The bodies of a 34-year-old woman and her 10-year-old daughter have been found inside freezers in an apartment in western Austria. The remains of the Syrian mother and daughter, missing for several months, were discovered on Friday. The freezers were hidden behind a drywall partition in an apartment located in the city of Innsbruck.
Two men, a 55-year-old Austrian and his 53-year-old brother, had been arrested in June. The older man, a colleague of the Syrian woman, claimed there had been an accident but denied any murder involvement. Hansjörg Mayr, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office, stated the men are held on strong suspicion of murder.
Their names have not been released in accordance with Austrian law. The family's disappearance was first reported by the woman's cousin in Germany on July 25, 2024. Initially, the colleague claimed the woman had traveled to Turkey with her daughter, which was later contradicted by bank activity and the discovery of the woman's phone during a police search.
Authorities indicated that a storage unit was rented prior to the victims' vanishing, where a freezer was placed. The two men allegedly transported this freezer and obtained a second one shortly after the disappearance, suggesting premeditated actions.
Despite later admissions of involvement, both men deny murder intentions. They remain in pre-trial detention as investigations continue. Austria's Minister for Women and Justice publicly condemned the incident, highlighting concerns over femicide as a pervasive societal issue.
