Senior coroner Penelope Schofield ruled that Jane Adetoro, Christina Walters and Rebecca Walters took their own lives after they drowned off Brighton beach. The three sisters had arrived in Brighton together by taxi at 22:21 BST on 12 May and were last seen alive at 02:42 on 13 May.
Jane Adetoro and Rebecca Walters
Adetoro was 36, Christina Walters was 32 and Rebecca Walters was 31. Joseph Jacobsen, their father, had a statement read out at the inquest saying, "There are no words that can adequately express the pain of losing a child." He also said, "To lose all three of my precious daughters is a heartbreaking," and described them as having "with a special place in my heart".
The sisters had all been living together in Greenford, London. On 11 May, they visited an area of Birmingham close to where their mother had drowned in 2010, then travelled to Brighton. The bodies of the three sisters were recovered off Brighton beach in the early hours of 13 May.
Penelope Schofield at the inquest
Schofield said, "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." She added, "It is not for the court to speculate and sadly these reasons may never be known." That finding closed the inquest on the deaths after the court considered the sequence from Birmingham to London and then to Brighton.
Police searched Christina's laptop and found 227 references to water and 179 references to suicide. Christina had been experiencing anxiety and depression since the death of her mother, Rebecca's medical records showed nothing of note and Jane was not registered with a doctor. The sisters entered the water off Brighton beach in adverse sea conditions and could not swim.
For people following the case, the legal conclusion is now set: the inquest has ruled the deaths as self-inflicted, and the unresolved part is the reason the sisters chose Brighton and the final hours before they entered the water. The emotional weight of the finding now sits with Jacobsen's loss of all three daughters, not with any further court step.
Brighton beach inquest
One related Brighton item examined the history of the area, while another looked at team news around Brighton in a different context; the sisters' case stands apart because the coroner's finding turns on the women, the timeline and the documented route they took before reaching the sea.
