Esther Abe lets out a heartbreaking sob as she stares at the words "I love you" on her phone.
This simple message, sent at 1:24 am on September 18, 2020, was sent to her daughter Blessing Olusegunwho worked as a caregiver in the Sussex town of Bexhill. was the last one she received from.
Only five hours later, a 21-year-old boy was found dead on the beach by local dog walkers. This mystery remains unsolved to this day.
South Her Blessing, a business student from London, could not swim and would never have willingly entered the water. A friend of hers said she was out of character walking to the beach in the middle of the night.
However, police quickly denied her wrongdoing,blaming her suicide or accidental death, and an autopsy determined she had drowned. I was.
MTV's new documentary Body on the Beach: What Happened to Blessing. ', her family and friends allege that Sussex police prematurely concluded about her death and failed to conduct a proper investigation - which they strongly deny.
In a documentary airing tonight, filmmaker Linda Aidy examines the theory that broken nails and missing wigs could indicate struggle, and friends say that racial Revealed how their campaign Justice4Blessing spread amid allegations of discrimination and unconscious bias.
A heartbroken Esther, who has been fighting for answers for two years, tells Linda that she is grief-stricken and exhausted.
"Thinking about that night makes every day difficult," she says.
"I think it's still difficult to handle, but I don't have the strength to fight anymore, so I have no choice but to accept it.
"I miss her every day. I think about her every day.
Blessing is an ambitious businesswoman who cries every day that she is no longer with us because she was the one who kept us in this house. She planned to start a makeup academy and helped found a charity to help impoverished children in her native Nigeria.
, was a charming, caring girl,” says Esther. "She was the type of woman that everyone liked. When she walked into the room, everyone knew that blessing was here.
Disappeared
Interested in a career in caregiving, Blessing joined an agency and was sent to Bexhill, 60 miles from home, in September 2020 to work as a live-in caregiver for a week.
Having been in touch with her mother and friends every day, she missed home, but her friend Tobi, who spoke to her just hours before she died, said, "She was just her normal self, happy and excited." I was doing it," he said.
Four days into her work, the agency messaged her friend Christiana to tell her that Blessing had gone missing.
Shortly thereafter, two police officers knocked on the door, telling Esther that her Blessing had been found dead at 6:20 am. Her mobile phone and sandals were found on the beach about 300 meters above her body.
"I screamed. Her son ran downstairs," she says.
"I dried my face and tried to act like nothing happened, but he said, 'Mom, I heard your sister died.'"
"At that moment, I don't know." How to say it, I was just crying and hugging my little one. I couldn't believe Blessing was dead.
She is of no help
Esther went to Bexhill the next day to the scene of her daughter's death.
"It happened yesterday, so I expected to see police tapes, police officers, notices, etc.," she says. Realizing that the locals she approached were unaware of the previous day's tragedy and that Esther could not pinpoint the location, she called the police for help.
Her investigator emailed her her map, but when she asked to take her there, he refused. The next day, when she collected her daughter's belongings from Sussex Police Headquarters, she asked again, but she was of no avail.
She also told the police that she had seen some of her CCTV cameras on her and should be checked.
I expected to see police tapes, police officers, notices or something like that.
Esther Abe
"I must tell him 'I am not blessed.' No, I'm Esther, bless my dead daughter police work on the beach.
"I totally understand where the family came from, but we had There was nothing in the evidence to indicate that a third party was involved in her death," she said. "That's why we went down the accidental, medical, or suicidal route."
Unanswered question
Posthumously, after Blessing indicated he had drowned. Police ruled her death as "unexplained but not suspicious."
However, Esther felt it was too early for the police to dismiss concerns of her suspicious death, and her shocked friends found her dead on a deserted beach in the middle of the night. I wondered what Blessing was doing.
Violence and sexual assault in the Bexhill area increased by 22% from 49 cases in September 2019 to 61 cases in 2020. asks if she could have been the victim of a botched sexual assault.
Her nails were chipped at the top. Her face was swollen and the wig on her head was not there.
Esther Abe
Her close friend Linda said: says. 20 minutes walk. Blessed is she won't walk 20 minutes in the dark. What should I do. "
However, one of the last texts she sent to Christiana was written to her shortly after midnight: "Let me just hang up."
Then she changed her mind. At 1:18 a.m. she texted her "never mind" and five minutes later sent Esther's final message.
Esther was never asked for her daughter's identity, but she was told to take her remains for her burial one week after her death.
On seeing her for the first time she remarks: "The top of the nail was missing. Her face was swollen and the wig on her head wasn't there. She didn't go anywhere without a wig." The glued-on wig, he says, was never Blessing's property.
In her FaceTime chat the day before, her friend confirmed that her Blessing nails, which she cared about her appearance, were immaculate.
They also dismissed her suggestion of suicide, which stemmed from mental health issues Blessing dealt with during her teenage years, stating that she "did not take her own life." It will never stop," he said.
"Justice for the Blessing"
Esther offered to pay for her costs herself and requested her second postmortem, but she refused. it was done.
Dr. Stuart Hamilton, a forensic doctor, said that although the report did not state, the broken nail indicated someone was struggling to get out of the water or fighting an attacker. suggests that it may indicate
"The post-mortem marks the end of the story of her drowning. It doesn't help us to know what the last chapter that led to it was," he said. He added that there may have been another person there.
But lifeguard Dean Baker revealed that Bexhill's beach can be deadly at night, especially for non-swimmers, with high tide pulling stones away. He said that it is easy to lose footing because
Calls for further investigation increased following the death of Sarah Everard in March 2021, and her social media users said police were "blessing to cover up her Olsegun death". '' he claimed.
The Justice4Blessing petition had her 70,000 signatures.
As a grieving mother, all I ever wanted was to be treated with respect on my journey to answers and truth. I felt shut out of the process
Esther Abe
Sussex Police issued a statement, There was no evidence of their involvement, evidence of crime," but they were "open minded."
"It has been reported that Blessing's death was not properly investigated due to her ethnicity, and we strongly refute these allegations," they added.
In June 2022, an inquest determined that Blessing's death was an accident.
However, the coroner questioned why the search was limited to the area where the body was found rather than extensive, and why the witnesses' appeals had not been made.
Esther, who felt she had been "locked out"
denounced her treatment of herself by force, stating: Treated with respect. I felt locked out of the process.
She added that she still believes, "There is no way to know if someone was on the beach with their blessings that night."
APC Jones says the police "must follow the evidence we have," but admits that detectives should have worked more closely with Esther.
"It would have been incredibly painful for her family if I had not taken Blessing's mother to where her daughter was found. I am very sorry for that." I am,” she says.
"There are certainly some things that could have been done better." I want to honor my wonderful and caring daughter.
She gives opportunities to others,” she says.
"We will continue so that her name lives on and what she is passionate about."