The strange case of Britt Lapthorne

Mr Lapthorne said he could not accept suggestions being made in Croatia that her death had been a simple accident. He believed that an investigation was underway that would reveal "something big"



Initially brought to the worlds attention via a Facebook page set up by concerned friends, the disappearance of Australian tourist Britt Lapthorne is far from being an open and shut case.

She was last seen at a nightclub in Dubrovnik on September 18. Several days later concerned friends contacted her parents and sent out a plea on Facebook to find the missing girl. The missing persons investigation took a seriously strange turn however when a badly decomposed body was found floating off the Dubrovnik coast.

Authorities at the time claimed that the bodies advanced state of decomposition indicated that it had been in the ocean for several months and could not have been the missing girl.

A news report today claims that the Croatian police and Australian Federal Police task force have confirmed that the body is the missing backpackers after conducting DNA tests on the body and material found on Britt's toothbrush.

Several things strike me as odd about this story. I don't often get into gory details but the case centres on the body found floating in the Adriatic and there are some very strange things about that body.

Firstly is the state of decomposition. If as initially announced the body is too decomposed then it cannot be the body of the missing backpacker.

Secondly, the body had been mutilated, possibly to cover up it's identity.

"A person does not cut off their legs and arm, throw maybe acid on themselves and then jump into the water. It just doesn't happen. I expect a reasonable answer, something that is believable."

--Dale Lapthorne, Britt's father

Thirdly, the Croatian and Australian authorities requested that Dale Lapthorne not view the body to confirm it's identity. The suggestion is that viewing it would be too traumatic for the father.

I'm not going to speculate further on this suffice to say that something very odd appears to be going on here and it smells like a cover up. Dale Lapthorne has hinted that a parallel investigation is currently underway that may reveal something big in relation to the dissapearance of his daughter.

The world is listening.