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

The victims, a woman from Syria and her daughter, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were uncovered on the end of last week. The cooling units were hidden behind a drywall partition in the dwelling, located in the Innsbruck area.

Two men, a 55-year-old Austrian and his brother aged 53, were taken into custody in June. The older man, a work associate of the female victim, stated to authorities last week that there had been an incident—but denied homicide.

Addressing journalists previously, a official for the state prosecutor said the pair were being held on "serious suspicion of homicide".

Personal details of those concerned have been withheld by authorities, in accordance with national regulations.

The vanishing of the mother and child was first reported by the female victim's relative, who lives in Germany, on July 25, 2024.

Authorities stated the 55-year-old suspect claimed at the time she had taken 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 overseas repeatedly.

But when police searched the woman's home, her smartphone was discovered.

An individual also stated overhearing a commotion in the flat, and screams of "mother" on the day the two were presumed to have gone missing.

An expanded criminal probe was launched, with authorities discovering several texts transmitted via the victim's mobile—including a resignation letter to her workplace and communications to the 55-year-old suspect.

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

The head of the State Criminal Police Office told the press on Tuesday that a storage facility had been rented out before the victims' disappearance and a freezer had been positioned inside.

The two suspects extracted the cooling unit from the storage space on the day the victims vanished, she stated. And a week later, they obtained another freezer.

Officials believe they consider this indicates the fatalities were planned in advance.

"The cause of death was not identifiable due to the advanced decay of the bodies," Tersch commented.

The prosecutor's spokesman—of the public prosecutor's office—noted the precise timeline is not yet known, but the bodies were professionally hidden and not discovered during a prior examination.

While the brothers were arrested in June, it was only on November 12 that the elder brother confessed to an incident and to concealing the remains. He denies any plan to cause death, investigators confirmed.

Meanwhile, his 53-year-old sibling acknowledged a concealment but rejected involvement in a killing.

The two suspects are at this time in pre-trial detention in jails in separate locations, approximately 189 kilometers away from each other.

Through a combined announcement, the nation's official for women's affairs and the top legal representative declared the "reported homicide of mother and child... symbolizes the swift and cruel conclusion of two individuals and reveals a heartless setup".

"Female individuals are being killed due to the sole reason that they are women and girls," they went on to say.

"Gender-based killings are a deeply rooted and society-wide problem that we must fight resolutely."