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

The deceased, a Syrian woman and her child, who had been unaccounted for for a number of months, were detected on Friday. The freezers were hidden behind a plasterboard wall in the dwelling, located in the Innsbruck area.

A pair of males, a Austrian man, 55 and his brother aged 53, were arrested in June. The elder brother, a work associate of the female victim, informed authorities last week that there had been an accident—but rejected homicide.

Informing the media recently, a official for the public prosecutor's office said the two suspects were being detained on "high likelihood of murder".

Personal details of those implicated have not been released by police, in following Austrian law.

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.

Investigators said the male associate informed them at the time she had taken an long journey with her daughter to travel to her relatives in the nation of Turkey.

Her bank card was then noted as being active in foreign locations several times.

However when investigators entered the victim's residence, her smartphone was located.

A witness also stated listening to a loud noise in the apartment, and cries of "mother" on the occasion the pair were believed to have vanished.

A wider official inquiry was launched, with authorities finding multiple communications originating from the victim's mobile—including a job termination message to her workplace and communications to the male associate.

Authorities confirmed a four-figure sum was also transferred to the man.

The head of the State Criminal Police Office informed media representatives on that day that a storage unit had been rented out before the mother and child went missing and a freezing appliance had been installed within.

The brothers extracted the appliance from the unit on the very day the mother and daughter vanished, Tersch said. And a week later, they purchased another freezer.

Authorities believe they consider this suggests the deaths were premeditated.

"The cause of death could not be determined due to the state of decomposition of the remains," Tersch commented.

Mayr—representing the state—stated the precise timeline is yet to be determined, but the remains were expertly concealed and were not found during a prior examination.

While the suspects were detained in June, it was only on 12 November that the elder brother admitted to an event and to storing the victims. He denies any intent to kill, authorities said.

In a related development, his brother confessed to a concealment but rejected knowledge of a murder.

The two suspects are presently in detention before court proceedings in detention centers in two Austrian cities, around 117 miles (189km) apart.

Via a shared communication, Austria's Minister for Women and the top legal representative said the "reported homicide of mother and child... represents the swift and cruel conclusion of two human lives and uncovers a heartless setup".

"Female individuals are being murdered due to the sole reason that they are female," they continued.

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