Bassam Raad​, 34, of Broadmeadows, faced an out-of-sessions court hearing at West Melbourne police station just before 10pm on Wednesday.

He was charged with one count of murder and three counts of intentionally causing injury after two days of questioning by police.

A clean-shaven Mr Raad walked into the hearing wearing black thongs and a blue, police-issued jumpsuit. He sat with his arms resting in his lap while the charges against him were read out. Nine police officers were in the room.

The bail justice asked Mr Raad if he understood the charges against him. "Yeah", he replied, nodding.

Mr Raad said he wanted to apply for bail and was told that due to the charges against him the application could only be granted in extenuating circumstances.

"I can say that I'm a loving father and I want to go see my kids," he said. "My heart is breaking, I want to see my kids." He added that he had not been violent towards police officers.

The bail justice said Mr Raad's reasons for seeking bail did not meet the threshold for exceptional circumstances and denied his application.

Homicide squad detectives allege Mr Raad killed his wife, 27-year-old Zeinab Taleb​, whose battered body was found wrapped in a quilt at a tennis centre car park in Dallas three weeks ago.

Police had been investigating the discovery of a woman's body, found less than 3 kilometres from Mr Raad's house, when they were called to his property on Monday night after reports of "yelling and screaming".

Homicide detectives were called in when the whereabouts of Ms Taleb was not clear.

Mr Raad, who was arrested on Monday night, is accused of assaulting his three children, two boys aged 4 and 6 and a two-year-old girl. The children were taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

Detective senior constable Miranda Stubbs told the hearing that crime scene investigators had found a "considerable amount of blood" in the Broadmeadows house Mr Raad shared with his wife. She said Mr Raad was accused of murdering his wife in the home and disposing of her body in Dallas.

When Mr Raad was asked if he needed medical attention he said he had been denied his thyroid medication by police and felt faint. At one point during the hearing, he ripped open the Velcro on the front of his jumpsuit, saying: "They've just given me this piece of cloth and thrown me into a cell, not let me shower. Already two days have gone past, nobody given me my medication. I feel like fainting."

The hearing lasted less than 10 minutes before Mr Raad was led out of the room flanked by police. He has been remanded in custody to face the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Earlier, a cousin of Ms Taleb had said he had not seen the young mother, who moved from Lebanon in recent years, for some time. He said Ms Taleb had become isolated from her family. Her parents were in Lebanon.

Neighbours had spoken of the "quiet and polite" couple who moved to Cohuna Street almost three years ago. One neighbour said the last she had heard or seen of Ms Taleb was in mid-June.

Two neighbours said they had never seen the couple's primary school-aged children in uniforms and believed they did not attend school. Another said the children often appeared to be dirty.

Mr Raad was acquitted in Australia's largest terror trial in 2008 after being accused with 11 other men of planning terrorist attacks on Melbourne's Crown Casino and the MCG. 

Then aged in his mid-20s, he was one of four men who walked free after being found not guilty. Other members of the group, including its leader Abdul Nacer Benbrika, were jailed for being part of a terrorist organisation.

Mr Raad and his wife were devout Muslims, who, with their circle of friends that included Benbrika's daughter, would usually spend the festival of Eid al-Fitr feasting to end the fast of Ramadan.

Ms Taleb's body was discovered opposite the house Benbrika once occupied, and where Ms Benbrika is believed to now live.

In a Facebook post she later deleted, Ms Benbrika wrote that she had known the woman dumped in Dallas, and that she was "very poor and very nice".

"May Allah be with her soul and may Allah give the killer what he deserves," she wrote.

Mr Raad's cousins Ezzit and Ahmed Raad were convicted over their role in what became known as the Pendennis plot. Ezzit travelled to Syria to fight with Islamic State in early 2013 and was later joined by another brother, Mounir.

It is unclear whether Mr Raad also considered travelling to Syria, but he was expressing strong pro-Islamic sentiments on Facebook in 2012 - a time when a flood of Melbourne men left the country to join forces with those battling the army of Bashar al-Assad.

The Facebook posts also indicate Mr Raad was working out at a gym frequented by other Melbourne men who travelled to Syria, including Roger Abbas and Sammy Salma.