Stepmum of tragic seaside sisters slams trolls and says ‘no means’ they took their very own lives

Family speaks out after trolls fill social media with twisted conspiracy theories following deaths of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31

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There is ‘no way’ the three sisters found dead off Brighton beach took their own lives due to their mum’s drowning 16 years ago, their stepmother has said.

Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, were found in the water close to the resort’s marina early morning on May 13.

The body of their mentally ill mum Janice, 43, was recovered from Brookvale Lake in Erdington, Birmingham, a month after she went missing from the family’s nearby home in 2010. The family do not know if the tragedies are linked.

But the siblings’ stepmum said Genevieve Barnaby-Adetoro dismissed the idea that the trio deliberately walked into the sea because of what happened to their mother.

“No, no, no. It is 16 years since they lost their mother,” she said.

“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.”

She said the sisters’ security guard dad Joseph, 68, has been ‘catatonic’ since learning of the tragedy.

“He won’t shut his eyes. He forgets to eat,” she said.

Genevieve and the girls’ aunt Ajike said they had decided to speak out after becoming upset at online comments and conspiracy theories.

The slurs started to emerge after police released a photo provided by the family that was generated by AI from an image taken when they were younger because they did not have a recent picture of them together.

Genevieve said: “I’ve read things that have made me cry. “People are heartless.

“Some are saying, ‘We MUST know. We must have answers’. “Hold on a minute. We are their family and we don’t have answers.”

She said the sisters – who did not use social media and were all single – were ‘fully clothed right down to the shoes’, adding: “Not in going out clothes, as was reported, just in ordinary daytime clothes.”

The only connection the family could recall to the south coast was a single holiday years ago.

Jane was an accountant and Christina had recently graduated from Brunel University.

They went to church, were all teetotal, dressed conservatively and ‘didn’t go out partying’, said Ajike, a former social worker.

She went on: “They were proud of being a bit different.

“They didn’t have other friends really, didn’t need them.

“It wasn’t a negative thing. They just had everything they needed in each other. And they were always together.”

Ajike said their mums’ death ‘traumatised the girls’ – then aged 15, 16 and 20 – and they ’never recovered’.

But they moved in with their dad and Genevieve afterwards and ‘they picked up the pieces’.

“Jane became the mother for the girls. She was the disciplinarian. They followed her,” said the aunt.

“Was it in character for them to just take off? No. They might go walking but not like this.

“I pray that they’ve been being mischievous and that one of them lost their footing and the others dived in to save them.

“Don’t think we aren’t asking the questions ourselves. ‘Girls, why were you in Brighton? Did you just decide to go?’ I’ve gone over and over it.”

Police have reviewed hundreds of hours of CCTV footage in a bid to trace the trio’s movements and have appealed for anyone who saw them between 10pm on May 12 and 5.30am on May 13 to come forward.

An inquest will open on May 29 at the West Sussex, Brighton and Hove coroner’s court.