Disturbing Discovery: Bodies of Missing Mum and Daughter Located in Freezers in the Alpine Nation
The deceased of a 34-year-old woman and her 10-year-old daughter have been discovered inside freezers in an apartment in the western part of Austria.
The deceased, a Syrian woman and her daughter, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were detected on the end of last week. The freezers were hidden behind a false wall in the apartment, located in the Innsbruck area.
Two men, a Austrian man, 55 and his brother aged 53, were arrested in June. The elder brother, a colleague of the female victim, told authorities last week that there had been an incident—but denied homicide.
Addressing reporters earlier, a representative for the legal authorities said the two suspects were being detained on "high likelihood of murder".
The identities of those concerned have not been released by authorities, in following Austrian law.
The vanishing of the mother and child was initially flagged by the female victim's relative, who resides in Germany, on the 25th of July last year.
Investigators stated the woman's colleague claimed at the time she had gone on an prolonged visit with her child to travel to her relatives in Turkey.
The mother's debit card was then noted as being active overseas several times.
However when police examined the mother's apartment, her mobile phone was discovered.
An individual also stated listening to a disturbing sound in the dwelling, and shouts of "mum" on the day the pair were presumed to have gone missing.
An expanded criminal probe was launched, with officers discovering multiple communications transmitted via the woman's phone—such as a notice of quitting to her company and communications to the male colleague.
Law enforcement confirmed a four-figure sum was also moved to the man.
A senior police official stated to the press on recently that a rented space had been secured before the victims' disappearance and a freezer had been positioned inside.
The brothers removed the cooling unit from the storage space on the day the mother and daughter went missing, the official stated. And a seven days after, they purchased another freezer.
Officials say they consider this suggests the deaths were intentionally orchestrated.
"How they died was not identifiable due to the advanced decay of the remains," the official commented.
A legal representative—of the public prosecutor's office—stated the specific order of occurrences is not yet known, but the bodies were expertly concealed and not discovered during a earlier inspection.
While the brothers were taken into custody in June, it was only on 12 November that the suspect confessed to an event and to concealing the remains. He disputes any murderous intent, investigators confirmed.
In a related development, his 53-year-old sibling admitted to a concealment but disputed involvement in a killing.
The brothers are presently in detention before court proceedings in detention centers in two Austrian cities, situated at a distance.
In a joint statement, the nation's official for women's affairs and the top legal representative declared the "suspected killing of two... constitutes the swift and cruel conclusion of a mother and child and uncovers a heartless setup".
"Female individuals are being killed due to the simple reality that they are of the female gender," they added.
"Murders of women are a profoundly embedded and widespread concern that we must combat firmly."