GA GA - Janice Hughes, 30, Macon, 8 June 1991

[Backwoods]

Very sad. Janice's mother and one of Janice's five daughters -- who was only seven years old when her mom went missing -- sound as if they don't have much hope of ever finding out what happened to her.

Sure wish we could help them find some answers!

(A mugshot-type photo is apparently the only PICTURE of her that still exists!)

No trace of Macon woman who disappeared more than 23 years ago

People tell Latavia Hughes she looks like her mother, Janice.

She wouldn’t know. ...

...“I can’t even picture how she looked,” Hughes said in a phone interview. “All I know is how I look. I can’t tell you how she looked.”

Hughes doesn’t even have a picture of her mother, who grew up in Macon. ...

...Janice Hughes, a 30-year-old mother of five girls, was reported missing June 22, 1991, about two weeks after she was last seen....

read more at: http://www.macon.com/2015/01/30/3560240/no-trace-of-macon-woman-who-disappeared.html


I don't see her in NAMUS missing persons ... but I'm not really proficient at searching those kinds of databases. Can anyone else find her in any of the missing persons databases?

 

[KateB]

A Macon, GA community page created in Nov 2014 with a single post. The post appears to be from a family member pleading for assistance to find any information about what happened to Janice. If the admin of the page is authentic, the person states Janice's birthday is 2/28/1961.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=847403931978039&story_fbid=847450015306764

 

[KateB]

A mugshot for petty theft is the only photo her children have. But it's an excellent photo with front and side views for potential matching to Jane Does. Perhaps there's an open UP case that Janice's photo and recent press will resolve. Remember, Tammy Alexander went missing 35 years before her face crossed any missing persons websites. Can it happen again?


photo from macon .com link in post #1
Can anyone read the measuring stick to see how tall Janice is?

 

[musicaljoke]

Do we have any photos of other people up against such a measuring stick whose height is given, with which we can compare and get an estimated height?

 

[Backwoods]

A Macon, GA community page created in Nov 2014 with a single post. The post appears to be from a family member pleading for assistance to find any information about what happened to Janice. If the admin of the page is authentic, the person states Janice's birthday is 2/28/1961.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=847403931978039&story_fbid=847450015306764

Since I don't do Facebook myself, I am not really clear on whether WS allows for someone to answer a plea like the one the daughter has made and inform her that, at least, a WS thread has been started for her mom.

I just know that I wish that somehow she will learn we've started a thread.

ETA: I am able to read her post on FB even though I'm not signed up -- so I guess it is "public". Not sure how all that works, all the different levels. Anyhow, I notice she says that she feels she has been informed that she "needs dental records" -- but that isn't true! What about DNA -- I wonder if anyone has told her what she can do along those lines. IMO, this case needs to be in NAMUS!

 

[Backwoods]

Do we have any photos of other people up against such a measuring stick whose height is given, with which we can compare and get an estimated height?

I wonder if she (Janice) ever had a driver's license? Seems like her height would probably be recorded SOMEWHERE.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.macon.com/2015/01/30/3560240/no-trace-of-macon-woman-who-disappeared.html

When Janice Hughes disappeared, she had been staying at 1509 Oglethorpe St. with a man named Jackie Leon McCoy. He told investigators he last saw Hughes at 10 p.m. on June 7, 1991.

“She asked him for $10, and at that time she had his gun, and he didn’t know it. He went and got the gun back later at another house,” Barbee read from the original case report. Now, “we can’t get anything out of Mr. McCoy because he has since died,” Barbee said.

The last time anyone saw Hughes was around Jackson Street, not far from the former Macon Police Department’s training center behind fire headquarters.

 

[Backwoods]

Here's a link to information about some Georgia unidentified remains, listed on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) web site. I will look a bit later to see if just by chance any sound like a possibility for Janice. Linking it here in case anybody else wants to look as well:

https://gbi.georgia.gov/cases/unidentified-remains

 

[Lataviahughes]

http://www.macon.com/2015/01/30/3560240/no-trace-of-macon-woman-who-disappeared.html

I just want to say thanks to you all. Now I'm in the process of trying to hiring a private investor

 

[Lataviahughes]

That's my mother I miss her so much my name is Latavia Hughes by my married on Facebook which is Graham

 

[alwaysonmymind]

That's my mother I miss her so much my name is Latavia Hughes by my married on Facebook which is Graham

Praying for answers. (((Hugs)))


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Backwoods]

I just want to say thanks to you all. Now I'm in the process of trying to hiring a private investor

Welcome, Lataviahughes! I am so glad that you found us. I started this thread after reading the recent story about your mom on macon.com .

