The family of three sisters who were found dead in the sea off Brighton earlier this month have spoken out about the tragedy, describing how it painfully echoes the loss of their mother 16 years ago.
The bodies of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, were pulled from the water off Brighton beach last Wednesday.
Their aunt Ajike Johnson recalled seeing the news reports last week, completely unaware the victims were her own nieces.
“I just remember thinking, what has happened here? God bless them, and their poor families,” she told The Daily Mail.
Emergency services were called to the beach near Black Rock car park off Madeira Drive at around 5.45am following reports of someone struggling in the water.
Sadly, the coastguard and police recovered the bodies of three women shortly after.
While family members said they had not known the sisters, who lived in Uxbridge, were travelling to Brighton that morning, they theorised they may have been marking the memory of their mother, who also died by drowning.
Janice Adetoro died in 2010 after walking into a lake in Birmingham.
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.”
Sussex Police said their investigation into how the three sisters came to be in the water is ongoing.
“At this time, there is no evidence to suggest third-party involvement or criminality, but specialist detectives are working hard to gather the full facts and circumstances of their deaths,” a spokesperson said.
