Three sisters who drowned in the sea off Brighton, England in the United Kingdom, took their own lives, an inquest has ruled.
Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, who lived together in Greenford, London, died on May 13 after entering the water off Brighton beach.
The sisters had travelled to Birmingham on May 11 and visited an area close to where their mother drowned in 2010 before continuing their journey to Brighton.
Senior coroner Penelope Schofield told the inquest that the women encountered difficult sea conditions after entering the water and were unable to swim.
Their father, Joseph Jacobsen, who followed the proceedings through a video link alongside other relatives, described the loss of his daughters as devastating.
In an emotional statement read to the court, he said he had watched them grow from little girls into “beautiful, intelligent women” who held “a special place in my heart”.
He said, “There are no words that can adequately express the pain of losing a child.
“To lose all three of my precious daughters is a heartbreak beyond anything I could ever have imagined.”
Jacobsen said he could not understand why his daughters’ lives had ended so suddenly and hoped they had been reunited with their mother “in God’s eternal care”.
The coroner said the sisters had lived extremely private lives and that the circumstances surrounding their decision might never be fully understood.
“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,” Schofield told the court.
“It is not for the court to speculate and sadly these reasons may never be known.”
The inquest heard that the sisters left their London home and travelled together by taxi, arriving in Brighton at 22:21 BST on May 12. They were last seen alive at 02:42 the following morning.
Police searching Christina’s laptop found 227 references to water and 179 references to suicide.
The coroner said Christina had suffered from anxiety and depression since the death of her mother. Rebecca’s medical records contained “nothing of note”, while Jane was not registered with a doctor, Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cullimore told the hearing.
An earlier inquest into their mother’s death had concluded that she had drowned.
Postmortem toxicology tests on all three sisters were negative for drugs and alcohol, while investigators found no evidence that the women had been subjected to violence.