I hope you will be able to get your mom's case into NAMUS -- that is SO important to do -- and that someone maybe will work with you on getting DNA samples (from you and possibly your grandmother and your siblings) on record with NAMUS. If you do hire an investigator, maybe he/she will help you with that. The Macon-Bibb Co. Sheriff's Department should be able to help you do all this as well.

We are glad to have you here on Websleuths! :hug:


adding a link to the NamUS site: http://www.namus.gov/

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Janice was added to the Charley Project yesterday. http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hughes_janice.html




Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
• Missing Since: June 8, 1991 from Macon, Georgia
• Classification: Endangered Missing
• Date of Birth: February 28, 1961
• Age: 30 years old
• Distinguishing Characteristics: African-American female. Black hair, brown eyes.

Details of Disappearance
Hughes was last seen in Macon, Georgia on June 8, 1991. She called her mother at 1:00 a.m. to say she was coming over, but never arrived and has never been heard from again. She was reported missing on June 22, two weeks after her disappearance.

Hughes's live-in boyfriend last saw her at 10:00 p.m. on June 7, a few hours before she called her mother. They lived in the 1500 block of Oglethorpe Street. Hughes asked him for $10 before she left. She also took his gun, something he didn't realize at the time. He later found the gun at another house. Hughes's boyfriend is now deceased. The couple had a history of domestic violence in their relationship, and Hughes's mother believed he was involved in her disappearance, but he has never been named as a suspect. Authorities believe she could have been the victim of a serial killer, but little evidence is available in her case.

 

[Backwoods]

Janice was added to the Charley Project yesterday. http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hughes_janice.html

View attachment 69063View attachment 69064View attachment 69065


Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
• Missing Since: June 8, 1991 from Macon, Georgia
• Classification: Endangered Missing
• Date of Birth: February 28, 1961
• Age: 30 years old
• Distinguishing Characteristics: African-American female. Black hair, brown eyes.

Details of Disappearance
Hughes was last seen in Macon, Georgia on June 8, 1991. She called her mother at 1:00 a.m. to say she was coming over, but never arrived and has never been heard from again. She was reported missing on June 22, two weeks after her disappearance.

Hughes's live-in boyfriend last saw her at 10:00 p.m. on June 7, a few hours before she called her mother. They lived in the 1500 block of Oglethorpe Street. Hughes asked him for $10 before she left. She also took his gun, something he didn't realize at the time. He later found the gun at another house. Hughes's boyfriend is now deceased. The couple had a history of domestic violence in their relationship, and Hughes's mother believed he was involved in her disappearance, but he has never been named as a suspect. Authorities believe she could have been the victim of a serial killer, but little evidence is available in her case.

Thank you, Justice! I am really glad to know this. I hope Latavia knows and is glad, too.

 

[Backwoods]

Just noting (after looking at Charley Project page) that the set of photos for Janice are from around 1981 -- so about 10 years before she went missing.

 

[Cherry]

Can you please provide her middle name? Also is Hughes her maiden or married name if so what is her maiden name thanks. In TN under white pages there are a slew of Janice's even w different spellings. I picked TN because so many go back n forth from GA to TN even in my family.

http://www.instantcheckmate.com/search/resultsAPI/TN/Hughes/Janice

also alias w spelling diff
http://www.instantcheckmate.com/search/resultsAPI/TN/Hughes/Jenice

 

[Cherry]

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/search

 

[Cherry]

Sev of the GA unidentified cases Hv dna records...I suggest you get a PI or even enquire yourself w the ME on each case after you review. It can b upsetting as these are Unidentified remains in GA....still looking for closure. I wish you good luck. If she had outstanding warrants, she could Hv reinvented herself moved and started over, this does happen....plz keep an open mind. Also you should Hv your PI do a full credit check under her name and social sec numb. And also check with SS death index online for GA TN and surrounding states. You can do this on ancestry, if you don't Hv an account let me know I will check her on ancestry.com. Please provide any other family names, including her siblings and parents. But a credit check with her social is the first step. Also contact The Locator guy who helps to locate missing family. Ok? Hugs hope this helps.

 

[Backwoods]

bbm in the quote below:

Janice was added to the Charley Project yesterday. http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hughes_janice.html

View attachment 69063View attachment 69064View attachment 69065


Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
• Missing Since: June 8, 1991 from Macon, Georgia
• Classification: Endangered Missing
• Date of Birth: February 28, 1961
• Age: 30 years old
• Distinguishing Characteristics: African-American female. Black hair, brown eyes.

