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The remains of a mother aged 34 and her young daughter, 10 have been found inside freezing appliances in an flat in the western part of Austria.

The deceased, a Syrian woman and her child, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were uncovered on Friday. The freezers were hidden behind a plasterboard wall in the dwelling, located in the Innsbruck area.

Two individuals, a Austrian man, 55 and his 53-year-old brother, were arrested in the month of June. The older man, a colleague of the female victim, told police last week that there had been an incident—but rejected murder.

Addressing the media earlier, a spokesman for the legal authorities announced the pair were being detained on "high likelihood of murder".

The names of those concerned have not been disclosed by authorities, in compliance with Austrian law.

The family's disappearance was first reported by the cousin of the mother, who lives in Germany, on July 25, 2024.

Police said the male associate told them at the time she had gone on an prolonged visit with her daughter to see her family in Turkey.

Her bank card was then found to have been used overseas repeatedly.

Yet when officers searched the mother's apartment, her mobile phone was discovered.

A witness also claimed overhearing a loud noise in the apartment, and shouts of "mother" on the date the mother and child were presumed to have gone missing.

An expanded criminal probe was initiated, with authorities uncovering multiple communications sent from the mother's device—among them a notice of quitting to her employer and communications to the 55-year-old suspect.

Officials stated a four-figure sum was also moved to the individual.

The head of the State Criminal Police Office stated to the press on Tuesday that a storage unit had been leased before the victims' disappearance and a freezer had been positioned inside.

The male siblings removed the cooling unit from the facility on the day the victims disappeared, she said. And a week later, they purchased a second unit.

Officials say they think this indicates the deaths were planned in advance.

"How they died was not identifiable due to the advanced decay of the victims," the official commented.

The prosecutor's spokesman—representing the state—said the exact sequence of events is yet to be determined, but the victims were professionally hidden and were not found during a earlier inspection.

While the men were arrested in June, it was not until the 12th of November that the suspect confessed to an incident and to storing the victims. He disputes any intent to kill, investigators confirmed.

Meanwhile, his younger brother acknowledged a cover-up but rejected awareness of a murder.

The two suspects are presently in detention before court proceedings in jails in separate locations, 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 sudden and brutal end of a mother and child and exposes a brutal scheme".

"Female individuals are falling victim to homicide due to the sole reason that they are women and girls," they added.

"Gender-based killings are a deeply rooted and widespread concern that we must combat firmly."