Three sisters who drowned in the sea in Brighton collectively decided to end their own lives, a coroner has ruled. The bodies of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, all from London, were recovered from the sea off Brighton in the early hours of 13 May.
Visit to mother's former home
An inquest into their deaths heard on Thursday that in the days before they died, the three women made a trip together to Birmingham to visit the former home of their mother, who died by drowning in 2010. The inquest at Woodvale coroner's court in Brighton heard that the sisters travelled by taxi to Birmingham on 11 May and were dropped off at 11.36pm at Linton Walk. The address is close to Brookvale Park Lake, where their mother, Janice Adetoro, died. They were picked up to return to the flat they lived in together in Greenford, west London, at 1.28am on 12 May.
DCI Mark Cullimore, of Sussex police, told the hearing there was no CCTV to show what the women did in the time they were in Birmingham. On the evening of 12 May, 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 13 May.
Coroner's conclusion
The bodies of Jane Adetoro and Christina Walters were located by a RNLI lifeboat crew; Rebecca Walters' body was recovered from the shoreline on Brighton beach. The senior coroner Penelope Schofield told the court on Thursday: "In hours of darkness, they entered the sea at Brighton, they could not swim and sea conditions were adverse."
A postmortem found all three women had drowned. There was no evidence of any drugs or alcohol in their bodies and no evidence to suggest they had been subjected to violence. The coroner concluded that the medical cause of death for all three women was drowning and that they had died by suicide.
Schofield told the court: "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. It is not for the court to speculate and sadly these reasons may never be known."
Family response
The inquest heard that Christina Walters had suffered from anxiety and depression since her mother's death, but no such issues were recorded for her sister Rebecca. Adetoro was not registered with a doctor. The women's father, Joseph Jacobson, who attended the hearing by video link, said in a written statement: "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 could not understand why their lives had ended so suddenly, adding: "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." In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.
