Former cop found guilty of cold case murder of Warrnambool man

Steven Frederick Johnson has been found guilty of murdering Christopher Jarvis in 2006.

A Supreme Court jury found Johnson killed his tenant over $2,210 of unpaid rent, before dumping his body and setting fire to his car.

Johnson did not apply for bail and will be sentenced at a later date.

A Supreme Court jury has found an elderly former police officer guilty of murdering Warrnambool father Christopher Jarvis more than 20 years ago.

Mr Jarvis, who was 38, has not been seen since he disappeared from his Wangoom home near Warrnambool on June 13, 2006.

During the 21-day trial in Warrnambool, the court heard that Steven Frederick Johnson, 74, orchestrated a violent attack on Mr Jarvis, his tenant, over $2,210 in unpaid rent.

Johnson murdered Mr Jarvis with a baseball bat before dumping his body in bushland.

Mr Jarvis's car was later found burnt out at a tourist lookout on the coast near Warrnambool.

Members of Mr Jarvis's family cheered and celebrated in court when the verdict was delivered, while Johnson's family members sat in shock.

Johnson, 74, had pleaded not guilty to one charge of murder over the disappearance.

The jury deliberated for four days before returning a guilty verdict.

No bail application was made, and Johnson will return to court for a plea hearing on December 14.

Speaking outside court, Mr Jarvis's family spoke of their relief at the guilty verdict.

"It's been the longest 20 years to finally get what we've wanted — a little bit of closure, so we can hopefully move on," his daughter, Bree, said.

Mr Jarvis's son, Cale, said he hoped Johnson "rots in his dirty little cell for the rest of his life, and thinks about his actions".

The murder was initially treated as a missing person case, before police began reinvestigating and arrested Johnson in 2022.

The Supreme Court, sitting in Warrnambool, heard Johnson fired a starter pistol in Mr Jarvis's ear on the day of the attack before bundling him into his own car.

He then drove the man to the nearby Framlingham Forest, where Johnson killed Mr Jarvis by hitting him over the head with a baseball bat and buried him in a shallow grave.

The murder was carried out the day before the men were due to appear at a contested hearing in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) over the rental dispute.