Jane Adetoro, Christina Walters and Rebecca Walters are pictured with their father, Joseph.Credit : 

Sussex Police

The three women whose bodies were recovered from the ocean near the coastal city of Brighton, England, had previously lost their mother in a tragic drowning incident, according to reports.

On Wednesday, May 20, Sussex Police confirmed that the women had been formally identified as sisters Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walter, 32, and Rebecca Walter, 31, one week after their bodies were found at around 5:45 a.m. local time on Wednesday, May 13.

Emergency services had been called to the beach near Black Rock parking lot off Madeira Drive in Brighton on the day the bodies were recovered, police previously said.

The sisters’ father, Joseph, recently paid tribute to his daughters in a heartbreaking statement shared by Sussex Police.

More recently, the late siblings’ aunt Ajike Johnson — whom they called Auntie Jik — spoke to the Daily Mail, saying that Joseph had been “catatonic” since learning of his daughters’ deaths.

A photo of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walter, 32, and Rebecca Walter, 31, generated by the family, based on a photograph of the women when they were younger.Sussex Police

Johnson spoke to the outlet in a joint interview with the sisters’ stepmother, Genevieve Barnaby-Adetoro, mentioning that the women had tragically lost their mother in 2010 in a drowning incident.

The body of Janice Adetoro, 43, was recovered from Brookvale Lake in the suburb of Erdington in the U.K. city of Birmingham, around a month after she had vanished in January 2010, per The Times. Adetoro had been reported missing from the family’s nearby home, the outlet noted.

Johnson told the Daily Mail, ‘It [traumatized] the girls,” adding, “They never recovered.”

“They’d been living in the Midlands with their [mom], but then moved in with their dad and Genevieve in Uxbridge afterwards. They picked up the pieces,” she added to the outlet.

At the time, Adetoro had reportedly left the house without medication, money or any of her belongings, The Telegraph reported. Her brother previously said in a public plea before her body was found, “The girls are so upset and can’t stop thinking about you and for their sake we need you to make contact,” the outlet stated.

Janice Adetoro.BPM

Previous court records seen by The Sunday Times showed that Adetoro had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act on October 29, 2009, “following some bizarre [behavior] and a mental health assessment.”

Adetoro was allowed home the following day, before being discharged from the care of the home treatment team on Dec. 22, 2009, per the outlet. She went missing in freezing temperatures in the early hours of the morning of Jan. 5, 2010, before her body was found the following month, on Feb. 3 of that year.

Coroner Aidan Cotter previously said, “There was no evidence of any injury to her; she had died from drowning. There was no evidence that she had deliberately taken her own life. There were no suspicious circumstances,” according to The Times.

The coroner’s office for the Birmingham and Solihull area didn’t immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information.

Barnaby-Adetoro insisted she wouldn’t have thought that the sisters walked into the water deliberately, per the Daily Mail. Further details regarding the ongoing investigation are yet to be released by police.

A photo of Black Rock beach and Madeira Drive in Brighton, England.

Adetoro recently told The Times of her nieces’ deaths, “We are not speculating, but the girls were totally happy in the weeks and months before it happened and it was totally unexpected.”

She insisted the trio were “the closest sisters and best friends who did everything together,” telling the paper, “They were happy girls. They’d moved out of their dad’s house two years ago but would message at least twice a day.”

Adetoro added to the outlet, “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 said in Wednesday’s release that the investigation into the siblings’ deaths was ongoing, but confirmed that “at this time, there is no evidence to suggest third-party involvement or criminality.”

Authorities added that “specialist detectives are working hard to gather the full facts and circumstances of their deaths.”

The sisters’ father, Joseph, said in a statement shared by police when his daughters’ identities were confirmed on Wednesday, “Today, with a heart full of sorrow and love, I pay tribute to my beloved daughters — Jane, Christina, and Becky — whose lives ended so tragically far too soon.” He added that “no words can truly describe the pain of losing three daughters in the prime of their lives.”

Joseph continued, “Jane, Christina, and Becky were more than daughters to me; they were my joy, my strength, and the beautiful light that filled our family with happiness and love.”

“You were deeply loved, and you will always be deeply missed. The tragedy of losing all three of you has left an emptiness that words cannot heal. There are days when the grief feels unbearable, yet I hold tightly to the memories we shared — the laughter, the conversations, the love, and the bond that death can never take away.”

“Though you are no longer here beside us, your spirits live on in our hearts every day. Love like yours never dies. You will forever remain a part of our lives, our prayers, and our memories,” Joseph concluded. “Rest peacefully, my precious daughters — Jane, Christina, and Becky. You may be gone from our sight, but never from our hearts. Forever loved. Forever missed. Forever remembered.”