A man has appeared in court over the death of an elderly war veteran whose medals were stolen during a violent burglary at his rural Victorian home.
Creswick man Adam Rowe, 38, appeared in Ballarat Magistrates Court on Friday charged with being an accessory to the murder of World War II veteran Kenneth Handford, and handling stolen goods.
He has been remanded into custody and will return to court in January.
Rowe is the third person to be charged over the death of Mr Handford, whose body was found tied and beaten in his Springbank home, near Ballarat, on his 90th birthday on September 15.
Some of Mr Handford's war medals, taken from his house around the time of his death, have been returned to his family.
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But the digger's Word War II Star and Pacific Star remain lost.
Police believe Mr Handford died during a botched burglary sometime between September 13 and September 15.
The pair charged with his murder, a 38-year-old Sebastopol man and a 28-year-old Wendouree man, have also been charged with aggravated burglary.
The duo have been remanded into custody to reappear before Melbourne Magistrates Court in January.
Mr Handford's son Ken told media he had an idea of who might have killed his father.
The former farmer was well known around Springbank and Ballarat as a kind and generous man, and it was widely known he carried cash.
He was about to move in with his son and had begun packing up his rural property to make the move to Ballarat.
