UPDATE 11.25am: The husband of Karen Ristevski will plead not guilty to the murder of his wife and spend the next four months behind bars before facing court again.
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Borce Ristevski, 53, was arrested at 7.20am on Wednesday by the Missing Persons Squad and charged with one count of murder over the death of his wife.
Within three hours, he was in Melbourne Magistrates Court wearing a grey T-shirt and blue pants.
Mr Ristevski looked at the large media pack in court and then sat quietly in the dock during his brief appearance.
His high profile defence lawyer Rob Stary told Magistrate Angela Bolger his client would be pleading not guilty.
"Mr Ristevski will be pleading not guilty, your honour," Mr Stary said.
Ms Ristevski went missing from her Oakley Drive home in Avondale Heights - a riverside suburb in Melbourne's north-west - where she lived with her husband and their 21-year-old daughter Sarah on the morning of June 29, 2016.
A charge sheet submitted to the court alleges Mr Ristevski murdered his wife in Avondale Heights on the day she was last seen.
The disappearance the fashion boutique owner captivated Melbourne as police mounted an exhaustive search for any sign of the mother.
Her friend, actor Samuel Johnson, pleaded for information about her whereabouts to a national television audience via The Project on Channel Ten.
On February 20 this year, eight months after her disappearance, Ms Ristevski's remains were discovered under a log in bushland in the Mount Macedon Regional Park.
In court on Wednesday, prosecutor Andrew Tinney, SC, asked Magistrate Bolger that investigators be granted 12 weeks, instead of the usual 10, before they handed their brief if evidence to Mr Ristevski's lawyers.
Mr Tinney said investigators needed the extra time "because of the nature of the investigation and the ongoing work that needs to be done".
Mr Stary noted police had been investigating Ms Ristevski's disappearance for 18 months.
"This man doesn't have any history and we want the matter expedited," he told the court.
But Ms Bolger granted prosecutors the extra time as the request was not unreasonable.
Mr Ristevski was remanded in custody to return to court on April 18.
He nodded to the magistrate as he was led out of the dock and back into custody.
It is understood police were advised at least a month ago there was sufficient evidence to charge.
In March, hundreds of mourners dressed in black filled St John's Uniting Church in Essendon for a private funeral service before Ms Ristevski's body was taken to her final resting place.
Mr Ristevski was one of the pallbearers carrying her coffin, while Sarah carried a framed photo of her mother to lead the procession.
EARLIER: A man has been charged with murder this morning following the disappearance of Karen Ristevski in 2016.
Ms Ristevski went missing from her Oakley Drive, Avondale Heights, home on the morning of June 29, 2016. Her body was found in bushland at Mount Macedon in February this year.
A 53-year-old Avondale Heights man was arrested about 7.20am today by detectives from the Missing Persons Squad.
He has been charged with one count of murder and will appear before Melbourne Magistrate’s Court this morning.
