Queensland man Robert Wagner confessed to the cold-case killing of his wealthy uncle, Gerhard Wagner, in January 1999, a court has heard.

June 12, 2019

A cash-strapped man dumped pieces of his wealthy uncle’s body at Queensland’s Glass Mountains after murdering him to avoid repaying thousands of dollars, a court has been told.

Gerhard Wagner, 61, was last seen alive riding his motorbike on January 7, 1999, after working on his prized yacht.

The retired merchant seaman had plans to sail the vessel around the world.

But before that, Gerhard had a dinner date with his girlfriend at the Breakfast Creek Hotel.

He never made it.

Neither his body nor the motorcycle have ever been found.

His nephew Robert James Wagner, 57, is accused of killing Gerhard in the garage at his Brisbane home.

At his murder trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Tuesday, a witness, who can’t be identified for legal reasons, gave chilling evidence allegedly confessed by Wagner.

“He went quiet for 30 seconds, then he looked at me and said ‘I killed my uncle’,” the witness said.

“He owed his uncle quite a bit of money and he was asking him about it, and his uncle was changing his will and cutting Robert out.”

The witness said Wagner had invited his uncle to the pre-prepared murder site in his garage.

“He put a plastic sheet down (and) he hit him over the head with a hammer,” he said.

Wagner told him he then “chopped up” his uncle’s body to pieces, he said.

“He was enjoying telling me what he’d done,” he said.

“It was quite horrible.”

Wagner then took “skin and the guts” to a Brisbane river, the witness said.

The rest of the body was buried at Mount Tibrogargan in the Glass House Mountains National Park, north of Brisbane, he said.

The trial continues on Wednesday.