Two men have been charged with murder over the death of a 90-year-old man at his home near Ballarat in September.

Kenneth Handford was seriously assaulted during the attack at Springbank, and was found tied up and dead in his bedroom on September 15, which was his birthday.

Money and war medals were missing from the house after the robbery.

A 38-year-old Sebastopol man and a 28-year-old Wendouree man each face counts of murder and aggravated burglary after being arrested during police raids on Tuesday morning.

They appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court and were remanded in custody to reappear in January.

The police bomb squad were called in to search a property in Victoria's west on Tuesday morning, following the arrest of the two men, police said.

A suspicious device was found in one of the properties raided by police as part of an investigation into the death of Mr Handford.

The bomb squad sent in a robot about 12:30pm and detonated the device.

Mr Handford was found dead at his Springbank home on his birthday. ( Supplied: Victoria Police )

Police said they believed his death was part of a robbery gone wrong, as it was well known Mr Handford carried a significant sum of cash.

Money and his four war medals were allegedly stolen from his home during the incident.

It was believed Mr Handford may have tried to fight off his attackers in an attempt to protect his belongings.

Over the weekend, investigators released a replica image of his war medals in the hope of tracing them.

Mr Handford, a grandfather to five children and a great-grandfather to three, served in the Royal Australian Air Force between 1943 and 1946.

His son Peter previously said his father rarely spoke about his war service and only recently showed his war medals to a great-grandson.

Ron Handford said his brother was a "hard worker" who would help people with money or if they were sick, saying his brother "would've put up a fight".

Police issued a plea for the public's help to track down a 1997 green Subaru station wagon with the registration plate 1FH 8KE, as part of their investigation.