Dead Woman, 18, Member of Hughes Markets Family

The body of an 18-year-old woman discovered this weekend in a brush-covered area near the Hollywood Freeway was identified Monday as that of Janice Eileen Hughes, granddaughter of the founder of Hughes Markets Inc.

Hughes apparently died of a drug overdose, according to Lt. Ed Hocking, a Los Angeles police detective assigned to the Hollywood Division.

An autopsy is scheduled today.

A transient discovered the body about 8:30 a.m. Sunday lying face-up on a mattress adjacent to the Gower Street off-ramp, Hocking said. There were no visible signs of injury or struggle, police said, and it appeared that Hughes died in her sleep.

Detective Rick Swanston, who is coordinating the investigation of the case, said Hughes apparently took the drugs orally. He said it was not immediately known what type of narcotics she may have used.

The location where Hughes’ body was found is frequented by vagrants who often sleep there under the brush on abandoned mattresses, Swanston said. It is across the street from an Episcopal Church that provides free meals to homeless people.

“She had spent the night there Saturday night. As far as we know, this was her first time there,” Swanston said. “She was friends with a girl who was a more regular visitor there.”

Swanston said there was no indication that Hughes had previous contact with Hollywood police.

Department of Motor Vehicles records, however, indicate that Hughes’ driver’s license was suspended for six months on May 6 after she was stopped in Pasadena and refused to take a blood-alcohol test for suspected drunk driving.

Lawrence Puncheon, 37, a self-described screenwriter who often sleeps at the vagrants’ site beside the Gower off-ramp, said he first saw Hughes Saturday afternoon. She was brought there by another woman, believed to be an acquaintance, and was staggering and appeared intoxicated, he said.

Puncheon said he fell asleep between 1:30 and 2 a.m. Sunday and that Hughes was still sleeping on one of the mattresses.

“When I woke up, she looked bad,” Puncheon said. “I saw she was cold. I gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. I gave everything I could, and then I called the paramedics.”

Hughes’ father, Paul A. Hughes of Glendale, is personnel manager of the Los Angeles-based grocery store chain. Reached Monday at his home, he declined to comment, referring all questions to his company’s headquarters.

A secretary there, reading a prepared statement, attributed Janice Hughes’ death to “an apparent alcohol-drug-related accident.”

Hughes, a blue-eyed redhead, was among 14 grandchildren of the late Joseph P. Hughes, who opened his first market in 1952 in Studio City. The Hughes supermarket chain currently has 42 stores in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties. The company employs more than 4,000 people and last year recorded gross sales in excess of $600 million.

Joseph Hughes died in December, 1982.

A recent graduate of Hoover High School in Glendale, Janice Hughes’ was described by one of her parents’ neighbors as “very lovable” and adept at sports. The neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said Hughes was the second-oldest of three children, enjoyed bicycle riding and was called “Janny” by her friends.

But another neighbor, Tina MacDonald, 16, said Hughes was “really quiet and kept to herself a lot.”