Debts paid off, bank accounts closed, then a poignant visit to the lake where their mother drowned: Inside the final 48 hours of three suicide-pact sisters who quietly settled their affairs and walked into the sea to die

DAILYMAIL.COM • 2h ago

By DAVID PILDITCH, REPORTER 00:04 13 Oct 2026, updated 00:10 13 Oct 2026

They overcame childhood tragedy to achieve academic and professional success, forging outwardly accomplished lives following the death of their mother.

Yet the ‘irreplaceable bond’ that this shared bereavement sparked between Jane Adetoro, Christina Walters and Rebecca Walters would lead to the sisters taking an almost unimaginable step.

When the bodies of Jane, 36, Christina, 32, and Rebecca, 31, were pulled from the sea at Brighton beach on May 13, there was fevered speculation as to how they had come to meet their fate.

First there were reports that the trio had been wearing party clothes when they entered the water, leading to the widespread assumption that this was some post-clubbing swim gone wrong.

But, it would turn out, the suggestion of party clothes was completely wrong: all three were devout church-goers and had been dressed accordingly, right down to the sensible shoes they were wearing even as they went in.

Not only did they not drink, let alone dabble in drugs, the trio rarely if ever went out. It was a stormy night with waves big enough to be daunting to all but the hardiest bathers. And none of them had ever been taught to swim.

Then details emerged of that tragedy which had so informed their young lives: their own mother had also died by drowning, in an ornamental lake in Birmingham in 2010.

At first this seemed just an eerie coincidence.

But last month the police confirmed they had concluded their investigation into the deaths and found no evidence of criminality or third party involvement – which perhaps suggested an autonomous act.

Finally this week an inquest hearing spelled out for certain what was starting to seem more and more likely: the trio had deliberately taken their own lives as part of a meticulously planned suicide pact.

In the wake of this horrifying conclusion, the Daily Mail has pieced together the most detailed account to date of the circumstances behind the harrowing case which has shocked the nation.

It was on the evening of Monday, May 11, that Jane, Christina and Becky, as Rebecca was known to family and friends, set off on their fateful mission from the home they shared in Greenford, west London.

This started out with a 115-mile pilgrimage to the picturesque park water feature in which their mother Janice had been found dead 16 years earlier, aged 43.

By the time they set off, unbeknown to anyone but themselves, the meticulous sisters had already put their affairs in order.

They had settled up all their debts and closed their bank accounts while their tower block flat, which they had bought as part of a shared ownership scheme two years earlier, had been ‘thoroughly cleaned’ and cleared of their possessions.

One neighbour, who saw them leave the flat for the last time that day, told how it was unusual to see all three sisters together.

The sisters were ‘incredibly private’ and lived ‘very secluded lives’, the inquest heard.

They were rarely seen out and about at all, with even their weekly groceries coming via supermarket deliveries to their flat once a week, usually on a Friday.

Despite this all three appeared to be thriving, at least professionally.

Jane had dropped out of a maths degree at Birmingham University but went on to qualify as an accountant and was working in a senior role.

Christina graduated from Brunel University of London in 2024 and followed in her older sister’s footsteps, also working as an accountant, while Rebecca became an HR administrator.

So a Monday would normally be the start of the working week for all three.

But on Monday, May 11, instead the sisters made the two-hour journey to the Birmingham suburb of Erdington, five miles north-east of the city centre.

In an uncharacteristically extravagant move, the normally financially prudent trio took an Uber there – costing an estimated £200.

They were dropped near the childhood home they had once shared with their mother in Linton Walk at 11.36pm.

It’s thought they visited their mother’s nearby grave before going on to Brookvale Lake, where Janice had been found dead on February 3, 2010.

The secretive sisters did not contact relatives living in Birmingham, who remained unaware of the morbid visit.

After spending less than two hours in the city, they were picked up near the lake by another taxi at 1.28am the following morning and driven back to London.

Later that evening, the three women caught a train to Brighton, arriving at 10.21pm, before taking yet another Uber, this time to the beachfront near the marina, some two miles from the city centre.

The driver later told police he had been struck by the lack of conversation between them.

After reviewing hundreds of hours of CCTV footage, Sussex Police built up a picture of the sisters’ movements after arriving on the south coast – and they were unusual to say the least.

