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

The victims, a Syrian woman and her daughter, who had been missing for several months, were uncovered on the end of last week. The freezers were concealed behind a plasterboard wall in the apartment, situated in the Innsbruck area.

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

Informing journalists recently, a representative for the legal authorities announced the pair were being held on "high likelihood of murder".

Personal details of those involved have not been released by law enforcement, in accordance with national regulations.

The vanishing of the mother and child was initially flagged by the cousin of the mother, who lives in Germany, on July 25, 2024.

Authorities stated the woman's colleague told them at the time she had gone on an long journey with her child to travel to her relatives in the nation of Turkey.

The victim's bank card was then discovered to be utilized overseas repeatedly.

Yet when police entered the woman's home, her mobile phone was found.

A witness also reported listening to a disturbing sound in the dwelling, and screams of "mama" on the occasion the two were thought to have disappeared.

An expanded police investigation was started, with authorities discovering several texts sent from the victim's mobile—including a job termination message to her employer and communications to the male associate.

Law enforcement confirmed a significant cash transfer was also sent to the suspect.

A senior police official told the press on Tuesday that a rented space had been rented out before the mother and child went missing and a freezer had been installed within.

The male siblings extracted the appliance from the storage space on the very day the mother and daughter disappeared, Tersch revealed. And a week later, they purchased a second unit.

Officials believe they consider this points to the deaths were intentionally orchestrated.

"The cause of death was not identifiable due to the condition of the victims," Tersch commented.

The prosecutor's spokesman—of the public prosecutor's office—noted the precise timeline is not yet known, but the remains were carefully placed and went unnoticed during a previous house search.

While the brothers were detained in the summer, it was only on 12 November that the elder brother confessed to an event and to hiding the bodies. He disputes any plan to cause death, investigators confirmed.

At the same time, his brother confessed to a cover-up but rejected involvement in a homicide.

The brothers are at this time in custody awaiting trial in jails in two Austrian cities, approximately 189 kilometers away from each other.

Through a combined announcement, Austria's Minister for Women and Justice Minister declared the "suspected killing of two... symbolizes the swift and cruel conclusion of a mother and child and reveals a cruel system".

"Women and girls are falling victim to homicide due to the sole reason that they are female," they went on to say.

"Murders of women are a profoundly embedded and issue affecting all of society that we must combat firmly."