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The bodies of a mother aged 34 and her 10-year-old daughter have been discovered inside freezers in an residence in the western part of Austria.

The victims, a woman from Syria and her child, who had been missing for a number of months, were detected on the end of last week. The freezers were placed behind a drywall partition in the flat, located in the Innsbruck area.

Two men, a Austrian man, 55 and his 53-year-old brother, were arrested in June. The 55-year-old, a colleague of the female victim, stated to law enforcement last week that there had been an accident—but disputed homicide.

Addressing the media recently, a official for the legal authorities announced the two suspects were being held on "strong suspicion of murder".

Personal details of those implicated have not been disclosed by authorities, in accordance with Austrian law.

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

Police revealed the male associate informed them at the time she had gone on an extended trip with her child to travel to her relatives in the nation of Turkey.

The victim's bank card was then found to have been used abroad several times.

Yet when officers examined the victim's residence, her smartphone was located.

A witness also reported hearing a commotion in the dwelling, and shouts of "mum" on the day the pair were presumed to have gone missing.

A broader official inquiry was started, with investigators uncovering multiple communications transmitted via the woman's phone—such as a job termination message to her workplace and communications to the 55-year-old suspect.

Officials said a amount in the thousands was also moved to the man.

The head of the State Criminal Police Office informed media representatives on Tuesday that a storage unit had been secured before the victims' disappearance and a freezing appliance had been placed there.

The brothers extracted the cooling unit from the unit on the day the mother and daughter went missing, Tersch said. And a seven days after, they purchased a second unit.

Officials say they think this suggests the fatalities were intentionally orchestrated.

"The reason for their demise could not be determined due to the condition of the bodies," she stated.

The prosecutor's spokesman—of the public prosecutor's office—noted the specific order of occurrences is still unclear, but the remains were professionally hidden and not discovered during a previous house search.

While the brothers were taken into custody in the summer, it was only on November 12 that the suspect confessed to an occurrence and to concealing the remains. He disputes any murderous intent, authorities stated.

Meanwhile, his younger brother admitted to a concealment but denied awareness of a homicide.

The pair are currently in detention before court proceedings in jails 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 said the "suspected killing of two... represents the sudden and brutal end of two human lives and exposes a brutal scheme".

"Women and girls are being killed due to the sole reason that they are female," they went on to say.

"Femicides are a deeply rooted and society-wide problem that we must address decisively."