IT WAS a tragedy compounded by distance, obfuscation and devastating error. For two weeks, Britt Lapthorne's family's fears intensified as a nation's fascination grew with the compelling story of one of its young lost in a distant land.

Ms Lapthorne, 21, was last seen partying with fellow backpackers in a nightclub in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik on September 18.

When she vanished it set in train events which culminated early yesterday, Australian time, in confirmation that a body pulled from the water off Dubrovnik five days earlier was Ms Lapthorne, despite local police earlier insisting it was "unlikely to be Britt".

Last night, Ms Lapthorne's mother, Elke, said from her Melbourne home: "We're just broken people."

She told Ten News : "I'm so proud of my daughter Britt and her courage, I'm so proud of my husband Dale and my son Darren [who would be scattering some flowers where Britt was found]."

She told Channel Nine : "Britt just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. She didn't do anything wrong."

The Lapthornes' ordeal is far from over. They are considering authorising a second autopsy as they search for an answer to how their daughter died in a foreign city in which the investigative process has been found wanting.

Unless something emerges to the contrary in the days ahead, the most effective investigative tool in the hunt for Ms Lapthorne was not the police but the social website Facebook.

Two roommates, one from Russia and the other from Canada, two Portuguese travellers who were with her at Club Fuego, a Croatian-American and an Englishman who had met her before they arrived in the port city are among those who responded to the website group which now has almost 20,000 members. None had spoken to the Croatian police before their recollections were reported by media, even though the hostel where Ms Lapthorne had been staying had given authorities details of the other guests. Neither, in a number of cases, had there been contact with either Interpol or the Australian Federal Police.

By contrast, the local police investigation has been clouded in mystery, angry denials of incompetence, promises followed by obfuscation and the deplorable management of Ms Lapthorne's desperate family.

The last and most devastating error was the failure to inform Ms Lapthorne's father and brother that a body had been found in the waters off the historic town. That was left to the media contingent which scrambled for vantage points along the clifftop and crowded onto coastguard vessels while the Lapthornes sat, oblivious, in their hotel. To compound the situation police then declared emphatically that it was unlikely to be Ms Lapthorne - before DNA tests had been completed.

Australian Lydia Hambrook, who was staying at the hostel, was the first to raise the alarm within a day or so of Ms Lapthorne going missing. She told the hostel owners but police refused to investigate for another five days because, "she [Lapthorne] was an adult and therefore she could do what she wanted and if she chose to go out and party for days on end it was no concern of theirs".

It was only after Ms Hambrook contacted the Australian embassy in Zagreb that an investigation started.

Given the state of her body and where it was found, it is likely that Ms Lapthorne was already dead. Now her family must wait to discover how she died - and, if someone killed her, why.