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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 deceased, a Syrian woman and her daughter, who had been unaccounted for for several months, were uncovered on Friday. The freezers were concealed behind a drywall partition in the apartment, situated in the city of Innsbruck.

Two men, a 55-year-old Austrian and his brother aged 53, were taken into custody in June. The elder brother, a colleague of the female victim, stated to authorities last week that there had been an accident—but disputed homicide.

Addressing the media recently, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office said the brothers were being held on "high likelihood of homicide".

The identities of those implicated have not been disclosed by law enforcement, in following local legislation.

Their going missing was first reported by the female victim's relative, who is based in Germany, on the 25th of July last year.

Investigators revealed the male associate claimed at the time she had taken 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 abroad on multiple occasions.

Yet when investigators searched the woman's home, her cellphone was located.

A witness also stated listening to a commotion in the dwelling, and cries of "mum" on the date the pair were thought to have disappeared.

A wider police investigation was launched, with officers uncovering several texts originating from the mother's device—including a job termination message to her employer and messages to the male colleague.

Authorities said a amount in the thousands was also moved to the individual.

Katja Tersch told reporters on recently that a storage unit had been rented out before the mother and child went missing and a cooling unit had been positioned inside.

The brothers extracted the appliance from the storage space on the day the mother and daughter disappeared, she stated. And a week later, they obtained another freezer.

Investigators say they believe this indicates the demise were planned in advance.

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

The prosecutor's spokesman—of the public prosecutor's office—said the exact sequence of events is yet to be determined, but the victims were expertly concealed and were not found during a earlier inspection.

While the brothers were taken into custody in June, it was only on November 12 that the elder brother acknowledged an event and to storing the victims. He disputes any plan to cause death, officials confirmed.

Meanwhile, his 53-year-old sibling admitted to a cover-up but denied knowledge of a killing.

The two suspects 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 said the "suspected killing of two... constitutes the sudden and brutal end of two human lives and reveals a heartless setup".

"Women and girls are falling victim to homicide due to the simple reality that they are of the female gender," they went on to say.

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