Shocking Find: Remains of Vanished Mum and Daughter Found in Freezing Units in the Alpine Nation
The remains of a 34-year-old woman and her 10-year-old daughter have been located inside freezers in an residence in western Austria.
The victims, a woman from Syria and her child, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were found on the end of last week. The cooling units were placed behind a false wall in the flat, located in the city of Innsbruck.
Two individuals, a 55-year-old Austrian and his 53-year-old brother, were arrested in the month of June. The 55-year-old, a colleague of the female victim, stated to police last week that there had been an accident—but rejected intentional killing.
Informing reporters earlier, a representative for the state prosecutor stated the pair were being held on "serious suspicion of homicide".
The identities of those implicated have not been released by police, in compliance with Austrian law.
The family's disappearance was initially flagged by the cousin of the mother, who is based in Germany, on the 25th of July last year.
Authorities stated the woman's colleague informed them at the time she had taken an prolonged visit with her child to visit her parents in the nation of Turkey.
The mother's debit card was then discovered to be utilized overseas on multiple occasions.
However when investigators examined the woman's home, her cellphone was discovered.
Someone also claimed overhearing a loud noise in the apartment, and shouts of "mama" on the date the mother and child were thought to have disappeared.
A broader criminal probe was started, with authorities discovering several texts sent from the victim's mobile—among them a job termination message to her workplace and communications to the 55-year-old suspect.
Officials stated a significant cash transfer was also moved to the individual.
Katja Tersch told reporters on Tuesday that a storage facility had been leased before the victims' disappearance and a cooling unit had been positioned inside.
The male siblings extracted the freezer from the facility on the very day the woman and her child vanished, the official revealed. And a seven days after, they purchased a second unit.
Officials say they think this points to the deaths were intentionally orchestrated.
"How they died was not identifiable due to the state of decomposition of the remains," the official stated.
Mayr—of the public prosecutor's office—stated the precise timeline is yet to be determined, but the bodies were expertly concealed and went unnoticed during a earlier inspection.
While the men were taken into custody in June, it was only on 12 November that the elder brother acknowledged an event and to storing the victims. He disputes any intent to kill, officials said.
At the same time, his brother acknowledged a concealment but denied involvement in a homicide.
The brothers are at this time in detention before court proceedings in detention centers in Innsbruck and Salzburg, approximately 189 kilometers away from each other.
In a joint statement, Austria's Minister for Women and Justice Minister declared the "suspected killing of two... symbolizes the swift and cruel conclusion of a mother and child and exposes a cruel system".
"Female individuals are being murdered due to the mere fact that they are women and girls," they went on to say.
"Murders of women are a strongly established and widespread concern that we must address decisively."