A CLEARER picture is emerging of the last known evening of missing traveller Britt Lapthorne as a number of witnesses, including two more fellow backpackers and a club busboy all place her inside the Latino Club Fuego - and at least one mentioned a carload of men.
But it is not clear if Interpol - or Croatian police - have collated the increasing pieces of the jigsaw, collected via Facebook, emails and direct contact between her brother, Darren, and friend Tara Reynolds, or have even begun the process of formal interviews.
"We have another few who have contacted us over the last day or so … one I'm not sure about but the other we have passed on to police," Ms Reynolds said last night. "We have no idea, still, what they have done with this information."
Ms Lapthorne's father, Dale, met police on Saturday but his shell-shocked demeanour revealed that he was given little or no information. He has been asked to wait another day for a briefing until a specialist from Zagreb, known only as Detective Antonio, returns from a "visit home to change his clothes".
"There's not a lot they can disclose," Mr Lapthorne said. "It's confidential information even within their circles that they are not prepared to disclose to us and to some extent I don't want to know. All I want to know is if progress is being made."
The local police response in Dubrovnik is characterised not only by operational delays but a palpable and clearly exhibited cultural disdain for the lifestyle and drinking patterns of young Australian backpackers, and particularly the young women who visit the ancient walled town.
This cultural and gender schism was highlighted by the bizarre first interview by the son of the owners of the hostel where Ms Lapthorne was staying the night she disappeared.
In it he says he did not know her except superficially, but reveals he was aware of the many places in Bosnia she had travelled in the weeks before and that he had been told she was "open, maybe too open and promiscuous".
"And while she was staying in Sarajevo people remember that she got so drunk that she didn't know what she was doing. I heard from people that were close to her said that she had a habit of disappearing once in a while, it is not the first time she goes somewhere and does not show up," Mr Perkovic said.
The first and last time he met her was in the common room of his family's hostel around 10.30pm on September 17, the day after she had checked in and the day before she disappeared.
He said the first detailed conversation he had with police was on October 1 when he was detained for questioning before being led back to the house.
The strange interview emerged just hours after Mr Lapthorne and Mr Perkovic's mother had both found the spirit to reach out to each other in their mutual distress. Mr Lapthorne and Milka Perkovic separately sent each other messages of support.
Hours later, Mrs Perkovic tearfully told the Herald that her heart was breaking for Ms Lapthorne's family. She had closed the doors of her hostel in the wake of the terrible stress.
In 2005 Croatian police came under fire for inaction over the case of a British tourist, Peter Rushton, 30, whose naked body was found in the sea 20 days after he was reported missing. He had been involved in a drunken argument with a group of local youths who robbed him, tied his legs and tied weights on him before throwing him into the sea.
Police in Porec were criticised for not seeking the DNA of Mr Rushton's family immediately after his body was recovered. They later said a forensic pathologist's advice that the body had probably been in the water for up to a year had clouded their judgment. The body was only linked to the Rushton case after a witness told police details of the murder.
Two men were later jailed over the murder.
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