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The remains of a mother aged 34 and her young daughter, 10 have been discovered inside freezers in an apartment in the western part of Austria.

The victims, a Syrian woman and her child, who had been unaccounted for for several months, were found on Friday. The cooling units were hidden behind a plasterboard wall in the flat, located in the city of Innsbruck.

A pair of males, a Austrian man, 55 and his brother aged 53, were arrested in June. The older man, a work associate of the Syrian woman, informed authorities last week that there had been an incident—but rejected homicide.

Informing journalists previously, a official for the public prosecutor's office said the brothers were being kept in custody on "serious suspicion of homicide".

The names of those implicated have not been disclosed by authorities, in accordance with local legislation.

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

Investigators said the male associate informed them at the time she had taken an long journey with her daughter to visit her parents in Turkey.

The victim's bank card was then discovered to be utilized overseas several times.

However when police examined the mother's apartment, her mobile phone was discovered.

An individual also stated listening to a commotion in the flat, and screams of "mother" on the occasion the pair were believed to have vanished.

A broader criminal probe was initiated, with officers discovering several texts sent from the victim's mobile—including a resignation letter to her company and texts to the male associate.

Law enforcement said a amount in the thousands was also sent to the individual.

Katja Tersch informed media representatives on recently that a storage facility had been leased before the victims' disappearance and a freezer had been placed there.

The male siblings extracted the cooling unit from the unit on the day the victims vanished, she revealed. And a seven days after, they obtained an additional appliance.

Investigators state they think this suggests the fatalities were planned in advance.

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

A legal representative—from the legal authorities—stated the specific order of occurrences is still unclear, but the remains were professionally hidden and were not found during a previous house search.

Although the suspects were detained in the summer, it was only on 12 November that the 55-year-old confessed to an event and to hiding the bodies. He rejects any plan to cause death, officials confirmed.

In a related development, his brother acknowledged a concealment but disputed knowledge of a homicide.

The brothers are currently in detention before court proceedings in prisons in two Austrian cities, approximately 189 kilometers away from each other.

Via a shared communication, Austria's Minister for Women and the top legal representative said the "suspected killing of two... constitutes the swift and cruel conclusion of two individuals and exposes a cruel system".

"Women and girls are being murdered due to the sole reason that they are women and girls," they continued.

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