Shocking Find: Bodies of Vanished Mum and Daughter Found in Freezers in Austria

The bodies of a 34-year-old woman and her 10-year-old daughter have been located inside freezing appliances in an flat in western Austria.

The victims, a Syrian woman and her child, who had been unaccounted for for several months, were detected on Friday. The freezers were placed behind a drywall partition in the dwelling, located in the Innsbruck area.

Two individuals, a Austrian man, 55 and his brother aged 53, were detained in June. The older man, a colleague of the female victim, told police last week that there had been an unfortunate event—but rejected homicide.

Informing reporters recently, a representative for the legal authorities stated the brothers were being kept in custody on "serious suspicion of homicide".

The names of those implicated have been withheld by police, in compliance with national regulations.

Their going missing was first reported by the female victim's relative, who is based in Germany, on July 25, 2024.

Authorities revealed the 55-year-old suspect told them at the time she had gone on an prolonged visit with her daughter to visit her parents in Turkey.

The victim's bank card was then noted as being active overseas repeatedly.

But when officers searched the woman's home, her mobile phone was found.

Someone also claimed hearing a commotion in the apartment, and cries of "mama" on the occasion the pair were presumed to have gone missing.

An expanded criminal probe was initiated, with investigators discovering multiple communications sent from the woman's phone—such as a notice of quitting to her employer and messages to the 55-year-old suspect.

Officials stated a four-figure sum was also transferred to the suspect.

A senior police official told reporters on Tuesday that a storage unit had been rented out before the vanishing and a freezing appliance had been positioned inside.

The male siblings extracted the cooling unit from the facility on the very day the mother and daughter vanished, the official stated. And a shortly afterward, they obtained another freezer.

Authorities believe they consider this suggests the deaths were premeditated.

"How they died remains unclear due to the condition of the remains," the official commented.

The prosecutor's spokesman—of the public prosecutor's office—said the precise timeline is yet to be determined, but the bodies were professionally hidden and not discovered during a previous house search.

Although the suspects were arrested in June, it was not until November 12 that the elder brother confessed to an incident and to storing the victims. He rejects any plan to cause death, investigators stated.

In a related development, his younger brother acknowledged a cover-up but rejected knowledge of a homicide.

The brothers are at this time in pre-trial detention in jails in two Austrian cities, around 117 miles (189km) apart.

Through a combined announcement, the nation's official for women's affairs and Justice Minister stated the "reported homicide of mother and child... constitutes the sudden and brutal end of two individuals and exposes a cruel system".

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

"Femicides are a deeply rooted and issue affecting all of society that we must address decisively."