🔗 Share this article

The remains of a mother aged 34 and her 10-year-old daughter have been discovered inside freezers in an flat in western Austria.

The victims, a Syrian woman and her daughter, who had been missing for a number of months, were uncovered on the end of last week. The freezers were hidden behind a drywall partition in the dwelling, located in the Innsbruck area.

Two individuals, a 55-year-old Austrian and his brother aged 53, were arrested in the month of June. The elder brother, a work associate of the Syrian woman, told law enforcement last week that there had been an accident—but disputed homicide.

Informing the media recently, a representative for the legal authorities announced the pair were being detained on "high likelihood of homicide".

Personal details of those implicated have not been disclosed by police, in following national regulations.

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

Police stated the 55-year-old suspect claimed at the time she had embarked on an prolonged visit with her child to visit her parents in Turkey.

The victim's bank card was then found to have been used overseas on multiple occasions.

But when officers entered the mother's apartment, her mobile phone was located.

A witness also stated hearing a loud noise in the flat, and cries of "mum" on the occasion the two were presumed to have gone missing.

A broader police investigation was initiated, with investigators discovering multiple communications sent from the woman's phone—such as a resignation letter to her company and texts to the male associate.

Officials said a four-figure sum was also moved to the man.

The head of the State Criminal Police Office told reporters on that day that a storage facility had been secured before the victims' disappearance and a freezer had been installed within.

The two suspects extracted the appliance from the facility on the date the mother and daughter vanished, Tersch revealed. And a shortly afterward, they purchased an additional appliance.

Investigators believe they consider this points to the demise were premeditated.

"The cause of death was not identifiable due to the advanced decay of the victims," the official commented.

The prosecutor's spokesman—from the legal authorities—noted the specific order of occurrences is yet to be determined, but the victims were expertly concealed and not discovered during a earlier inspection.

While the men were arrested in the summer, it was not until 12 November that the 55-year-old admitted to an incident and to concealing the remains. He denies any plan to cause death, officials stated.

Meanwhile, his 53-year-old sibling acknowledged a cover-up but denied knowledge of a killing.

The pair are presently in pre-trial detention in detention centers in two Austrian cities, around 117 miles (189km) apart.

In a joint statement, the nation's official for women's affairs and the top legal representative stated the "reported homicide of mother and child... symbolizes the abrupt and violent termination of two individuals and reveals a cruel system".

"Female individuals are being killed due to the mere fact that they are women and girls," they went on to say.

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