The family of three sisters found dead in the sea at Brighton have spoken of their heartbreaking loss, revealing that the tragedy echoes the death of their mother 16 years ago. Ajike Johnson, the sisters' aunt, described seeing news reports last week that the bodies of three women had been recovered from the sea, unaware that they were her own nieces.
"I just remember thinking, what has happened here? God bless them, and their poor families," she told the Daily Mail.
On 13 May, emergency services were called to the beach after concerns were raised about a person spotted in the water near Madeira Drive at around 5.45am. The bodies of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walter, 32, and Rebecca Walter, 31, were later recovered from the sea.
The mother of the three women, Janice Adetoro, died in 2010 after she walked into a lake in Birmingham. Her body was not recovered for several months due to weather conditions, the Mail reported. Ms Johnson said her death "traumatised the girls" and they "never recovered".
Their father, Joseph, has struggled to eat or sleep since receiving the news. "They are his babies," Ms Johnson said. "He is a softie anyway. My brother is a teddy bear, but when it comes to his girls... He has been catatonic."
It remains unclear why the women, who are from the Uxbridge area of northwest London, were in Brighton or why they entered the water. The only connection the family can recall is a family holiday to the town.
Genevieve Barnaby-Adetoro, the sisters' stepmother, explained how the family learned of the tragedy. "The police phoned first," she said. "They asked Joseph if he had children, and when he said yes, they asked him their names. Then they came round to tell us in person. We'd been watching the news and had no idea it was our girls. We didn't even know they were in Brighton. Then we had to go and identify the girls, one by one."
Ms Barnaby-Adetoro told the Mail she was certain that her stepdaughters had not deliberately walked into the water as their mother had done. "It is 16 years since they lost their mother. Time diminishes pain. It is still there, but there is no way you kill yourself after 16 years because your mother died. It doesn't happen like that."
Police said an investigation is ongoing to understand how all three women came to be in the water, adding that there is no evidence to suggest third-party involvement or criminality. Officers have reviewed hundreds of hours of CCTV footage and conducted inquiries at properties and businesses around the beach area to trace the women's last movements.
Anyone who may have seen the three women around the Madeira Drive area between 10pm on Tuesday, 12 May, and 5.30am on Wednesday, 13 May is asked to contact police online or via 101, quoting Operation Ledmore, serial 438 of 20/05.
