Tragic Unearthing: Bodies of Vanished Mother and Child Found in Freezing Units in the Alpine Nation
The bodies of a 34-year-old woman and her young daughter, 10 have been discovered inside freezers in an flat in the western part of Austria.
The victims, a woman from Syria and her daughter, who had been missing for a number of months, were uncovered on the end of last week. The freezers were hidden behind a false wall in the flat, situated in the Innsbruck area.
A pair of males, a Austrian man, 55 and his brother aged 53, were detained in the month of June. The elder brother, a colleague of the female victim, told law enforcement last week that there had been an accident—but disputed murder.
Addressing reporters recently, a spokesman for the state prosecutor said the pair were being kept in custody on "serious suspicion of homicide".
The identities of those implicated have been withheld by authorities, in compliance with national regulations.
The vanishing of the mother and child was originally brought to light by the female victim's relative, who is based in Germany, on the 25th of July last year.
Police said the male associate informed them at the time she had taken an prolonged visit with her child to visit her parents in Turkey.
The victim's bank card was then discovered to be utilized abroad on multiple occasions.
However when officers searched the victim's residence, her mobile phone was found.
Someone also claimed overhearing a disturbing sound in the dwelling, and screams of "mama" on the date the pair were thought to have disappeared.
An expanded official inquiry was launched, with investigators discovering several texts originating from the mother's device—such as a job termination message to her workplace and texts to the male associate.
Law enforcement said a four-figure sum was also moved to the man.
Katja Tersch informed media representatives on Tuesday that a rented space had been rented out before the vanishing and a cooling unit had been placed there.
The male siblings extracted the cooling unit from the storage space on the very day the victims disappeared, Tersch stated. And a week later, they purchased an additional appliance.
Investigators say they think this suggests the fatalities were intentionally orchestrated.
"The reason for their demise could not be determined due to the advanced decay of the victims," she said.
Mayr—from the legal authorities—noted the exact sequence of events is not yet known, but the remains were expertly concealed and went unnoticed during a earlier inspection.
While the suspects were detained in June, it was only on November 12 that the suspect admitted to an incident and to hiding the bodies. He disputes any murderous intent, officials confirmed.
In a related development, his 53-year-old sibling admitted to a attempt to hide evidence but rejected knowledge of a murder.
The pair are at this time in custody awaiting trial in detention centers in separate locations, approximately 189 kilometers away from each other.
Via a shared communication, Austria's Minister for Women and the top legal representative declared the "reported homicide of mother and child... symbolizes the sudden and brutal end of a mother and child and exposes a brutal scheme".
"Women and girls are being killed due to the mere fact that they are of the female gender," they went on to say.
"Murders of women are a profoundly embedded and issue affecting all of society that we must combat firmly."