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

The victims, a Syrian woman and her daughter, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were found on the end of last week. The cooling units were placed behind a drywall partition in the apartment, located in the city of Innsbruck.

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

Addressing journalists recently, a official for the legal authorities said the pair were being kept in custody on "serious suspicion of homicide".

Personal details of those involved have not been released by authorities, in compliance with national regulations.

The family's disappearance was first reported by the woman's cousin, who is based in Germany, on 25 July 2024.

Authorities said the male associate claimed at the time she had taken an prolonged visit with her daughter to see her family in Turkey.

Her bank card was then noted as being active overseas on multiple occasions.

Yet when investigators searched the woman's home, her cellphone was located.

Someone also claimed overhearing a commotion in the apartment, and cries of "mum" on the day the mother and child were thought to have disappeared.

An expanded official inquiry was started, with investigators finding several texts originating from the victim's mobile—among them a notice of quitting to her employer and texts to the 55-year-old suspect.

Officials said a four-figure sum was also moved to the suspect.

The head of the State Criminal Police Office stated to the press on Tuesday that a storage facility had been leased before the victims' disappearance and a cooling unit had been placed there.

The brothers removed the freezer from the facility on the day the woman and her child disappeared, Tersch revealed. And a seven days after, they obtained another freezer.

Investigators state they consider this indicates the deaths were intentionally orchestrated.

"The reason for their demise could not be determined due to the state of decomposition of the bodies," Tersch commented.

The prosecutor's spokesman—from the legal authorities—said the precise timeline is still unclear, but the victims were professionally hidden and went unnoticed during a prior examination.

While the brothers were arrested in the summer, it was only on November 12 that the 55-year-old acknowledged an incident and to storing the victims. He disputes any plan to cause death, investigators stated.

At the same time, his younger brother acknowledged a attempt to hide evidence but rejected knowledge of a homicide.

The pair are currently in detention before court proceedings in jails in separate locations, approximately 189 kilometers away from each other.

In a joint statement, the nation's official for women's affairs and the top legal representative stated the "alleged double murder... constitutes the sudden and brutal end of two human lives and exposes a cruel system".

"Women and girls are being killed due to the mere fact that they are women and girls," they went on to say.

"Gender-based killings are a profoundly embedded and issue affecting all of society that we must fight resolutely."