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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 child, who had been unaccounted for for several months, were found on the end of last week. The cooling units were concealed behind a plasterboard wall in the dwelling, located in the city of Innsbruck.

A pair of males, a Austrian man, 55 and his brother aged 53, were detained in June. The older man, a colleague of the Syrian woman, told law enforcement last week that there had been an accident—but rejected homicide.

Speaking to the media recently, a official for the state prosecutor announced the brothers were being detained on "high likelihood of homicide".

The identities of those involved have been withheld by law enforcement, in accordance with local legislation.

The family's disappearance was initially flagged by the woman's cousin, who lives in Germany, on 25 July 2024.

Police said the male associate informed them at the time she had gone on an long journey with her daughter to visit her parents in Turkey.

Her bank card was then discovered to be utilized in foreign locations repeatedly.

But when officers examined the mother's apartment, her cellphone was located.

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

A wider official inquiry was started, with investigators finding several texts originating from the woman's phone—such as a job termination message to her workplace and communications to the male colleague.

Authorities said a significant cash transfer was also sent to the suspect.

A senior police official told the press on Tuesday that a storage unit had been secured before the vanishing and a freezer had been positioned inside.

The male siblings removed the cooling unit from the unit on the day the mother and daughter went missing, the official stated. And a week later, they obtained an additional appliance.

Officials believe they think this points to the demise were intentionally orchestrated.

"How they died remains unclear due to the condition of the bodies," she said.

The prosecutor's spokesman—representing the state—noted the exact sequence of events is not yet known, but the bodies were professionally hidden and were not found during a previous house search.

While the brothers were detained in June, it was only on the 12th of November that the elder brother admitted to an incident and to hiding the bodies. He rejects any intent to kill, officials said.

At the same time, his brother admitted to a cover-up but disputed awareness of a homicide.

The pair are at this time in detention before court proceedings in jails in two Austrian cities, approximately 189 kilometers away from each other.

Via a shared communication, the nation's official for women's affairs and the top legal representative declared the "suspected killing of two... symbolizes the abrupt and violent termination of two human lives and uncovers a brutal scheme".

"Women and girls are falling victim to homicide due to the sole reason that they are of the female gender," they continued.

"Gender-based killings are a deeply rooted and society-wide problem that we must address decisively."