Disturbing Find: Bodies of Missing Mother and Child Located in Freezing Units in Austria

Placeholder image Related image

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

The victims, a woman from Syria and her daughter, who had been missing for several months, were uncovered on Friday. The freezers were placed behind a drywall partition in the dwelling, situated in the Innsbruck area.

Two men, a Austrian man, 55 and his brother aged 53, were arrested in June. The 55-year-old, a work associate of the Syrian woman, informed police last week that there had been an unfortunate event—but denied murder.

Addressing journalists earlier, a official for the state prosecutor stated the brothers were being held on "strong suspicion of intentional killing".

Personal details of those concerned have not been released by law enforcement, in compliance with Austrian law.

Their going missing was first reported by the cousin of the mother, who lives in Germany, on the 25th of July last year.

Police revealed the male associate told them at the time she had taken an long journey with her child to visit her parents in the nation of Turkey.

The victim's bank card was then found to have been used overseas several times.

But when officers searched the woman's home, her smartphone was found.

An individual also claimed listening to a disturbing sound in the dwelling, and shouts of "mum" on the date the pair were presumed to have gone missing.

A wider official inquiry was launched, with officers finding multiple communications sent from the mother's device—such as a notice of quitting to her workplace and messages to the male colleague.

Officials stated a four-figure sum was also sent to the man.

Placeholder image Related image

The head of the State Criminal Police Office told media representatives on recently that a storage unit had been rented out before the vanishing and a cooling unit had been installed within.

The male siblings removed the cooling unit from the facility on the date the victims vanished, the official said. And a week later, they acquired an additional appliance.

Officials say they think this points to the demise were intentionally orchestrated.

"The cause of death was not identifiable due to the state of decomposition of the remains," Tersch commented.

The prosecutor's spokesman—from the legal authorities—noted the precise timeline is not yet known, but the bodies were professionally hidden and went unnoticed during a earlier inspection.

Although the men were taken into custody in the summer, it was only on the 12th of November that the 55-year-old acknowledged an event and to hiding the bodies. He denies any plan to cause death, authorities said.

Meanwhile, his brother admitted to a concealment but rejected awareness of a murder.

The two suspects are presently in detention before court proceedings in prisons in Innsbruck and Salzburg, approximately 189 kilometers away from each other.

Through a combined announcement, Austria's Minister for Women and Justice Minister stated the "reported homicide of mother and child... symbolizes the sudden and brutal end of a mother and child and exposes a heartless setup".

"Women and girls are being murdered due to the simple reality that they are female," they continued.

"Femicides are a deeply rooted and society-wide problem that we must address decisively."

Alexandria Ramos PhD
Alexandria Ramos PhD

Elara is a software engineer and tech writer passionate about open-source projects and digital innovation.

January 2026 Blog Roll

Popular Post