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A United Kingdom coroner has ruled that three British-Nigerian sisters who drowned off Brighton beach on 13 May took their own lives.
Penelope Schofield, senior coroner for West Sussex, Brighton and Hove, made the ruling at an inquest into the deaths of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31.
According to the BBC, Schofield told the inquest that the sisters encountered adverse sea conditions after entering the water and were unable to swim.
The sisters lived together in Greenford, London, before travelling to Brighton. On 11 May, they visited an area in Birmingham near the location where their mother drowned in 2010.
They left their London residence by taxi and arrived in Brighton at 10:21pm British Summer Time on 12 May. They were last seen alive at 2:42am on 13 May.
Credit: Vanguard
Their father, Joseph Jacobsen, followed Thursday’s inquest proceedings remotely via video link at Woodvale Coroner’s Court in Brighton.
In an emotional statement read on his behalf, Jacobsen recalled watching his daughters grow from little girls into intelligent young women.
“There are no words that can adequately express the pain of losing a child. To lose all three of my precious daughters is heartbreaking,” he said.
During the hearing, Schofield said the sisters had lived secluded and private lives, adding that the reasons behind their actions remained unknown.
“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,” the coroner said.
In a GoFundMe appeal launched for the sisters in June, their uncle, Adesoji Adetoro, also expressed the family’s grief over their deaths.
“The girls had so much life ahead of them, and their loss has left a pain and emptiness in our hearts that words cannot describe,” he said.