On a forbiddingly wild and windy night, the sisters were seen periodically over a four-hour period pacing the road near the beachfront in the darkness.

Were they psyching themselves up – or sharing final memories? It seems their family will never find out.

At 2.42am the sisters were seen by camera for the final time – as they finally headed on to the beach and towards the raging sea.

It was just over three hours later, at 5.45am, that a cyclist reported seeing a body on the beach.

Jane was brought to shore by an RNLI crew and declared dead at the scene on the morning of Wednesday, May 13.

Christina’s body was recovered from the water by a lifeboat crew. Rebecca’s body, which appeared to have been washed ashore, was found later on Brighton beach.

When their identities were revealed, loved ones were left devastated – but knowing what would later emerge about their past, they may have already had suspicions about what had happened.

Their father Joseph, a former telecoms engineer, spoke of his ‘unbearable’ grief and alluded to ‘the bond that death can never take away’.

At their joint funeral the following month, their half-sister Lilly, 25, said: ‘We were four, and now I am one.’

As the Daily Mail reported on Friday, the girls’ stepmother, Genevieve Barnaby-Adetoro, and their aunt, Ajike Johnson, have been left wondering if they could have done more to prevent what happened.

The sisters – who didn’t use social media – were described by relatives as ‘the closest sisters and best friends who did everything together’.

In an apparent tribute to their late mother, the younger sisters had taken on her maiden name after being born Ms Adetoro, which had been their father’s original surname.

All three had been born in Luton and spent their early years living in the Bedfordshire town with their parents.

But in 2000 the couple split and the sisters moved to Birmingham with their mother, who had been brought up there.

Janice, a clerical worker in a post office, wanted to be closer to her own family. But soon she began to suffer stress-related mental health issues.

She complained to police of people trying to harm her and her children. She feared that someone was pumping gas into her house, putting oil on her bed linen, interfering with her stove and central heating and planting devices in her house.

She used so much bleach that the house reeked of it. She would wear rubber gloves when she went shopping.

She was prescribed anti-psychotic medication. But in the early hours of a freezing cold morning on January 5, 2010, Janice went missing.

It was nearly five weeks later, on February 3, that Janice’s fully clothed body was spotted in the lake by a police officer.

An inquest held later that year found Janice had died of drowning. An open verdict was recorded as the coroner said there was no evidence that Janice had deliberately taken her own life.

Natalie Walters-Daniel said of the lasting impact their mother’s death had on the sisters: ‘This wasn’t a story that started in May. It was a story that started long before.

‘I don’t believe that they ever did get over that. To lose their mum at the ages they were, it was the crucial stages of growing up and becoming young women.’

After their mother’s death, the sisters went on to live with their father in Uxbridge, west London, where their paternal grandmother also lived a few doors away.

But as time passed the sisters – who were not in relationships – visited their family less and less and rarely even saw their neighbouring grandmother.

Relatives believe their sense of isolation was compounded by the pandemic.

After moving together to nearby Greenford, neighbours say they rarely left their flat and like their mother before them, were said to have become obsessive about cleaning.

Rebecca was said to use tissues to press lift buttons and frequently use hand sanitiser.

The sisters’ inquest at Woodvale Coroner’s Court near Brighton heard Christina had suffered from anxiety and depression since her mother’s death.

Police found she had carried out intensive research on her computer about suicide, with 179 references, along with references to bodies and water on her laptop.

After her father contacted her GP to inform them she was struggling, a letter was sent to her but she did not make contact with the surgery or mental health services.

The sisters were also said to have been in daily contact with their father, but he, along with other family members, had no idea that they were in Brighton that day in May.

The family said the only connection they could recall to Brighton was a single family holiday many years ago.

The sisters left no note, nor any other form of explanation for their actions.

Mr Adetoro, 68, who attended the inquest via video link asked Coroner Penelope Schofield: ‘Have police got any proof that it was a suicide attempt?’

Ms Schofield replied: ‘All the police can do is provide the court with the evidence that they’ve found.’

Then, ruling that the three women ‘entered the sea at West Beach, Brighton to end their lives’, the coroner went on: ‘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.’

The sisters with their ‘irreplaceable bond’ seem to have taken their secrets with them when they entered the stormy sea.

– For confidential support, call Samaritans on 116 123, visit samaritans.org or see thecalmzone.net/get-support

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