🔗 Share this article

The deceased of a mother aged 34 and her young daughter, 10 have been discovered inside freezing appliances in an flat in the western part of 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 cooling units were placed behind a false wall in the apartment, located in the city of Innsbruck.

A pair of males, a Austrian man, 55 and his 53-year-old brother, were taken into custody in the month of June. The elder brother, a work associate of the female victim, informed police last week that there had been an incident—but rejected murder.

Informing the media earlier, a official for the public prosecutor's office announced the pair were being kept in custody on "strong suspicion of homicide".

The names of those involved have not been disclosed by police, in following local legislation.

The family's disappearance was initially flagged by the female victim's relative, who is based in Germany, on July 25, 2024.

Police said the 55-year-old suspect informed them at the time she had taken an prolonged visit with her daughter to travel to her relatives in Turkey.

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

But when investigators entered the woman's home, her mobile phone was located.

Someone also stated listening to a commotion in the flat, and cries of "mama" on the occasion the pair were believed to have vanished.

A wider police investigation was launched, with investigators discovering various messages originating from the mother's device—such as a resignation letter to her workplace and texts to the 55-year-old suspect.

Law enforcement confirmed a amount in the thousands was also moved to the man.

The head of the State Criminal Police Office told reporters on that day that a rented space had been secured before the vanishing and a freezer had been installed within.

The two suspects removed the cooling unit from the storage space on the day the victims vanished, Tersch revealed. And a week later, they purchased another freezer.

Authorities state they think this suggests the deaths were intentionally orchestrated.

"How they died was not identifiable due to the condition of the bodies," Tersch commented.

Mayr—representing the state—noted the precise timeline is not yet known, but the bodies were professionally hidden and went unnoticed during a prior examination.

While the men were detained in June, it was not until 12 November that the suspect acknowledged an occurrence and to storing the victims. He rejects any plan to cause death, investigators said.

In a related development, his 53-year-old sibling confessed to a attempt to hide evidence but disputed knowledge of a homicide.

The two suspects are presently in custody awaiting trial in prisons in two Austrian cities, around 117 miles (189km) apart.

Via a shared communication, Austria's Minister for Women and Justice Minister declared the "suspected killing of two... constitutes the swift and cruel conclusion of a mother and child and exposes a brutal scheme".

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

"Murders of women are a profoundly embedded and society-wide problem that we must combat firmly."