Family of sisters who drowned in Brighton ‘don’t have answers’ about why they were there

The family of three sisters who drowned in the sea off Brighton beach have said they ‘don’t have the answers’ about what they were doing there or how they entered the water.

The ‘inseparable’ siblings – Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32 and Rebecca Walters, 31, all from the Uxbridge area of London – died 70 miles from home early on the morning of May 13.

Their father Joseph paid tribute to his three daughters, saying: ‘No words can truly describe the pain of losing three daughters in the prime of their lives.’

It was revealed this week that their mother, Janice Adetoro, also drowned in a heartbreakingly similar tragedy in 2010.

Janice, who had split with their father and suffered with mental health issues, walked into a park lake close to her home at the time in the West Midlands.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, their aunt Ajike Johnson said the tragedy ‘traumatised the girls’, adding: ‘They never recovered.’

Both the family and the police will be examining whether the sisters could have walked into the water as their mother had done – but stepmum Genevieve Barnaby-Adetoro dismisses the possibility.

Ajike – or Aunt Jik as her nieces called her – hopes it was a terrible accident.

‘I pray that they’ve been being mischievous, and that one of them lost their footing and the others dived in to save them,’ she said.

Genevieve told the paper the family has been retraumatised by abusive comments left by conspiracy theorists drawing their own conclusions on social media.

She said: ‘People are heartless. Some are saying, “We MUST know. We must have answers”. Hold on a minute. We are their family, and we don’t have answers.’

Holding back tears, Ajike added: ‘Don’t think we aren’t asking the questions ourselves. “Girls, why were you in Brighton? Did you just decide to go?”

‘I’ve gone over and over it.’

She said the girls ‘loved David Attenborough’ and could have decided to ‘go for a paddle’ after attending an event in Brighton for the natural historian’s 100th birthday the night before.

‘Did one fall in and the others go to help? Because they would have done – where one of them went, you always found the other two,’ she said.

Genevieve said ‘there is no comfort’ in the thought the girls died together, just how they had lived.

‘No,’ she said, adding: ‘They didn’t come into this world together. Why would they leave it together?’

A GoFundMe appeal to give the sisters ‘the loving and dignified farewell they deserve’ has attaracted nearly £40,000 in donations in its first 24 hours.

Fundraiser organizer Adesoji Adetoro wrote that it was set up on behalf of his brother Joseph and the family, adding that they are struggling to come to terms with what has happened.

‘No parent should ever have to bury their child, let alone all three,’ he said.

‘While trying to process this unimaginable tragedy, my brother is now also faced with the heartbreaking task of arranging three funerals.

‘As a family, we simply want to give the girls the loving and dignified farewell they deserve.’

Sussex Police have said there is no evidence to suggest criminality or that anyone else was involved, but specialist detectives are working to gather the full facts and circumstances around their deaths.

Hundreds of hours of CCTV footage have been reviewed and inquiries made to businesses and properties around the beach area to try to track the women’s last movements, the force said.

Anyone with information is asked to come forward, particularly anyone who saw the sisters around the Madeira Drive area between 10pm on May 12 and 5.30am May 13.

Chief Superintendent Adam Hays has said the force ‘will leave no stone unturned’ in the investigation to understand what led to the ‘tragic events of that Wednesday morning’.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@usnewsrank.com.

For more stories like this, check our news page.