Filip Grbavac charged with murder of Brisbane man Lachlan Griffiths

A man has fronted court charged with murdering Brisbane man Lachlan Griffiths, whose body is yet to be found.

Police alleged Lachlan Griffiths was murdered by Filip Grbavac.

A man charged with the murder of Brisbane man Lachlan Griffiths was a key witness in a Queensland double murder trial, it can be revealed.

Filip Grbavac, 40, appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday charged with murdering 35-year-old Lachlan Griffiths, whose body has not yet been found.

Mr Griffiths, from Indooroopilly, was last seen at the Meriton Suites on Herschel Street in Brisbane’s CBD on the morning of January 16.

Detectives declared a Coopers Plains business a crime scene in relation to the suspicious disappearance of Lachlan Griffiths.

Police believe he travelled in a car with unknown people to a transport depot in Coopers Plains, where homicide detectives established a crime scene.

Mr Griffiths was reported missing on January 26 by his mother who became concerned when he did not contact her.

After a statewide appeal for information, detectives formally charged Grbavac, of Tingalpa, with murder on Monday.

He faced court where he was remanded in custody until his next court appearance on March 28.

Police search an industrial shed on Musgrave Rd, Coopers Plains. Picture: Liam Kidston

In 2018, Grbavac took the stand as a witness in the trial into the alleged murders of Robert Martinez and Chantal Barnett, who were last seen alive near Rockhampton in 2013.

Mr Martinez’s remains were uncovered in 2014 but the body of Ms Barnett has never been found.

Grbavac gave evidence in the trial of two men - Robert Armstrong and Daniel George Hong - who were charged with the pair’s murder.

The court was told Grbavac had given a statement to police claiming that Hong had disclosed to him how Ms Barnett’s body was disposed of.

Chantal Barnett and Robert Martinez went missing near Rockhampton in 2013.

But in a surprise turn midway through the trial the charges were dropped and Hong and Armstrong instead pleaded guilty to two counts each of interfering with a corpse.

Last week during an appeal for information about Mr Griffiths’s suspicious disappearance, Detective Inspector Dave Jackman said police had more than one person of interest in the case.

“There are a couple of persons of interest but at this stage we are still undergoing investigations into the circumstances as to how he came to be at that address, or around that address at the time,” Insp Jackman said.

Anyone with information about Mr Griffiths should contact Policelink on 131 444 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.