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The remains of a mother aged 34 and her 10-year-old daughter have been found inside freezing appliances in an flat in the western part of Austria.

The victims, a woman from Syria and her child, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were found on Friday. The cooling units were placed behind a drywall partition in the flat, situated 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 law enforcement last week that there had been an accident—but rejected murder.

Addressing the media recently, a spokesman for the state prosecutor stated the brothers were being held on "high likelihood of intentional killing".

The names of those involved have not been disclosed by law enforcement, in compliance with national regulations.

The family's disappearance was originally brought to light by the cousin of the mother, who resides in Germany, on the 25th of July last year.

Police said the woman's colleague claimed at the time she had gone on an extended trip with her child to travel to her relatives in the nation of Turkey.

The victim's bank card was then noted as being active in foreign locations on multiple occasions.

Yet when investigators searched the woman's home, her smartphone was discovered.

An individual also stated hearing a loud noise in the dwelling, and cries of "mama" on the date the two were presumed to have gone missing.

An expanded official inquiry was initiated, with authorities finding several texts sent from the mother's device—such as a notice of quitting to her workplace and communications to the male colleague.

Officials said a significant cash transfer was also sent to the man.

Katja Tersch stated to media representatives on that day that a storage unit had been secured before the vanishing and a freezer had been positioned inside.

The male siblings extracted the appliance from the facility on the date the mother and daughter went missing, the official said. And a seven days after, they purchased another freezer.

Officials state they think this points to the deaths were intentionally orchestrated.

"How they died was not identifiable due to the state of decomposition of the victims," the official stated.

Mayr—of the public prosecutor's office—noted the specific order of occurrences is still unclear, but the remains were professionally hidden and were not found during a prior examination.

Although the suspects were arrested in the summer, it was only on 12 November that the suspect confessed to an event and to concealing the remains. He disputes any intent to kill, officials stated.

In a related development, his brother admitted to a concealment but disputed awareness of a killing.

The pair are presently in custody awaiting trial in jails in Innsbruck and Salzburg, around 117 miles (189km) apart.

In a joint statement, Austria's Minister for Women and the top legal representative declared the "reported homicide of mother and child... represents the sudden and brutal end of two individuals and uncovers a cruel system".

"Females of all ages are being murdered due to the sole reason that they are female," they went on to say.

"Murders of women are a deeply rooted and society-wide problem that we must fight resolutely."