Mario Schembri, 57, of Wallan, and Bernadette Denny, 41, of Hadfield, were charged with Mr Rockefeller's murder last night, in the hearing at the St Kilda Road police station.
Detective Senior Constable Tim Bell of the Homicide Squad told the hearing Mr Rockefeller was killed on January 21, the day he was last seen, or early the following morning.
"It is alleged that Herman Rockefeller was murdered in a residential premises at South Street, Hadfield," Constable Bell said.
Police said the circumstances surrounding how Mr Rockefeller came to be at that address were "the subject of an ongoing investigation".
"The accused has been interviewed and has made admissions of having been involved in a physical altercation leading to the death of Herman Rockefeller and assisted in or had knowledge of the disposal of his body," Senior Constable Bell told the hearing.
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The accused were arrested about 4.30pm on Thursday afternoon.
The hearing was told Mr Schembri yesterday afternoon took police to a residential premises where they found what were believed to be human remains. Police are awaiting the results of forensic testing for confirmation.
The pair were remanded in custody to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday.
Mr Rockefeller had last been seen when he was driving out of the long-term car park at Melbourne's Tullamarine International Airport just after 9.30pm on January 21.
Since Mr Rockefeller's disappearance became apparent, everyone, it seemed, had had a theory on his whereabouts. Shopkeepers served him sausage rolls. Eye witnesses spotted him the breadth of Victoria and NSW. Facebook friends felt his online presence.
More than 400 people signed up to the "Where in the World is Herman Rockefeller?" site, which tracked the various sightings and offered a multitude of explanations for why the 52-year-old businessman failed to arrive home after returning to Melbourne from a trip to Newcastle last week.
Yet what had become a somewhat cheeky parlour game yesterday turned very serious as homicide detectives and police scoured bushland in central Victoria for traces of the missing millionaire.
Homicide Squad Detective Senior Sergeant Stuart Bateson said police had raided a house in the Melbourne suburb of Hadfield.
Later in the day, police flew by helicopter to the central Victorian town of Heathcote to follow up a new lead in the case.
In Mr Rockefeller's home in Malvern East, the pronouncement that police feared the worst confirmed what his family had feared all along.
There were numerous claimed sightings of Mr Rockefeller this week. The most prominently reported was the account of a shopkeeper in the tiny Victorian town of Gordon, the next along the road from Ballan. Jan Spiteri recounted how a man she took for Mr Rockefeller came into her shop on Monday morning. He was dishevelled and evidently hungry. He bought a hot pie, sausage roll and a drink and returned later that afternoon to buy some milk.
By this stage, a picture was emerging of a missing man who didn't want to be found.
And it seemed as though investigating detectives shared this view.
But at the family home in Malvern East, Mr Rockefeller's wife, Vicky, remained distraught.
The family heard the reports of Mr Rockefeller dropping in to the general store at Gordon but quickly saw holes in the story. A glaring one was that Ms Spiteri recalled talking at length to Mr Rockefeller about his son's plans to invest in property in the area. His son is just 16 years old.
The public obsession in Mr Rockefeller was easily explained. Despite having no relation to the New York Rockefellers, he was a successful, if slightly quirky businessmen with a fabulous name.
He was born in Ohio, went to school in Geelong and studied at Harvard. Along with his brothers, Robert and Charles, he had business interests in Melbourne, Tasmania and New Zealand.
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