Woman Left in Coma by Crash Is Identified

Her hair was light brown and frosted--”beautiful hair,” said one nurse. “Freshly washed.”

It was lying in the nurse’s hand, shorn off to allow the doctors to perform surgery that they hoped might save her life. She had been hit by a car Friday night, and she lay in a coma--nameless, alone and verging on death.

By Sunday she was still Jane Doe, and nurses at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital were puzzled and alarmed.

She looked to be in her 20s and had been well dressed: khaki pants and a tan shirt with black zebra stripes. This was no street person, so where were the friends and relatives? “She looked like she belonged to somebody,” one nurse said.

Her body was tanned but for a white circle around a ring finger. It was not her wedding-ring finger, the nurses noticed, and after three days without an inquiry about her, they assumed she had no husband or children.

“Someone ought to be able to love her one more time before she goes,” fretted one nurse, who insisted that her name not be mentioned.

Finally on Sunday afternoon, Jane Doe was identified as Susan Gingras, 30, of Sunset Beach, a part-time waitress whose only living relative, her mother, was sent rushing to an airport in Massachusetts to get to her daughter in time.

“We were so glad we got her mom,” the nurse said. “She (the mother) is trying to get the first available flight out here. Now we just got to keep her (Gingras) going until she gets here. Not to be known at Christmastime? That’s so sad. . . .”

Went to Apartment Saturday

Rod Alves, who described himself as a former sweetheart and close friend, went to Gingras’ beach apartment Saturday morning and found it empty but with the television set on. Gingras’ landlord told Alves that he had not seen her. The landlord mentioned that there had been a bad traffic accident Friday night on Pacific Coast Highway near Warner Avenue but thought that a man had been injured, a California Highway Patrol officer said.

Sunday morning, the landlord called Alves and said that he had just learned a woman was hurt in the collision. Alves said he frantically began calling hospitals. By midafternoon he found Gingras.

“He came down and identified her right now,” the nurse said. “It was awful. He was very upset and shaken. But we all are very happy that we know who she is, and her mom knows she’s hurt so she can come to see her.”

Alves, 33, of Downey said that his former girlfriend “was a real good-hearted person. I finally found her at the Fountain Valley hospital when they told me they had a Jane Doe. They told me to come down to the hospital and look at her. And it was her. It was hard,” he added softly.

Hospital officials say Gingras is in critical condition on life-support machines. She has been in a coma since she was admitted about 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Neighbor’s Car

CHP Officer Andrew Cadiz, who is investigating the crash, said Gingras lived on Pacific Coast Highway in Sunset Beach. She was struck by a neighbor’s car, he said.

The neighbor, Martin Bogdanovich, 17, lives in Huntington Beach a few blocks from the accident site. He was driving his grandmother home in her car, and they entered the southbound left-turn lane on Pacific Coast Highway traveling at about 40 m.p.h., Cadiz said. The pair were headed for a liquor store just north of the Warner Avenue intersection, he said.

Cadiz said it appeared that Gingras was on her way to the same liquor store. She lived right across the street from it, she had no identification with her and it appeared that she was barefoot, indicating a quick jaunt into the neighborhood.

A witness outside the liquor store told Cadiz that he saw Gingras jogging across the street, turned to go inside and then heard a thud.