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Two brothers possibly allegedly part of a family sect have confessed to murdering both their mother and their aunt with the bodies apparently cut up before being dumped in a well.

Suspects Ismael Castro, 20, and Esteban Castro, 24, have confessed to murdering the sisters and tipping their bodies down a well at the family commune in the city of Cordoba, Argentina.

Early reports claimed that both women had been cut to pieces, after police discovered machetes, shovels and a mace stained with blood near the scene of the crime.

Officials said the sisters – named as mother Esther Castro, 41, and Sara Castro, 39 – were discovered at the bottom of a 150ft well.

The killings are said to have happened after an explosive family row on 24th September, a 17-year-old girl said to have been held as an accessory to the murders told police.

As detectives from the Police Homicide Division in Cordoba investigate the exact motive behind the double murder, local media outlets have linked the homicides to a history of suspected abuse carried out by Ismael and Esteban’s grandfather.

Neighbours described the Castro family as “strange” after claiming that ten people lived in the house and stating that they all “avoided social contact” while keeping within the confines of their residence and practicing “strange religious rites” such as the burning of foul-smelling bonfires.

Cordoba police division said the brothers confessed on 2nd October after officers caught them fleeing on foot in the company of a 17-year-old girl, two children aged six and 12, and a nine-month-old infant.

Later reports confirmed that the victims were found at the bottom of the well, while the exact cause of their deaths remains unclear.

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