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

The victims, a Syrian woman and her child, who had been missing for a number of months, were uncovered on the end of last week. The cooling units were concealed behind a false wall in the flat, located in the Innsbruck area.

Two individuals, a 55-year-old Austrian and his 53-year-old brother, were detained in the month of June. The 55-year-old, a colleague of the female victim, told police last week that there had been an incident—but disputed homicide.

Speaking to journalists recently, a official for the legal authorities stated the pair were being held on "serious suspicion of intentional killing".

The identities of those involved have been withheld by police, in accordance with Austrian law.

The vanishing of the mother and child was initially flagged by the female victim's relative, who is based in Germany, on the 25th of July last year.

Investigators said the male associate told them at the time she had taken an extended trip with her daughter to see her family in Turkey.

The mother's debit card was then found to have been used overseas repeatedly.

However when officers entered the woman's home, her cellphone was discovered.

An individual also reported hearing a commotion in the dwelling, and shouts of "mama" on the day the pair were thought to have disappeared.

A wider police investigation was started, with officers finding multiple communications transmitted via the victim's mobile—among them a notice of quitting to her workplace and texts to the male associate.

Law enforcement confirmed a amount in the thousands was also moved to the man.

A senior police official told the press on Tuesday that a storage facility had been rented out before the mother and child went missing and a cooling unit had been installed within.

The male siblings removed the freezer from the facility on the very day the mother and daughter disappeared, Tersch revealed. And a seven days after, they obtained another freezer.

Investigators believe they consider this indicates the fatalities were intentionally orchestrated.

"The cause of death remains unclear due to the state of decomposition of the remains," Tersch commented.

Mayr—of the public prosecutor's office—noted the specific order of occurrences is not yet known, but the victims were expertly concealed and not discovered during a previous house search.

Although the brothers were arrested in June, it was only on 12 November that the elder brother admitted to an occurrence and to hiding the bodies. He disputes any plan to cause death, officials confirmed.

At the same time, his 53-year-old sibling admitted to a attempt to hide evidence but denied awareness of a murder.

The pair are currently in pre-trial detention in prisons in two Austrian cities, around 117 miles (189km) apart.

Via a shared communication, the nation's official for women's affairs and the top legal representative said the "reported homicide of mother and child... symbolizes the sudden and brutal end of two individuals and exposes a brutal scheme".

"Women and girls are being murdered due to the mere fact that they are women and girls," they went on to say.

"Femicides are a strongly established and widespread concern that we must fight resolutely."