Shocking Find: Remains of Missing Mum and Daughter Located in Freezers in the Alpine Nation
The remains of a 34-year-old woman and her young daughter, 10 have been discovered inside freezers in an residence in the western part of Austria.
The deceased, a woman from Syria and her daughter, who had been missing for a number of months, were found on Friday. The cooling units were hidden behind a false wall in the dwelling, located in the Innsbruck area.
A pair of males, a Austrian man, 55 and his brother aged 53, were arrested in June. The 55-year-old, a work associate of the Syrian woman, stated to police last week that there had been an incident—but denied intentional killing.
Speaking to reporters previously, a spokesman for the legal authorities stated the two suspects were being kept in custody on "strong suspicion of homicide".
The identities of those involved have not been disclosed by law enforcement, in compliance with national regulations.
Their going missing was initially flagged by the cousin of the mother, who is based in Germany, on the 25th of July last year.
Police stated the male associate told them at the time she had gone on an long journey with her child to visit her parents in Turkey.
The victim's bank card was then discovered to be utilized in foreign locations several times.
Yet when officers examined the victim's residence, her smartphone was located.
An individual also stated hearing a disturbing sound in the dwelling, and shouts of "mother" on the date the pair were thought to have disappeared.
An expanded official inquiry was launched, with investigators discovering multiple communications originating from the victim's mobile—among them a job termination message to her employer and communications to the male associate.
Officials stated a amount in the thousands was also transferred to the individual.
The head of the State Criminal Police Office informed the press on recently that a storage unit had been secured before the victims' disappearance and a cooling unit had been installed within.
The brothers took out the cooling unit from the facility on the day the victims went missing, she said. And a week later, they acquired another freezer.
Authorities believe they consider this indicates the demise were intentionally orchestrated.
"The reason for their demise was not identifiable due to the state of decomposition of the remains," she said.
Mayr—of the public prosecutor's office—stated the exact sequence of events is still unclear, but the victims were carefully placed and went unnoticed during a earlier inspection.
Although the brothers were arrested in the summer, it was not until November 12 that the elder brother confessed to an incident and to storing the victims. He rejects any murderous intent, officials confirmed.
At the same time, his 53-year-old sibling acknowledged a concealment but denied knowledge of a homicide.
The brothers are presently in pre-trial detention in prisons in separate locations, around 117 miles (189km) apart.
Via a shared communication, Austria's Minister for Women and the top legal representative declared the "alleged double murder... represents the swift and cruel conclusion of a mother and child and uncovers a cruel system".
"Females of all ages are being killed due to the sole reason that they are female," they added.
"Gender-based killings are a profoundly embedded and issue affecting all of society that we must address decisively."