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

The victims, a woman from Syria and her child, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were found on Friday. The freezers were hidden behind a plasterboard wall in the flat, located in the Innsbruck area.

Two men, a 55-year-old Austrian and his brother aged 53, were taken into custody in the month of June. The elder brother, a colleague of the female victim, informed authorities last week that there had been an unfortunate event—but rejected homicide.

Addressing journalists previously, a representative for the public prosecutor's office announced the brothers were being kept in custody on "serious suspicion of murder".

The identities of those concerned have been withheld by authorities, in following national regulations.

The vanishing of the mother and child was originally brought to light by the woman's cousin, who resides in Germany, on July 25, 2024.

Police stated the 55-year-old suspect told them at the time she had gone on an extended trip with her child to visit her parents in the nation of Turkey.

The victim's bank card was then noted as being active abroad on multiple occasions.

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

A witness also stated listening to a disturbing sound in the apartment, and cries of "mum" on the occasion the mother and child were thought to have disappeared.

A wider police investigation was initiated, with investigators uncovering various messages originating from the woman's phone—such as a job termination message to her workplace and messages to the male colleague.

Law enforcement stated a significant cash transfer was also moved to the individual.

Katja Tersch stated to the press on that day that a storage facility had been leased before the victims' disappearance and a freezer had been positioned inside.

The two suspects extracted the cooling unit from the facility on the day the woman and her child vanished, Tersch stated. And a seven days after, they purchased a second unit.

Investigators believe they think this suggests the deaths were planned in advance.

"The cause of death was not identifiable due to the condition of the victims," she stated.

Mayr—of the public prosecutor's office—noted the specific order of occurrences is not yet known, but the remains were professionally hidden and went unnoticed during a previous house search.

While the men were arrested in the summer, it was only on 12 November that the 55-year-old confessed to an event and to storing the victims. He denies any plan to cause death, officials stated.

At the same time, his 53-year-old sibling confessed to a cover-up but denied involvement in a killing.

The two suspects are at this time in pre-trial detention in detention centers in two Austrian cities, around 117 miles (189km) apart.

In a joint statement, Austria's Minister for Women and Justice Minister stated the "suspected killing of two... constitutes the sudden and brutal end of two human lives and reveals a brutal scheme".

"Females of all ages are being killed due to the simple reality that they are female," they added.

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