Britt Lapthorne's mother tells of agonising wait for Dubrovnik news

THE mother of missing Melbourne backpacker Britt Lapthorne says she still has a glimmer of hope that the RMIT student is alive.

THE mother of missing Melbourne backpacker Britt Lapthorne has spoken of being in a living hell while waiting to hear if a body recovered in Dubrovnik was her 21-year-old daughter but says she still has a glimmer of hope that the RMIT student is alive.

An emotional Elka Lapthorne said this morning she almost couldn't believe what was happening to her family since her daughter went missing from a nightclub on September 18.

“Every day it's going worse and worse and I wonder what else we are going to hear,” she said, breaking down at her home in Melbourne's northern suburbs.

“Why hasn't Britt been found for heaven's sake?”

Mrs Lapthorne said it had been a nightmare since her husband Dale called her to say a body had been discovered not far from where her daughter went missing.

Croatian police believe the severely decomposed body is not the RMIT student but the family are providing DNA samples and Ms Lapthorne's dental records to authorities just in case.

The DNA test results are not expected for at least another two weeks.

Mrs Lapthorne also called on the Federal Government and the Australian Federal Police officer sent to Dubrovnik to help her family in the search to “have a heart” and show some more compassion.

In a very emotional press conference, she described how she felt when she first told the news that authorities in Croatia had found a body.

“I don't know whether it was relief. At the same time I didn't want to hear that news ... but the timing was too coincidental,” she said.

A distraught Mrs Lapthorne told how she “held hands with her sister” until she received a phone call a few hours later from her son that the body was most likely not to her daughter.

“I am beginning to feel drained,” she said. “I just couldn't function yesterday at all.”

But Mrs Lapthorne said she still had to remain strong for her daughter and her family.

“Every morning I wake up and still feel there is a glimmer of hope that Britt is alive and that is keeping us going,” she said.

“I've got to remain strong, this is for Britt, this is not about me or our family.”