Three British-Nigerian sisters who drowned off Brighton beach in the United Kingdom have been ruled to have died by suicide, 16 years after their mother also died by drowning.

The sisters, Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, died on May 13, 2026, after entering the sea in the early hours of the morning.

According to the BBC, senior coroner Penelope Schofield delivered the ruling during an inquest at Woodvale Coroner’s Court in Brighton on Thursday, October 8.

The court heard that the sisters entered the sea despite adverse conditions and were unable to swim.

Schofield said the women had lived very private lives, making it difficult to establish why they travelled to Brighton and entered the water.

“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. It is not for the court to speculate and sadly these reasons may never be known,” she said.

Sisters Visited Area Where Mother Died

The inquest heard that the sisters, who lived together in Greenford, west London, travelled to Birmingham on May 11, two days before their deaths.

They visited an area close to where their mother, Janice Adetoro, died by drowning in 2010.

The sisters later returned to London before travelling together by taxi to Brighton on the evening of May 12. They arrived at 10:21 p.m. local time and were last seen alive on CCTV at 2:42 a.m. on May 13.

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Emergency services were called later that morning after the women were found in the sea near Brighton’s coastline.

The coroner confirmed drowning as the medical cause of death for all three sisters.

The inquest did not establish why they chose to end their lives or why they travelled to Brighton.

Father Expresses Heartbreak Over Loss

Their father, Joseph Jacobsen, expressed profound grief over the deaths of his three daughters in a statement read during the inquest.

“There are no words that can adequately express the pain of losing a child. To lose all three of my precious daughters is heartbreaking,” he said.

Jacobsen, who followed the proceedings through a video link, described watching his daughters grow into intelligent women and expressed the family’s devastation over their loss.

Their uncle, Adesoji Adetoro, had also expressed the family’s grief in a fundraising appeal launched in June.

“The girls had so much life ahead of them, and their loss has left a pain and emptiness in our hearts that words cannot describe,” he said.

The inquest brought renewed attention to the family’s history of loss, although the coroner cautioned against speculation about the reasons behind the sisters’ deaths.

The sisters’ mother died by drowning in 2010, but the court did not establish that her death directly caused their subsequent actions.