Why are so many Black missing people in the UK found in water?
"The inhabitants of diaspora are marooned, tenantless, deserted, desolation castaway, abandoned in the world. We are black peoples in the wake. With no state or nation to protect us. With no citizenship bound to be protected. How can the legally dead be declared murdered?" Christina Sharpe
3 Black bodies were found in the ocean again.
Jane Adetoro, 36
Christina Walters, 32
and Rebecca Walters, 31
Sisters this time...
No evidence of criminality. No third-party involvement. Non-suspicious. Unexplained. Accidental.
We have heard this before...
Each time, a family is left to grieve without answers. Each time, our communities are left asking the same question...
How could this happen again?
Black existence in the West begins with bodies in water. We were introduced into modernity as people already marked for death. The ocean floor is littered with African bodies and every contemporary death echoes older drownings.
When Black bodies are found in rivers, canals, seas, or lakes today, it can unconsciously reactivate this historical memory. The trauma is not only about death itself, it’s about seeing echoes across centuries. Enslaved Africans thrown into the Atlantic, Black migrants drowning at sea...
Contemporary deaths begin to feel connected to older violences that were never fully mourned.
The issue is not that every Black death conceals a conspiracy. The issue is that Black death is so often treated as unsurprising, as expected.
That institutional language, “no suspicious circumstances,” “body recovered,” “tragic incident” feels emotionally detached from the scale of historical grief surrounding Black death and water.
Water holds a specific terror because it symbolises both disappearance and abandonment. Water swallows evidence. Water softens bruises. Water changes timelines. Water carries bodies away from the places where violence happened and returns them transformed, anonymous, difficult to read. And historically, Black people have too often entered water without protection and emerged only as the dead. So when our communities encounter these stories today, the grief is not singular.
It is ancestral
Jane Adetoro Joseph 36yrs old / Christina Walters 32yrs old / Rebecca Walters 31yrs old
The bodies of the 3 sisters were recovered from the sea off Brighton beach on 13th May after concerns were raised about a person spotted in the water. Sussex Police said an investigation into how the three came to be in the water was ongoing.
They added: "There is no evidence to suggest third-party involvement or criminality, but specialist detectives are working hard to gather the full facts and circumstances of their deaths."
Edna Mmbali Ombakho 31yrs old
Edna went missing from Wraysbury, Berkshire, on February 1, 2026. Thames Valley Police discovered her body in a local river on March 8, 2026. “The authorities are preparing a file for the coroner to officially determine the cause and circumstances surrounding the death.” -Thames Valley Police Windsor and Maidenhead
Kaliyah Coa 11yrs
Kaliyah was reported missing on 31 March 2025 after playing near Barge House Causeway in North Woolwich on a school inset day. Her body was recovered on 13 April. An inquest into Kaliyah's death was opened as coroner Mr Irvine explained her cause of death was "unnatural". Preliminary post-mortem investigations suggested that Kaliyah had not died from drowning, the inquest heard.
Daniel Alaby 5yrs old
Daniel was found in the River Thames at 6:23 p.m. on Friday 29th March 2024 after he had gone missing from his home in Thamesmead, south-east London. He was last seen playing with his brother just an hour before at their home at 5:30 p.m. There is no evidence to suggest any other person was involved, police said.
Xielo Maruziva 2yrs old
Xielo died after falling into the River Soar in Leicester in February 2024. His body was found at the nature reserve almost four months later. A safety inspector concluded that his death could have been prevented if signage warning of the risk of flooding, or a fence where Xielo went into the river, had been in place.
Samaria Ayanle 19rs old
Samaria was a student at SOAS who was last seen on 22 February 2024. She was not reported missing until university staff alerted police on 8th March. Her body was found near Putney pier on the 13th March. “Her death is being treated as unexplained, pending further enquiries.” -Met police
Kayon Williams 24yrs old
Kayon from east London went missing on 2 July 2022 while on a night out with friends in central London. Her body was found in the River Thames between Waterloo and Blackfriars Bridge 3 days later. “The death is not being treated as suspicious.” -Westminster Police I Central West BCU
Richard Okorogheye 19yrs old
Richard’s body was found in a pond in Epping Foresttwo weeks after he went missing from his home in west London on 22 March 2021.The police watchdog found officers provided "an unacceptable level of service" after he went missing.
Taiwo Balogun 53yrs old
Taiwo was found in a lake near Bluewater Shopping Centre in Dartford Friday 30th December 2020. "Her death is being treated as unexpected but not suspicious. -Bexley department of the Metropolitan Police
Blessing Olusegun 21yrs old
Blessing was a business student from South London whose body was discovered on a beach in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, on September 18, 2020.Sussex Police released a statement saying there was “no evidence of third party involvement and no evidence of crime” but they were “keeping an open mind”.
Noah Donohoe 14yrs old
Noah went missing while cycling in north Belfast on 21st June 2020. His naked body was found six days later in an underground water tunnel. The inquest into his death at Belfast Coroner’s Court is still ongoing.