Tragic Discovery: Bodies of Vanished Mother and Child Located in Freezers in the Alpine Nation
The bodies of a mother aged 34 and her 10-year-old daughter have been located inside freezing appliances in an apartment in the western part of Austria.
The victims, a woman from Syria and her daughter, who had been unaccounted for for several months, were detected on Friday. The freezers were placed behind a false wall in the flat, located in the city of Innsbruck.
Two men, a Austrian man, 55 and his 53-year-old brother, were detained in the month of June. The older man, a colleague of the Syrian woman, informed authorities last week that there had been an accident—but disputed homicide.
Informing journalists previously, a official for the state prosecutor said the brothers were being detained on "high likelihood of intentional killing".
Personal details of those implicated have been withheld by law enforcement, in following Austrian law.
The vanishing of the mother and child was originally brought to light by the cousin of the mother, who lives in Germany, on the 25th of July last year.
Police revealed the 55-year-old suspect told them at the time she had embarked on an long journey with her child to visit her parents in the nation of Turkey.
The mother's debit card was then noted as being active in foreign locations on multiple occasions.
Yet when investigators examined the victim's residence, her smartphone was discovered.
An individual also claimed overhearing a disturbing sound in the dwelling, and screams of "mother" on the day the mother and child were thought to have disappeared.
An expanded official inquiry was started, with investigators uncovering multiple communications transmitted via the woman's phone—among them a job termination message to her employer and texts to the male associate.
Authorities confirmed a amount in the thousands was also moved to the suspect.
Katja Tersch stated to the press on recently that a storage facility had been secured before the mother and child went missing and a cooling unit had been positioned inside.
The two suspects extracted the freezer from the storage space on the date the victims vanished, she stated. And a seven days after, they purchased another freezer.
Officials state they think this points to the demise were planned in advance.
"The reason for their demise remains unclear due to the condition of the remains," she said.
Mayr—representing the state—said the specific order of occurrences is not yet known, but the remains were professionally hidden and went unnoticed during a prior examination.
While the suspects were detained in June, it was not until November 12 that the 55-year-old admitted to an event and to storing the victims. He disputes any intent to kill, authorities stated.
Meanwhile, his younger brother confessed to a cover-up but disputed involvement in a murder.
The two suspects are currently in detention before court proceedings in jails in Innsbruck and Salzburg, situated at a distance.
Via a shared communication, the nation's official for women's affairs and the top legal representative stated the "alleged double murder... constitutes the sudden and brutal end of two human lives and reveals a cruel system".
"Women and girls are falling victim to homicide due to the mere fact that they are women and girls," they continued.
"Gender-based killings are a strongly established and issue affecting all of society that we must combat firmly."