believed to have vanished.

A broader official inquiry was launched, with officers finding various messages originating from the woman's phone—such as a job termination message to her employer and texts to the 55-year-old suspect.

Law enforcement said a four-figure sum was also moved to the suspect.

A senior police official informed media representatives on recently that a storage facility had been leased before the vanishing and a freezing appliance had been placed there.

The male siblings took out the appliance from the unit on the very day the victims went missing, Tersch said. And a shortly afterward, they acquired a second unit.

Authorities say they think this points to the demise were intentionally orchestrated.

"How they died remains unclear due to the condition of the remains," she said.

Mayr—from the legal authorities—said the precise timeline is still unclear, but the victims were professionally hidden and went unnoticed during a earlier inspection.

While the brothers were taken into custody in June, it was only on 12 November that the 55-year-old admitted to an incident and to hiding the bodies. He denies any murderous intent, authorities stated.

Meanwhile, his 53-year-old sibling acknowledged a concealment but rejected knowledge of a killing.

The brothers are currently in pre-trial detention in detention centers in Innsbruck and Salzburg, situated at a distance.

In a joint statement, the nation's official for women's affairs and Justice Minister stated the "reported homicide of mother and child... constitutes the abrupt and violent termination of two individuals and uncovers a brutal scheme".

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

"Murders of women are a profoundly embedded and issue affecting all of society that we must address decisively."