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The bodies of a 34-year-old woman and her young daughter, 10 have been located inside freezing appliances in an flat in western Austria.

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

Two individuals, a 55-year-old Austrian and his brother aged 53, were taken into custody in the month of June. The older man, a work associate of the female victim, stated to authorities last week that there had been an accident—but disputed murder.

Speaking to reporters earlier, a representative for the public prosecutor's office stated the pair were being detained on "high likelihood of murder".

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

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

Authorities revealed the male associate told them at the time she had gone on an prolonged visit with her child to visit her parents in the nation of Turkey.

The mother's debit card was then discovered to be utilized in foreign locations several times.

But when police examined the mother's apartment, her cellphone was discovered.

Someone also stated listening to a commotion in the dwelling, and cries of "mama" on the occasion the mother and child were believed to have vanished.

A wider police investigation was launched, with officers uncovering multiple communications sent from the woman's phone—such as a notice of quitting to her employer and messages to the male colleague.

Law enforcement confirmed a four-figure sum was also moved to the individual.

Katja Tersch stated to reporters on recently that a storage facility had been leased before the vanishing and a freezing appliance had been positioned inside.

The brothers took out the freezer from the facility on the very day the mother and daughter disappeared, the official stated. And a shortly afterward, they acquired a second unit.

Officials state they consider this indicates the deaths were planned in advance.

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

Mayr—from the legal authorities—said the specific order of occurrences is still unclear, but the victims were expertly concealed and were not found during a previous house search.

Although the men were taken into custody in June, it was not until the 12th of November that the suspect confessed to an occurrence and to storing the victims. He rejects any plan to cause death, officials confirmed.

At the same time, his brother acknowledged a cover-up but rejected involvement in a killing.

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

In a joint statement, Austria's Minister for Women and Justice Minister declared the "suspected killing of two... constitutes the swift and cruel conclusion of two human lives and exposes a heartless setup".

"Female individuals are being murdered due to the mere fact that they are women and girls," they added.

"Gender-based killings are a strongly established and issue affecting all of society that we must address decisively."