Details of Disappearance
Hughes was last seen in Macon, Georgia on June 8, 1991. She called her mother at 1:00 a.m. to say she was coming over, but never arrived and has never been heard from again. She was reported missing on June 22, two weeks after her disappearance.

Hughes's live-in boyfriend last saw her at 10:00 p.m. on June 7, a few hours before she called her mother. They lived in the 1500 block of Oglethorpe Street. Hughes asked him for $10 before she left. She also took his gun, something he didn't realize at the time. He later found the gun at another house. Hughes's boyfriend is now deceased. The couple had a history of domestic violence in their relationship, and Hughes's mother believed he was involved in her disappearance, but he has never been named as a suspect. Authorities believe she could have been the victim of a serial killer, but little evidence is available in her case.

The now-deceased boyfriend does sound somewhat suspicious, IMO. If his story about the gun and finding it later at another house is true, wonder how he happened to find it at that house? Sure hope LE checked out "that house" and its residents back then.

Regarding the possibility of a serial killer: The article from Macon's The Telegraph with which I opened this thread also discusses that LE theory:

...Barbee surmises Janice Hughes might have fallen victim to a serial killer preying on women. But without a body, further evidence or a confession, he can’t be sure.

Alfred Lundy, a convicted killer on parole, was found guilty of two slayings and was a suspect in other killings at about the same time, Barbee said.

“When Janice went missing, we had a lady killed on Oliver Street and hid in a burned out house and a lady killed downtown and thrown in a dumpster,” Barbee said.

In 1993, Lundy was found guilty of beating and strangling Pamela Moore to death on Oct. 16, 1991, and hiding her partially nude body in an abandoned house on Oliver Street.

Marie Hollingshed was found dead May 16, 1992, in a trash bin near the old Town Pavilion Hotel on Broadway near Walnut Street.

Hughes and Saundra Finney*, a 20-year-old woman who disappeared from Poplar Street on Valentines Day in 1992, have never been found, Barbee said.

“It’s our belief these women were killed and dumped in a dumpster and carried off before we even heard about them being missing,” Barbee said....

http://www.macon.com/2015/01/30/3560240/no-trace-of-macon-woman-who-disappeared.html

I hope Lundy was at least questioned about Janice -- though likely he wouldn't talk, IMO.

I found this 1995 Georgia Supreme Court document concerning the decision regarding Lundy and his appeal of his 1993 convictions of two murders and two consecutive life sentences (convictions and sentences were upheld):

http://leagle.com/decision/1995295265Ga30_1280.xml/LUNDY v. STATE

As I understand from this, the appeal was arguing that the two murders for which he was convicted should not have been tried together. And ALSO that his prior guilty plea to a very similar 1972 murder should not have been admitted into the 1993 trial. The information given about that 1972 murder is that it was very similar to what is described for the 1990s murders (see the link for more details on those):

...The trial court did not err in admitting as similar transaction evidence Lundy's 1972 guilty plea to the manual strangulation death of another woman, with whom he had a sexual relationship and whose nude and beaten body he dumped in a storage bin. ...

Also, some dates from a footnote to the document:

Moore was killed on November 16, 1991, and Hollingshed was killed on May 16, 1992. Lundy was indicted for Moore's murder on January 15, 1993, and for Hollingshed's murder on March 22, 1993. Following a jury trial in Bibb County Superior Court, Lundy was sentenced on July 1, 1993 to two consecutive life sentences. Lundy filed a motion for new trial on July 21, 1993, which the trial court denied on April 4, 1994. Lundy filed a notice of appeal on April 11, 1994. The appeal was docketed in this court on May 9, 1994, and submitted without oral argument on July 5, 1994.

*Sad that, other than in the article about Janice, I cannot find any MSM or other linkable info that mentions Saundra Finney, the other missing woman who was never found. If I could find a little more I would start a thread for her as well.

 

[Backwoods]

I looked up Lundy on the Georgia Department of Corrections offender search. Don't think the search result will link, but here is the link to the search page (his first and last name is all you need to enter to get the results):

http://www.dcor.state.ga.us/GDC/OffenderQuery/jsp/OffQryForm.jsp

DOC info says Lundy was born in 1952. He appears to be at Johnson State Prison in Wrightsville, Johnson County, Georgia.

On the 1972 murder, info says he served from July 1972 to December 1986.