The family of three sisters who were found dead in the sea off Brighton have urged people to stop sharing conspiracy theories online about what could have happened to them.
The bodies of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31 were recovered from the sea on 13 May after concerns were raised about a person spotted in the water.
Sussex Police identified the three sisters on Wednesday as their father issued a tribute to his daughters “whose lives ended so tragically far too soon”.
Speculation online around the deaths of the three sisters has increased since their identities became known. The sisters’ aunt Ajike Adetoro has told The Times that the conspiracies were doing the family “more harm than good.”
“That’s the sad thing in all of this. There is no compassion shown towards the three girls and their memory of how we know they would like to be remembered,” she said.
“[Social media] is throwing almost shade on everything they’ve stood for because they prided themselves on being the exception to the rule in not being wild … because that’s the way their mum would have wanted them to have turned out.”
Their mother had drowned in Birmingham in 2010, according to The Times.
“It’s sad. [The conspiracies] are doing the family more harm than good.”
Online theories intensified around how they died after relatives used artificial intelligence to create an image of the sisters from old photos because they did not have a recent photo of them together, the newspaper reported.
“We just wanted AI to put it together and make it look good, all three of them together,” Ms Adetoro told the paper. “I’ve just had to stop looking.”
A photo of the three sisters together as adults was originally released by Sussex Police as part of a tribute from their father. It’s since been removed. A photo subsequently released by the police showed the women as children with their father.
Ms Adetoro added: “The most disturbing part for us is the conspiracies. We’ve heard people jump to conclusions that it was a racist attack, a murder, that they were clubbing … the most absurd messages. It is all wrong.”
An investigation is ongoing to understand how all three women came to be in the water, police said, adding that there was no evidence to suggest third-party involvement or criminality.
Police have reviewed hundreds of hours of CCTV footage and conducted inquiries at properties and businesses around the beach area to trace the women’s last movements.
“We are not speculating, but the girls were totally happy in the weeks and months before it happened and it was totally unexpected.”
Ms Adetoro the newspaper that the women were “the closest sisters and best friends who did everything together,” adding: “They were happy girls. They’d moved out of their dad’s house two years ago but would message at least twice a day.”
The family said they were still trying to understand why the sisters had travelled to Brighton that morning.
“We’ve got to speak out in order to clarify this whole situation,” Ms Adetoro added. “These girls would not drink alcohol or smoke. They never went clubbing. They didn’t even have social media. They were their father’s world. He has to sort the funeral for three of them.”
Police asked anyone who may have seen the three women around the Madeira Drive area between 10pm on Tuesday, 12 May, and 5.30am on Wednesday, 13 May to contact them online or via 101, quoting Operation Ledmore, serial 438 of 20/05.
The Independent has contacted Sussex Police for comment.
