Police believe they have identified three women whose bodies were recovered from the sea off Brighton beach after emergency services were called at about 5.45am on Wednesday. Next of kin were informed later that day, as officers and coastguard teams worked along the seafront near Madeira Drive.
Three bodies were recovered from the water during the morning response, when police and coastguard officials were stationed along the shingle beach and a lifeboat was visible at sea while a helicopter flew overhead. Sussex police said there is no evidence to suggest criminality or that anyone else was involved.
The force said its investigation is still open and includes a number of hypotheses. One line of inquiry is that the women may have entered the water from the beach near where they were found and got into difficulty. Adam Hays called it an “utterly heartbreaking tragedy” and said his thoughts were with the loved ones of the three young women. He said they would remain at the forefront of investigators’ minds as they searched for answers their families and the wider public desperately seek.
Brighton and Hove city council leader Bella Sankey said city bosses were reviewing safety measures after what she described as devastation on the seafront. She said the loss of three young women off the coast of the city was harrowing and deeply distressing, and that while the seafront is always made as safe as possible, tragedies like this are a stark reminder of the challenges involved.
The beach reopened later in the evening on Wednesday, but the inquiry into how the women came to be in the water is continuing. Police have asked anyone with further information to contact them online or on 101, quoting Operation Ledmor. For now, the central unanswered question is not whether the public will hear more, but when investigators will be able to say exactly how three women ended up in the sea off Brighton.
