Tragic Unearthing: Bodies of Vanished Mum and Daughter Located in Freezing Units in the Alpine Nation
The remains of a mother aged 34 and her 10-year-old daughter have been found inside freezing appliances in an residence in western Austria.
The deceased, a woman from Syria and her child, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were found on Friday. The freezers were concealed behind a plasterboard wall in the apartment, located in the Innsbruck area.
A pair of males, a Austrian man, 55 and his brother aged 53, were taken into custody in the month of June. The 55-year-old, a colleague of the Syrian woman, told law enforcement last week that there had been an unfortunate event—but rejected murder.
Speaking to the media recently, a official for the public prosecutor's office said the pair were being kept in custody on "serious suspicion of homicide".
The identities of those involved have not been disclosed by law enforcement, in following local legislation.
Their going missing was initially flagged by the cousin of the mother, who resides in Germany, on 25 July 2024.
Investigators stated the woman's colleague informed them at the time she had gone on an long journey with her daughter to see her family in Turkey.
Her bank card was then found to have been used in foreign locations several times.
But when investigators examined the victim's residence, her smartphone was located.
An individual also stated hearing a loud noise in the dwelling, and screams of "mama" on the date the mother and child were thought to have disappeared.
A broader official inquiry was launched, with officers discovering several texts sent from the victim's mobile—among them a job termination message to her workplace and messages to the male associate.
Authorities stated a significant cash transfer was also moved to the individual.
Katja Tersch informed media representatives on that day that a storage unit had been leased before the victims' disappearance and a cooling unit had been installed within.
The male siblings extracted the appliance from the facility on the very day the woman and her child went missing, the official stated. And a seven days after, they purchased an additional appliance.
Authorities believe they consider this suggests the demise were intentionally orchestrated.
"How they died was not identifiable due to the advanced decay of the bodies," she stated.
The prosecutor's spokesman—from the legal authorities—said the precise timeline is yet to be determined, but the remains were professionally hidden and went unnoticed during a prior examination.
Although the suspects were arrested in June, it was not until November 12 that the suspect admitted to an incident and to concealing the remains. He disputes any plan to cause death, authorities confirmed.
In a related development, his younger brother acknowledged a concealment but rejected knowledge of a murder.
The pair are at this time in pre-trial detention in jails in Innsbruck and Salzburg, situated at a distance.
In a joint statement, Austria's Minister for Women and the top legal representative declared the "suspected killing of two... symbolizes the abrupt and violent termination of two human lives and exposes a cruel system".
"Female individuals are falling victim to homicide due to the mere fact that they are female," they added.
"Gender-based killings are a profoundly embedded and society-wide problem that we must address decisively."