Three sisters who drowned at Brighton Beach had visited the lake where their mother died just two days before the tragedy.

Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, were found dead in the early hours of May 13, 16 years after their mother also drowned. 

Exactly what happened to the sisters remains a mystery, but their cousin Natalie Walters-Daniel, 33, believes their visit to the lake where their mother died carried a ‘deeper meaning’.

She told the Sunday Times that the sisters, who were aged 20, 16 and 15 when their mother Janice Adetoro died, had never recovered from losing her.

Janice drowned near the family’s home in Birmingham in 2010. 

Ms Walters-Daniel said: ‘To lose their mum at the ages that they were, it was the crucial stages of growing up and becoming young women.

‘The years where a mother’s presence and guidance and reassurance and love should be, they didn’t receive that.

‘And for them to come to Birmingham, to take that moment that they did within the lake and also to see their mother, I think that there is definitely a connection there.’

Janice had been living with one of her daughters and was last seen by her before she disappeared, prompting her desperate family to appeal for help.

The sisters with their father, Joseph. He has been ‘catatonic’ since hearing what happened to his daughters

In 2010, their mother Janice Adetoro, who had split from their father and had mental health issues, walked into a park lake

She suffered from stress-related mental health issues but did not have any medication with her when she vanished. 

Her brother Lincoln said at the time: ‘The girls are so upset and can’t stop thinking about you and for their sake we need you to make contact.’ 

Janice disappeared in January 2010 before her body was discovered in Early February. 

An inquest heard that earlier that year she had turned up at a police station with ‘paranoid delusions’.

Her daughters later moved back to London, where neighbours described them as intensely private and unsociable, with their food shopping delivered once a week. 

Jane worked as a senior accountant, Christina was a junior accountant and Rebecca was an HR administrator.

Sussex Police have since concluded their investigation into the sisters’ deaths and said they found no evidence of crime or third-party involvement.

Ms Walters-Daniel said: ‘We are not going to get the full answers to this.’

She added that an inquest next month could shed some light on the tragedy.

Their father Joseph previously spoke of his devastation at losing all three of his daughters, saying ‘no words can truly describe the pain’ in a heartbreaking tribute reported by the BBC.

‘You were more than my daughters: you were my joy, my strength and the beautiful light that filled my life with love,’ he wrote in the order of service.

‘There are moments when it feels unbearable, but I hold tightly to the memories we shared, the love we knew and the bond that nothing can ever take away.

Flowers and messages left at the scene in Brighton

‘Jane, I will never forget your strength. Tina, your kindness touched so many lives. Becky, your warmth and joyful spirit brought happiness wherever you went.’

Joseph’s wife Genevieve Barnaby described the sisters as ‘the most beautiful girls [who] didn’t give us no trouble’.

Paying tribute to her stepchildren, she wrote: ‘Our hearts are broken. The pain is indescribable.’

Their cousin told mourners at the funeral that their ‘lives will never be forgotten’ and their ‘memory will live on forever’.

A GoFundMe page launched by their uncle has since raised more than £45,000 towards funeral costs.

The page reads: ‘No parent should ever have to bury their child, let alone all three.

‘While trying to process this unimaginable tragedy, my brother is now also faced with the heartbreaking task of arranging three funerals.

‘As a family, we simply want to give the girls the loving and dignified farewell they deserve.

‘We are humbly asking for any support you may be able to offer towards the funeral expenses.

‘Any contribution, no matter how small, will help ease the burden on the family during this incredibly difficult time.’