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

The deceased, a Syrian woman and her child, who had been missing for several months, were found on the end of last week. The freezers were placed behind a drywall partition in the dwelling, located in the city of Innsbruck.

A pair of males, a Austrian man, 55 and his 53-year-old brother, were arrested in the month of June. The 55-year-old, a work associate of the female victim, stated to police last week that there had been an accident—but disputed murder.

Informing reporters recently, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office announced the brothers were being held on "strong suspicion of intentional killing".

The names of those implicated have not been disclosed by law enforcement, in accordance with Austrian law.

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

Investigators revealed the 55-year-old suspect told them at the time she had taken an extended trip with her daughter to visit her parents in Turkey.

The victim's bank card was then noted as being active in foreign locations repeatedly.

However when investigators examined the woman's home, her smartphone was discovered.

An individual also claimed listening to a loud noise in the flat, and shouts of "mother" on the date the two were thought to have disappeared.

A wider official inquiry was initiated, with authorities uncovering multiple communications transmitted via the victim's mobile—including a resignation letter to her workplace and messages to the 55-year-old suspect.

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

The head of the State Criminal Police Office stated to reporters on Tuesday that a storage unit had been secured before the vanishing and a cooling unit had been installed within.

The brothers extracted the cooling unit from the facility on the day the mother and daughter went missing, she stated. And a shortly afterward, they purchased a second unit.

Investigators state they consider this points to the demise were premeditated.

"How they died could not be determined due to the state of decomposition of the victims," she said.

A legal representative—representing the state—stated the precise timeline is still unclear, but the victims were professionally hidden and not discovered during a earlier inspection.

While the men were detained in June, it was not until the 12th of November that the elder brother admitted to an occurrence and to storing the victims. He denies any plan to cause death, officials stated.

At the same time, his younger brother admitted to a concealment but rejected involvement in a murder.

The pair are presently in detention before court proceedings in jails in Innsbruck and Salzburg, approximately 189 kilometers away from each other.

Via a shared communication, the nation's official for women's affairs and the top legal representative said the "alleged double murder... constitutes the sudden and brutal end of two individuals and uncovers a heartless setup".

"Females of all ages are being killed due to the sole reason that they are of the female gender," they went on to say.

"Femicides are a deeply rooted and widespread concern that we must fight resolutely."