Three sisters who drowned in the UK never got over the death of their mother 16 years ago.

Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walter, 32, and Rebecca Walter, 31, from London, drowned after walking into the sea from a beach in Brighton, England, on May 13.

The three women died after leaving a party around 10 p.m. on May 12. Their bodies were pulled from the water at 5:30 a.m. the next morning when a witness called police to report people struggling in the water near their pier. The women were fully clothed.

Ajike Adetoro Johnson, the sisters’ aunt, said their mother, Janice Adetoro, 43, walked into a lake near her home in Birmingham and drowned in 2010. Her body was not recovered for several months because of the weather conditions at the time. Janice Adetoro suffered from mental health issues.

Johnson said Adetoro’s death “traumatized” her three daughters and they “never recovered.” She said their father, Joseph, can’t eat or sleep since his daughters died.

Joseph wrote a tribute to his daughters:

“Each of you was unique and precious in your own special way. Your smiles brightened dark days, your laughter brought comfort, and your presence made life more meaningful. Though your time on earth was short, the impact you made will remain in our hearts forever.

“Jane, your strength and loving spirit will never be forgotten. Christina, your kindness and beautiful heart touched so many lives. Becky, your warmth and joyful soul brought happiness wherever you went. You were deeply loved, and you will always be deeply missed.”

“They are his babies,” Johnson said. “He is a softie anyway. My brother is a teddy bear, but when it comes to his girls… He has been catatonic.”

Johnson said she read about the bodies recovered from the sea and she prayed for their families. She didn’t realize they were her nieces.

“I just remember thinking, what has happened here? God bless them, and their poor families,” she told the Daily Mail.

Genevieve Barnaby-Adetoro, the girls’ stepmother, explained how the family heard about the tragedy.

“The police phoned first,” she said. “They asked Joseph if he had children, and when he said yes, they asked him their names. Then they came round to tell us in person. We’d been watching the news and had no idea it was our girls. We didn’t even know they were in Brighton. Then we had to go and identify the girls, one by one.”

Barnaby-Adetoro doesn’t believe her stepdaughters intentionally took their own lives.

“It is 16 years since they lost their mother. 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.”

Adetoro is upset by the rumors surrounding their deaths, including that they were club-hopping shortly before they died.

“It is all wrong. 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,” she said.

Adetoro also cleared up a rumor that a family handout photo released by authorities is AI-generated. She said the family didn’t have a recent photo of the three sisters together.

“We just wanted AI to put it together and make it look good, all three of them together.”

Police initially believed the three sisters willingly walked into the sea together and drowned. But a new theory emerged that one sister walked into the water and her 2 siblings waded in to save her.

An investigation is ongoing to determine how all three women ended up in the water. Police said there is no evidence of foul play or criminality.