Inquest into death of backpacker Britt Lapthorne closed

The Victorian inquest into the death of Melbourne woman Britt Lapthorne, who disappeared after going to a Croatian nightclub in 2008, has closed.

While it's not known how she died, coroner's associate Sergeant David Dimsey said there was evidence to suggest Ms Lapthorne did not commit suicide.

Her body was found by fishermen nearby in Boninovo Bay almost three weeks after she went missing on September 18, but Croatian police never solved the mystery of her disappearance.

Ms Lapthorne was last seen at the Latin Club Fuego in the coastal tourist town of Dubrovnik where she was partying with about 10 other backpackers.

Outside the coroner's court in Melbourne on Thursday, her father, Dale Lapthorne, was pleased the coroner and police had finally ruled that Britt did not commit suicide.

He said the inquiry has technically been closed but there is still an ongoing police investigation.
"As to whether it will ever progress, or we will ever find out what happened to Britt? I'm not sure. But we gave it everything," Mr Lapthorne told reporters.

"What we did is we gave it our best shot. She was our daughter. We loved her. We still do... What more can I say? We tried."

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Timeline: Britt Lapthorne's death
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September 18, 2008 – Ms Lapthorne was last seen alive at the Latin Club Fuego in the coastal tourist town of Dubrovnik, Croatia, where she was partying with other backpackers.

September 24, 2008 – The Lapthorne family were told their daughter was missing, six days after her disappearance, despite Australian officials aware she had vanished.

October 6, 2008 – The 21-year-old’s decomposed body was found in the sea by fishermen, about 3km from the club, in Boninovo Bay.

October 13, 2008 - An autopsy report failed to determine the cause of Britt Lapthorne's death. How Ms Lapthorne died continued to remain a mystery.

2009 – Ms Lapthorne’s father, Dale, said the only information he would release from one of the reports was that Britt’s body was in the water the whole time she was missing.

2009 – The coroner confirmed Ms Lapthorne’s body should have surfaced within two or three days, with Mr Lapthorne confident his daughter had been weighted down before being dumped into the Adriatic Sea.

2013 – Authorities where Ms Lapthorne died claimed her cause of death was due to ‘misadventure’, but conceded it was unlikely it was due to suicide.

2015 – The inquest into her death was officially closed.

Closure for Lapthorne family

After a brief hearing that formally closed the inquest into Britt's death in the Victorian Coroners Court on Thursday, Ms Lapthorne's parents Dale and Elke said the end of the Victorian proceedings brought some closure.

But they described the initial Croatian police investigation as a debacle, with Mr Lapthorne hitting out at a coroner’s finding that the local police left no stone unturned when investigating her death.

"We are thoroughly annoyed and furious by the comments that it was a thorough and professional investigation," he told reporters outside the court.

"It was a debacle for the first two weeks ... It's laughable."

Mr Lapthorne has retraced the last month of his daughter's travels and said Britt may have not died in vain after all.

Many young backpackers were more careful when travelling overseas, he said.

Another lasting legacy, he says, is change to the way Croatian police deal with similar matters.

A final report by State Coroner Ian Gray will be handed down later this month.

Morning news break – April 16