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

The victims, a Syrian woman and her child, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were detected on Friday. The cooling units were hidden behind a drywall partition in the dwelling, situated in the Innsbruck area.

A pair of males, a 55-year-old Austrian and his brother aged 53, were arrested in June. The older man, a work associate of the Syrian woman, stated to law enforcement last week that there had been an unfortunate event—but denied homicide.

Speaking to reporters previously, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office stated the brothers were being detained on "strong suspicion of murder".

The identities of those implicated have not been released by law enforcement, in compliance with Austrian law.

The family's disappearance was initially flagged by the cousin of the mother, who resides in Germany, on July 25, 2024.

Authorities said the male associate informed them at the time she had gone on an prolonged visit with her daughter to travel to her relatives in Turkey.

The victim's bank card was then discovered to be utilized in foreign locations several times.

Yet when police searched the mother's apartment, her cellphone was found.

A witness also claimed listening to a commotion in the flat, and shouts of "mother" on the occasion the two were thought to have disappeared.

A broader official inquiry was initiated, with officers discovering several texts sent from the woman's phone—including a job termination message to her workplace and communications to the male associate.

Officials stated a amount in the thousands was also moved to the individual.

A senior police official informed media representatives on that day that a storage unit had been leased before the vanishing and a freezing appliance had been positioned inside.

The male siblings took out the freezer from the facility on the date the victims vanished, she stated. And a week later, they obtained an additional appliance.

Officials say they consider this points to the deaths were planned in advance.

"How they died remains unclear due to the state of decomposition of the victims," she commented.

Mayr—from the legal authorities—stated the specific order of occurrences is still unclear, but the bodies were expertly concealed and were not found during a earlier inspection.

While the men were detained in the summer, it was only on November 12 that the 55-year-old admitted to an event and to hiding the bodies. He rejects any murderous intent, officials confirmed.

At the same time, his 53-year-old sibling admitted to a cover-up but disputed knowledge of a homicide.

The pair are presently in custody awaiting trial in prisons in separate locations, approximately 189 kilometers away from each other.

Through a combined announcement, Austria's Minister for Women and Justice Minister said the "alleged double murder... constitutes the swift and cruel conclusion of two human lives and exposes a brutal scheme".

"Females of all ages are being killed due to the sole reason that they are of the female gender," they added.

"Femicides are a profoundly embedded and society-wide problem that we must fight resolutely."