🔗 Share this article

The remains of a 34-year-old woman and her young daughter, 10 have been found inside freezers in an residence in the western part of Austria.

The deceased, a Syrian woman and her daughter, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were uncovered on Friday. The cooling units were placed behind a false wall in the dwelling, located in the city of Innsbruck.

A pair of males, a Austrian man, 55 and his brother aged 53, were arrested in June. The older man, a colleague of the Syrian woman, informed police last week that there had been an unfortunate event—but denied murder.

Addressing the media earlier, a spokesman for the legal authorities said the brothers were being held on "serious suspicion of murder".

The identities of those involved have not been disclosed by authorities, in accordance with Austrian law.

The family's disappearance was originally brought to light by the woman's cousin, who is based in Germany, on July 25, 2024.

Authorities said the woman's colleague told them at the time she had gone on an prolonged visit with her child to see her family in the nation of Turkey.

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

But when officers examined the woman's home, her mobile phone was discovered.

Someone also reported overhearing a loud noise in the dwelling, and shouts of "mother" on the date the pair were believed to have vanished.

A broader police investigation was initiated, with investigators discovering multiple communications sent from the victim's mobile—among them a job termination message to her employer and communications to the male colleague.

Law enforcement confirmed a four-figure sum was also transferred to the individual.

Katja Tersch informed the press on that day that a storage unit had been leased before the victims' disappearance and a freezer had been installed within.

The brothers extracted the freezer from the unit on the very day the victims vanished, the official stated. And a week later, they obtained another freezer.

Officials state they think this indicates the deaths were premeditated.

"The reason for their demise was not identifiable due to the advanced decay of the remains," she commented.

Mayr—of the public prosecutor's office—said the specific order of occurrences is not yet known, but the remains were carefully placed and were not found during a prior examination.

While the brothers were detained in the summer, it was not until 12 November that the elder brother confessed to an event and to concealing the remains. He disputes any intent to kill, investigators said.

At the same time, his 53-year-old sibling acknowledged a concealment but denied knowledge of a homicide.

The brothers are at this time in detention before court proceedings in prisons in two Austrian cities, approximately 189 kilometers away from each other.

In a joint statement, the nation's official for women's affairs and the top legal representative stated the "alleged double murder... symbolizes the swift and cruel conclusion of a mother and child and exposes a brutal scheme".

"Female individuals are falling victim to homicide due to the sole reason that they are female," they added.

"Gender-based killings are a profoundly embedded and issue affecting all of society that we must combat firmly."