Bodies of missing mum and child found in freezers in Austria

The bodies of a 34-year-old woman and her daughter, 10, have been found inside freezers in an apartment in western Austria.

The remains of the Syrian woman and child, who had been missing for several months, were discovered on Friday. The freezers were hidden behind a drywall partition in the flat, located in the city of Innsbruck.

Two men, a 55-year-old Austrian and his 53-year-old brother, were arrested in June. The older man, a colleague of the Syrian woman, told police last week there had been an accident – but denied murder.

Speaking to reporters earlier, Hansjörg Mayr, a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office, said the pair were being held on “strong suspicion of murder”.

The names of those involved have not been released by police, in accordance with Austrian law.

The family’s disappearance was first reported by the woman’s cousin, who lives in Germany, on 25 July 2024.

Police said the woman’s colleague – the 55-year-old man – told them at the time she had gone on an extended trip with her child to visit her parents in Turkey.

Her bank card was then found to have been used abroad several times.

But when police searched the woman’s home, her mobile phone was found.

A witness also reported hearing a loud noise in the apartment, and cries of “mama”, on the day the two were thought to have disappeared.

A wider police investigation was launched, with officers discovering various messages sent from the woman’s phone – including a resignation letter to her employer and messages to the male colleague.

Authorities said a four-figure sum was also transferred to the man.

Katja Tersch, head of the State Criminal Police Office in Tyrol, told reporters on Tuesday that a storage unit had been rented out before the victims’ disappearance and a freezer had been placed there.

The brothers removed the freezer from the unit on the day the woman and her child disappeared, Tersch said. And a week later, they acquired another freezer.

Authorities say they believe this suggests the deaths were premeditated.

“The cause of death could not be determined due to the state of decomposition of the bodies,” Tersch said.

Mayr – of the public prosecutor’s office – said the exact sequence of events is not yet known, but the bodies were professionally hidden and not discovered during a previous house search.

While the brothers were arrested in June, it was not until 12 November that the 55-year-old admitted to an incident and to hiding the bodies. He denies any intent to kill, authorities said.

Meanwhile, his younger brother admitted to a cover-up but denied knowledge of a homicide.

The pair are currently in pre-trial detention in prisons in Innsbruck and Salzburg, around 117 miles (189km) apart.

In a joint statement, Austria’s Minister for Women Eva-Maria Holzleitner and Justice Minister Anna Sporrer said the “alleged double murder… represents the sudden and brutal end of two human lives and exposes a cruel system”.

“Women and girls are being murdered due to the mere fact that they are women and girls,” they continued.

“Femicides are a deeply rooted and society-wide problem that we must fight resolutely.”