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The remains of a 34-year-old woman and her 10-year-old daughter have been discovered inside freezers in an flat in western Austria.

The deceased, a woman from Syria and her child, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were uncovered on the end of last week. The freezers were placed behind a drywall partition in the dwelling, situated in the Innsbruck area.

Two men, a 55-year-old Austrian and his 53-year-old brother, were detained in the month of June. The elder brother, a work associate of the female victim, told authorities last week that there had been an unfortunate event—but rejected homicide.

Addressing reporters recently, a official for the public prosecutor's office announced the brothers were being held on "serious suspicion of homicide".

Personal details of those concerned have not been disclosed by authorities, in following local legislation.

Their going missing was originally brought to light by the woman's cousin, who resides in Germany, on 25 July 2024.

Police revealed the woman's colleague told them at the time she had gone on an prolonged visit with her daughter to see her family in the nation of Turkey.

The mother's debit card was then discovered to be utilized in foreign locations several times.

However when police entered the mother's apartment, her cellphone was found.

An individual also claimed listening to a disturbing sound in the apartment, and screams of "mum" on the date the pair were thought to have disappeared.

An expanded official inquiry was launched, with officers uncovering multiple communications transmitted via the mother's device—among them a job termination message to her workplace and messages to the male colleague.

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

A senior police official told media representatives on recently that a rented space had been rented out before the victims' disappearance and a freezing appliance had been placed there.

The male siblings extracted the freezer from the facility on the date the victims went missing, the official revealed. And a week later, they purchased a second unit.

Authorities believe they believe this indicates the fatalities were premeditated.

"The cause of death remains unclear due to the state of decomposition of the bodies," the official stated.

Mayr—from the legal authorities—said the specific order of occurrences is not yet known, but the victims were carefully placed and not discovered during a earlier inspection.

While the suspects were detained in June, it was not until the 12th of November that the 55-year-old acknowledged an incident and to storing the victims. He denies any murderous intent, authorities said.

Meanwhile, his 53-year-old sibling confessed to a cover-up but rejected involvement in a killing.

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

Via a shared communication, Austria's Minister for Women and the top legal representative said the "alleged double murder... constitutes the swift and cruel conclusion of a mother and child and exposes a brutal scheme".

"Female individuals are being murdered due to the mere fact that they are of the female gender," they added.

"Gender-based killings are a strongly established and society-wide problem that we must address decisively."