🔗 Share this article

The bodies of a 34-year-old woman and her young daughter, 10 have been found inside freezing appliances in an apartment in western Austria.

The victims, a woman from Syria and her daughter, who had been missing for several months, were detected on the end of last week. The cooling units were placed behind a plasterboard wall in the flat, situated in the Innsbruck area.

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 law enforcement last week that there had been an incident—but denied homicide.

Speaking to reporters earlier, a official for the public prosecutor's office stated the pair were being detained on "high likelihood of homicide".

The names of those implicated have not been released by law enforcement, in following local legislation.

Their going missing was first reported by the woman's cousin, who resides in Germany, on July 25, 2024.

Authorities said the male associate informed them at the time she had gone on an long journey with her child to visit her parents in the nation of Turkey.

The mother's debit card was then found to have been used in foreign locations repeatedly.

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

An individual also claimed hearing a commotion in the apartment, and shouts of "mama" on the day the pair were believed to have vanished.

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

Law enforcement confirmed a amount in the thousands was also sent to the suspect.

A senior police official told media representatives on recently that a storage facility had been rented out before the mother and child went missing and a cooling unit had been placed there.

The male siblings took out the cooling unit from the unit on the very day the woman and her child disappeared, the official stated. And a seven days after, they obtained a second unit.

Investigators state they think this points to the fatalities were planned in advance.

"The reason for their demise was not identifiable due to the state of decomposition of the victims," Tersch commented.

A legal representative—from the legal authorities—stated the exact sequence of events is not yet known, but the remains were professionally hidden and were not found during a previous house search.

Although the brothers were detained in June, it was not until 12 November that the elder brother confessed to an occurrence and to hiding the bodies. He disputes any murderous intent, investigators said.

At the same time, his brother admitted to a attempt to hide evidence but denied awareness of a killing.

The pair are presently in detention before court proceedings in detention centers in Innsbruck and Salzburg, around 117 miles (189km) apart.

In a joint statement, the nation's official for women's affairs and the top legal representative stated the "alleged double murder... represents the sudden and brutal end of a mother and child and reveals a cruel system".

"Females of all ages are falling victim to homicide due to the mere fact that they are female," they went on to say.

"Femicides are a strongly established and society-wide problem that we must fight resolutely."