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The remains of a 34-year-old woman and her 10-year-old daughter have been discovered inside freezers in an residence in the western part of Austria.

The victims, a woman from Syria and her child, who had been missing for several months, were found on Friday. The freezers were placed behind a false wall in the apartment, situated in the city of Innsbruck.

Two men, a 55-year-old Austrian and his brother aged 53, were taken into custody in the month of June. The elder brother, a colleague of the female victim, stated to police last week that there had been an accident—but denied intentional killing.

Speaking to the media recently, a representative for the public prosecutor's office stated the brothers were being detained on "serious suspicion of intentional killing".

Personal details of those concerned have not been released by authorities, in following national regulations.

Their going missing was initially flagged by the woman's cousin, who resides in Germany, on July 25, 2024.

Authorities said the 55-year-old suspect claimed at the time she had taken an extended trip with her child to see her family in Turkey.

The mother's debit card was then noted as being active overseas on multiple occasions.

But when investigators entered the mother's apartment, her cellphone was discovered.

Someone also claimed hearing a disturbing sound in the flat, and cries of "mama" on the occasion the pair were thought to have disappeared.

A wider police investigation was initiated, with officers finding various messages transmitted via the victim's mobile—among them a resignation letter to her workplace and texts to the male associate.

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

The head of the State Criminal Police Office informed the press on recently that a storage facility had been rented out before the vanishing and a cooling unit had been placed there.

The two suspects extracted the appliance from the facility on the day the mother and daughter vanished, she said. And a week later, they obtained a second unit.

Officials state they consider this suggests the deaths were planned in advance.

"The reason for their demise could not be determined due to the state of decomposition of the victims," she commented.

The prosecutor's spokesman—of the public prosecutor's office—noted the specific order of occurrences is still unclear, but the remains were expertly concealed and went unnoticed during a prior examination.

While the suspects were taken into custody in the summer, it was not until the 12th of November that the elder brother admitted to an incident and to concealing the remains. He denies any intent to kill, investigators said.

Meanwhile, his 53-year-old sibling acknowledged a cover-up but rejected awareness of a murder.

The two suspects are at this time in pre-trial detention in detention centers in two Austrian cities, around 117 miles (189km) apart.

In a joint statement, the nation's official for women's affairs and Justice Minister declared the "alleged double murder... symbolizes the abrupt and violent termination of a mother and child and exposes a cruel system".

"Female individuals are being murdered due to the sole reason that they are of the female gender," they continued.

"Femicides are a deeply rooted and issue affecting all of society that we must fight resolutely."