A coroner has ruled that three sisters whose bodies were recovered from the sea off Brighton took their own lives. Emergency services were called to the scene at around 5.45am on May 13, before the bodies of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, from west London, were pulled from the water.
Events before the deaths
An inquest into their deaths heard the sisters had travelled by taxi to Birmingham the day before they went to the seaside city and were dropped off at the street where their mother, who died by drowning in 2010, lived. They arrived at Linton Walk, Birmingham, near to Brookvale Park Lake, at 11.36pm on May 11 and were picked up to return to the flat they lived in together in Greenford, west London, at 1.28am on May 12.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cullimore told the hearing at Woodvale Coroner’s Court in Brighton that there was no CCTV to see what the women had been doing in the time they were in Birmingham.
Recovery from the sea
On the evening of May 12, they took a pre-booked taxi to Brighton and arrived near the seafront at 10.21pm. They are thought to have last been seen alive on CCTV from the beach at 2.42am on May 13.
Ms Adetoro was brought to shore by an RNLI crew and declared dead at the scene on the morning of May 13, the inquest heard. Christina Walters was recovered from the sea by an RNLI lifeboat, and Rebecca Walters was washed on to the shore of Brighton beach. They were also pronounced dead that morning by paramedics.
Coroner's conclusion
Concluding the inquest into their deaths, senior coroner Penelope Schofield told the court on Thursday: “On May 13, in hours of darkness, they entered the sea at Brighton, they could not swim and sea conditions were adverse.” She concluded the medical cause of death for all three women was drowning and that they died by suicide.
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