Tragic Find: Bodies of Vanished Mum and Daughter Found in Freezers in the Alpine Nation
The remains of a mother aged 34 and her 10-year-old daughter have been discovered inside freezers in an residence in western Austria.
The deceased, a woman from Syria and her child, who had been missing for several months, were found on Friday. The freezers were concealed behind a false wall in the dwelling, located in the Innsbruck area.
Two men, a Austrian man, 55 and his 53-year-old brother, were arrested in the month of June. The elder brother, a colleague of the Syrian woman, stated to police last week that there had been an incident—but disputed murder.
Speaking to the media earlier, a representative for the state prosecutor stated the brothers were being kept in custody on "serious suspicion of murder".
The identities of those concerned have not been released by authorities, in following national regulations.
The family's disappearance was initially flagged by the woman's cousin, who is based in Germany, on the 25th of July last year.
Investigators revealed the woman's colleague claimed at the time she had embarked on an long journey with her child to see her family in Turkey.
The mother's debit card was then noted as being active abroad several times.
But when investigators entered the mother's apartment, her cellphone was discovered.
An individual also claimed overhearing a commotion in the apartment, and shouts of "mama" on the day the two were thought to have disappeared.
An expanded official inquiry was started, with investigators uncovering several texts originating from the woman's phone—among them a job termination message to her workplace and messages to the male colleague.
Officials confirmed a amount in the thousands was also transferred to the man.
The head of the State Criminal Police Office informed the press on Tuesday that a storage unit had been rented out before the vanishing and a cooling unit had been placed there.
The male siblings took out the appliance from the storage space on the very day the victims went missing, she stated. And a seven days after, they obtained another freezer.
Authorities believe they consider this indicates the deaths were planned in advance.
"The reason for their demise could not be determined due to the advanced decay of the victims," Tersch commented.
The prosecutor's spokesman—of the public prosecutor's office—noted the exact sequence of events is not yet known, but the victims were expertly concealed and went unnoticed during a prior examination.
Although the men were detained in the summer, it was not until November 12 that the 55-year-old confessed to an occurrence and to storing the victims. He disputes any plan to cause death, investigators said.
Meanwhile, his brother confessed to a attempt to hide evidence but disputed awareness of a killing.
The two suspects are currently in pre-trial detention in detention centers in Innsbruck and Salzburg, around 117 miles (189km) apart.
In a joint statement, Austria's Minister for Women and the top legal representative declared the "reported homicide of mother and child... represents the sudden and brutal end of a mother and child and uncovers a cruel system".
"Females of all ages are being murdered due to the mere fact that they are of the female gender," they went on to say.
"Murders of women are a profoundly embedded and issue affecting all of society that we must combat firmly."