The man appeared on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty. He has name suppression until in the afternoon.
Judge Raoul Neave said to the application for name suppression: "The horse has bolted, his picture and name was in the paper this morning and I think it's disgraceful.'
Police arrested the man at a property on Halswell Rd on Monday afternoon, more than two years after Michael McGrath, 49, went missing on May 21, 2017.
Mr McGrath was last seen at his Checketts Ave home in Halswell. After months of investigation police and McGrath's family conceded he was dead.
The public gallery in the courtroom was full for the court appearance, with Mr McGrath's family and media.
An application for bail was made by his lawyer Margaret Sewell and it will be decided later on Tuesday.
The man next appears in the High Court on October 18.
The investigation, dubbed Operation Renovation as Mr McGrath was doing up his house when he went missing, saw police scouring the Kate Valley Landfill in North Canterbury for clues.
