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The bodies of a mother aged 34 and her young daughter, 10 have been found inside freezers in an residence in western Austria.

The deceased, a Syrian woman and her child, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were detected on the end of last week. The cooling units were placed behind a false wall in the apartment, situated in the city of Innsbruck.

Two individuals, a Austrian man, 55 and his 53-year-old brother, were detained in the month of June. The older man, a work associate of the Syrian woman, stated to police last week that there had been an incident—but disputed intentional killing.

Addressing the media earlier, a official for the public prosecutor's office said the brothers were being kept in custody on "serious suspicion of intentional killing".

The names of those implicated have been withheld by law enforcement, 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 July 25, 2024.

Police revealed the 55-year-old suspect claimed at the time she had taken an long journey with her child to visit her parents in Turkey.

The mother's debit card was then found to have been used abroad several times.

But when investigators examined the woman's home, her smartphone was found.

An individual also reported overhearing a commotion in the flat, and shouts of "mum" on the occasion the mother and child were presumed to have gone missing.

A broader criminal probe was initiated, with authorities finding various messages originating from the victim's mobile—among them a job termination message to her employer and messages to the male associate.

Authorities confirmed a significant cash transfer was also transferred to the individual.

A senior police official informed reporters on that day that a storage unit had been secured before the vanishing and a cooling unit had been positioned inside.

The brothers took out the freezer from the facility on the day the woman and her child vanished, the official said. And a seven days after, they obtained a second unit.

Authorities state they think this points to the deaths were intentionally orchestrated.

"The reason for their demise remains unclear due to the condition of the remains," she commented.

A legal representative—of the public prosecutor's office—stated the exact sequence of events is still unclear, but the bodies were carefully placed and were not found during a earlier inspection.

Although the men were taken into custody in the summer, it was not until the 12th of November that the elder brother acknowledged an incident and to hiding the bodies. He rejects any plan to cause death, authorities confirmed.

At the same time, his younger brother confessed to a cover-up but denied involvement in a killing.

The pair are at this time in custody awaiting trial in detention centers in separate locations, around 117 miles (189km) apart.

Via a shared communication, Austria's Minister for Women and the top legal representative stated the "suspected killing of two... symbolizes the abrupt and violent termination of a mother and child and exposes a brutal scheme".

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

"Murders of women are a profoundly embedded and society-wide problem that we must address decisively."