Sisters pulled from sea off Brighton visited site of mum's death in Birmingham before taking lives - inquest

Three sisters whose bodies were recovered from the sea off Brighton took their own lives, a coroner has ruled.

The bodies of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, from west London, were pulled from the water in the morning of May 13.

Senior coroner Penelope Schofield ruled their deaths were suicide, but said the reason they took their lives “sadly may never be known”.

Just two nights prior, the sisters, who had lived “very secluded lives”, had travelled to Birmingham, near to where their mother had drowned more than 16 years earlier.

Paying tribute to his daughters, Joseph Jacobson, who attended the Brighton inquest by videolink, 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 “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.”

The inquest on Thursday 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 Janice, who died by drowning in 2010, lived.

They arrived at Linton Walk 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 there was no CCTV to see what the women had been doing in the time they were in Birmingham.

Giving evidence, he told the court financial inquiries revealed the women had cleared some of their bank accounts in the days leading up to their deaths.

Ms Adetoro, who worked in accountancy, had paid off a loan in full on May 11, the inquest was told.

Police searches of Christina Walters’s electronic devices found she had made “extensive searches” about suicide online in the month before her death.

The inquest heard she suffered from anxiety and depression since her mother’s death.

Ms Adetoro was not registered with a doctor, and Rebecca Walters’s records had nothing of note.

Their father Mr Jacobson asked the coroner: “Have police got any proof that it was a suicide attempt, because based on the laptop, she could have been researching that, but that doesn’t give police the final answer that it was a suicide attempt?”

Ms Schofield replied: “All the police can do is provide the court with the evidence that they’ve found.”

Mr Cullimore said he had “remained open minded throughout and always considered whether there was third party involvement” but he was now satisfied there had not been.

On the evening of May 12, the sisters took a pre-booked taxi to Brighton, a place they had no connection to, and arrived near the seafront at 10.21pm.

The inquest heard the Uber driver had noted the lack of conversation during their journey.

The three appeared to pace the seafront in the darkness, with CCTV sightings of them at different points along Brighton’s east beach.

They are thought to have last been seen alive on CCTV at 2.42am on May 13.

A cyclist reported seeing a body on the beach and emergency services attended the scene at around 5.45am.

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, who worked in accountancy, was recovered from the sea by an RNLI lifeboat, and Rebecca Walters, who worked in HR, was washed on to the shore of Brighton beach. They were also pronounced dead that morning by paramedics.

Concluding the inquest into their deaths, Ms Schofield told the court: “On May 13, in hours of darkness, they entered the sea at Brighton, they could not swim and sea conditions were adverse.”

A post-mortem examination found all three women had drowned and cited no evidence of any drugs or alcohol in their bodies, and no evidence to suggest they had been subject to violence.

The coroner concluded the sisters, who were all single, intended to end their 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.”

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