Disturbing Discovery: Bodies of Vanished Mum and Daughter Located in Freezing Units in the Alpine Nation
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 Syrian woman and her daughter, who had been missing for several months, were uncovered on the end of last week. The cooling units were concealed behind a false wall in the dwelling, located in the Innsbruck area.
Two individuals, a Austrian man, 55 and his 53-year-old brother, were arrested in June. The elder brother, a work associate of the female victim, told police last week that there had been an accident—but denied intentional killing.
Speaking to reporters earlier, a spokesman for the legal authorities said the brothers were being held on "serious suspicion of homicide".
The identities of those involved have not been disclosed by authorities, in compliance with local legislation.
Their going missing was initially flagged by the cousin of the mother, who lives in Germany, on July 25, 2024.
Investigators stated the 55-year-old suspect informed them at the time she had gone on an extended trip with her child to travel to her relatives in Turkey.
The mother's debit card was then discovered to be utilized overseas repeatedly.
Yet when officers entered the mother's apartment, her smartphone was located.
An individual also reported hearing a loud noise in the dwelling, and cries of "mother" on the day the pair were thought to have disappeared.
An expanded criminal probe was launched, with investigators discovering several texts transmitted via the victim's mobile—such as a resignation letter to her workplace and texts to the male colleague.
Authorities stated a four-figure sum was also transferred to the man.
A senior police official told the press on Tuesday that a storage unit had been rented out before the mother and child went missing and a freezer had been placed there.
The brothers extracted the cooling unit from the facility on the date the woman and her child disappeared, the official stated. And a shortly afterward, they obtained an additional appliance.
Authorities say they consider this indicates the deaths were intentionally orchestrated.
"The reason for their demise was not identifiable due to the condition of the bodies," Tersch stated.
Mayr—representing the state—stated the precise timeline is not yet known, but the bodies were professionally hidden and were not found during a previous house search.
While the suspects were taken into custody in June, it was only on 12 November that the elder brother admitted to an occurrence and to storing the victims. He rejects any murderous intent, officials said.
In a related development, his younger brother admitted to a cover-up but denied involvement in a murder.
The brothers are currently in pre-trial detention in jails in separate locations, situated at a distance.
In a joint statement, Austria's Minister for Women and Justice Minister stated the "reported homicide of mother and child... constitutes the sudden and brutal end of two individuals and exposes a brutal scheme".
"Female individuals are falling victim to homicide due to the sole reason that they are women and girls," they went on to say.
"Femicides are a strongly established and issue affecting all of society that we must fight resolutely."