Shocking Discovery: Remains of Missing Mother and Child Found in Freezing Units in Austria
The deceased of a 34-year-old woman and her young daughter, 10 have been located inside freezing appliances in an flat in western Austria.
The victims, a woman from Syria and her daughter, who had been missing for a number of months, were detected on the end of last week. The freezers were placed behind a plasterboard wall in the dwelling, located in the Innsbruck area.
A pair of males, a 55-year-old Austrian and his brother aged 53, were arrested in the month of June. The older man, a colleague of the Syrian woman, informed law enforcement last week that there had been an incident—but denied murder.
Speaking to journalists earlier, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office said the pair were being detained on "high likelihood of intentional killing".
The names of those involved have been withheld by authorities, in accordance with national regulations.
Their going missing was originally brought to light by the female victim's relative, who lives in Germany, on the 25th of July last year.
Police stated the woman's colleague claimed at the time she had gone on an prolonged visit with her daughter to see her family in the nation of Turkey.
The mother's debit card was then discovered to be utilized abroad repeatedly.
Yet when police examined the woman's home, her smartphone was found.
An individual also stated overhearing a disturbing sound in the apartment, and cries of "mama" on the date the two were thought to have disappeared.
A wider official inquiry was started, with investigators finding various messages transmitted via the mother's device—such as a resignation letter to her workplace and communications to the male colleague.
Officials said a amount in the thousands was also moved to the individual.
Katja Tersch informed reporters on recently that a storage unit had been rented out before the mother and child went missing and a freezing appliance had been placed there.
The two suspects extracted the cooling unit from the facility on the very day the mother and daughter vanished, she revealed. And a shortly afterward, they obtained an additional appliance.
Officials say they consider this suggests the deaths were planned in advance.
"How they died remains unclear due to the advanced decay of the remains," the official stated.
The prosecutor's spokesman—from the legal authorities—stated the specific order of occurrences is still unclear, but the victims were expertly concealed and went unnoticed during a earlier inspection.
Although the brothers were arrested in June, it was not until 12 November that the elder brother confessed to an incident and to hiding the bodies. He disputes any murderous intent, authorities confirmed.
In a related development, his 53-year-old sibling admitted to a attempt to hide evidence but disputed knowledge of a homicide.
The brothers are at this time in pre-trial detention in jails in Innsbruck and Salzburg, around 117 miles (189km) apart.
Through a combined announcement, Austria's Minister for Women and Justice Minister stated the "reported homicide of mother and child... constitutes the sudden and brutal end of a mother and child and reveals a cruel system".
"Women and girls are falling victim to homicide due to the sole reason that they are women and girls," they went on to say.
"Femicides are a profoundly embedded and widespread concern that we must fight resolutely."