Shocking Find: Bodies of Missing Mum and Daughter Located in Freezers in Austria
The bodies of a mother aged 34 and her 10-year-old daughter have been found inside freezing appliances in an apartment in western Austria.
The victims, a Syrian woman and her child, who had been missing for several months, were detected on Friday. The cooling units were placed behind a drywall partition in the apartment, located in the city of Innsbruck.
A pair of males, a Austrian man, 55 and his brother aged 53, were taken into custody in the month of June. The elder brother, a work associate of the female victim, stated to authorities last week that there had been an incident—but rejected murder.
Speaking to reporters previously, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office said the two suspects were being kept in custody on "strong suspicion of intentional killing".
The names of those concerned have not been disclosed by law enforcement, in following local legislation.
The family's disappearance was initially flagged by the woman's cousin, who is based in Germany, on 25 July 2024.
Police revealed the male associate informed them at the time she had embarked on an long journey with her daughter to visit her parents in the nation of Turkey.
Her bank card was then discovered to be utilized abroad on multiple occasions.
Yet when investigators examined the victim's residence, her cellphone was discovered.
A witness also reported listening to a commotion in the dwelling, and screams of "mama" on the day the two were believed to have vanished.
A wider criminal probe was launched, with investigators uncovering several texts originating from the mother's device—including a job termination message to her workplace and texts to the 55-year-old suspect.
Law enforcement confirmed a significant cash transfer was also sent to the suspect.
A senior police official stated to the press on that day that a storage facility had been rented out before the mother and child went missing and a freezing appliance had been installed within.
The male siblings extracted the appliance from the unit on the day the woman and her child went missing, the official said. And a seven days after, they obtained an additional appliance.
Authorities say they believe this points to the deaths were intentionally orchestrated.
"The reason for their demise could not be determined due to the advanced decay of the remains," the official commented.
Mayr—representing the state—said the exact sequence of events is yet to be determined, but the victims were professionally hidden and were not found during a earlier inspection.
Although the men were detained in June, it was only on November 12 that the elder brother confessed to an incident and to hiding the bodies. He denies any intent to kill, investigators stated.
In a related development, his brother acknowledged a concealment but disputed awareness of a murder.
The two suspects are at this time in pre-trial detention in jails in two Austrian cities, around 117 miles (189km) apart.
In a joint statement, the nation's official for women's affairs and Justice Minister stated the "suspected killing of two... represents the swift and cruel conclusion of a mother and child and exposes a brutal scheme".
"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 deeply rooted and society-wide problem that we must fight resolutely."
