Three sisters whose bodies were found in the sea off Brighton died by suicide, a coroner has concluded.
Emergency crews were alerted to the scene at approximately 5.45am on May 13, before the bodies of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, from west London, were retrieved from the water.
Events before the tragedy
An inquest into their deaths was told the siblings had travelled by taxi to Birmingham the previous day before heading to the coastal city and were dropped off at the road where their mother, who died by drowning in 2010, had lived.
They reached Linton Walk, Birmingham, close to Brookvale Park Lake, at 11.36pm on May 11 and were collected to return to the flat they shared in Greenford, west London, at 1.28am on May 12.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cullimore informed the hearing at Woodvale Coroner's Court in Brighton that no CCTV footage was available to determine what the women had been doing during their time in Birmingham.
Final hours and recovery
On the evening of May 12, they took a pre-arranged taxi to Brighton and reached the seafront area at 10.21pm. They are believed to have last been captured alive on beach CCTV at 2.42am on May 13.
Ms Adetoro was brought ashore by an RNLI crew and pronounced dead at the scene on the morning of May 13, the inquest was told. Christina Walters was retrieved from the sea by an RNLI lifeboat, and Rebecca Walters was washed ashore at Brighton beach. Both were also declared dead that morning by paramedics.
At Thursday's inquest into their deaths, senior coroner Penelope Schofield informed the court: "On May 13, in hours of darkness, they entered the sea at Brighton, they could not swim and sea conditions were adverse."
Coroner's conclusion
Post-mortem examinations revealed all three women had drowned, with no traces of drugs or alcohol detected in their systems, and no indication they had been subjected to violence.
The coroner determined that the three siblings deliberately took their own lives.
"These three sisters lived very secluded lives, they were incredibly private, we don't know why they took this course of action or indeed why they chose to do it in Brighton," Ms Schofield told the court. "It is not for the court to speculate and sadly these reasons may never be known."
The hearing was told Christina Walters had experienced anxiety and depression following her mother's passing, while Ms Adetoro wasn't registered with a GP, and Rebecca Walters' medical records contained nothing remarkable, Mr Cullimore said.
In a written statement, their father Joseph Jacobson, who participated via videolink, paid tribute to his daughters: "There are no words that can adequately express the pain of losing a child. To lose all three of my precious daughters, Jane, Christina and Rebecca, is a heartbreak beyond anything I could ever have imagined."
He said he "cannot understand why their lives ended so suddenly", but added: "You were my daughters, you will always be my daughters and I will love you for the rest of my life. May your beautiful souls rest in perfect peace."
