An inquest has found that three sisters who drowned off the coast of Brighton took their own lives as part of a suicide pact after visiting the site where their mother died by suicide 16 years earlier.
Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, were recovered from the sea at Brighton beach on May 13.
Police and coastguard teams were called at around 5.45am after reports that a woman was in difficulty in the water.
When emergency services arrived, they found the bodies of all three sisters. Each was pronounced dead at the scene.
The inquest at Woodvale Coroner’s Court heard that, less than 48 hours before their deaths, the sisters had travelled from their shared home in Uxbridge, London, to Erdington, Birmingham, on May 11.
In Birmingham, they visited their mother’s former home before travelling to the lake where she took her own life in 2010. They are also believed to have visited their mother’s grave.
After spending about 90 minutes in Birmingham, the sisters took a taxi back to London in the early hours of May 12 before continuing to Brighton that evening.
They reached Brighton at 10.21pm and were captured on CCTV near a road beside the beach.
Father Joseph Jacobson, second from left, pictured with his daughters, from left, Jane Adetoro, Christina Walters and Rebecca Walters, in an earlier photograph
Emergency services at Brighton beach on May 13 after the deaths of the three sisters
CCTV showed them walking along the road for more than an hour before recording figures, believed to be the same three women, heading onto the beach at 2.42am.
About three hours later, police received reports that a woman was in difficulty in the water.
The inquest heard that none of the sisters could swim.
An RNLI crew brought Ms Adetoro ashore, where she was pronounced dead on the morning of May 13.
Christina Walters was recovered from the sea by an RNLI lifeboat, while Rebecca Walters was washed onto Brighton beach. Paramedics pronounced both women dead that morning.
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Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cullimore told Senior Coroner Penelope Schofield: “On Wednesday, May 13, two calls were received reporting that bodies could be seen in the sea in Brighton.
“One body appeared lifeless and had been washed onto the shore. It was windy and the sea was particularly rough.”
Coroner Schofield told the court that she had concluded the three women “entered the sea at West Beach, Brighton, to end their lives.”
The sisters’ father, Joseph Jacobson, told the inquest: “There are no words that can adequately express the loss of a child. It is a heartbreak beyond anything I could imagine.
“Each had their own special place in my heart. They shared a special bond as sisters.”
The women died 16 years after their mother Janice, who died from drowning after going missing in December 2009.
She was last seen by one of her daughters and had been struggling with stress-related mental health issues. She turned up at a police station in October 2009 suffering from ‘paranoid delusions’, relatives said.
She was found dead three months after she was reported missing.
After their mother’s death, the sisters moved back to London together, having previously moved to Birmingham with her after her split from their father.
Neighbours described them as very private and said they had shopping delivered to their home every week.
Adetoro worked as an accountant and was described as taking on the ‘mother’ role to her two sisters.
Meanwhile Christina, who along with her sister Rebecca had changed her surname to Walters, her mother’s maiden name, had recently graduated from Brunel University.
The sisters’ cousin, Natalie Walters-Daniel, previously said the women had never got over the death of their mother.
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