Jocelyn Hughes, whose body was found on a Plum Island beach last weekend, had spent the past year transitioning from one business venture to another.

For close to two decades, Hughes, 59, owned Watch City Brewing, a large brew pub in Waltham whose beers were on tap at more than a dozen local bars. The company closed last summer amid financial difficulty. In the year since, she became a franchisee of Belmont-based craft beer merchant Craft Beer Cellar, opening a store in Amesbury.

“We are excited to get to work and serve the community and the outlying communities in delivering awesome beers,’’ Hughes told The Daily News of Newburyport in an article published the day before her new business opened in June.


Her body was found Sunday morning on Plum Island. Investigators have not yet named a cause of death, but foul play is not suspected.

The deceased was identified Wednesday as Jocelyn McLaughlin of Newburyport. McLaughlin was the name of Hughes’s ex-husband, and Hughes used both surnames on corporate filings with the state.

Craft Beer Cellar co-founder Suzanne Schalow said she learned Sunday that Hughes had died.

“She was a part of our family,’’ Schalow said. “We’re all devastated and saddened by the news.’’

Schalow said she had known Hughes for years prior to her becoming a franchisee, going back to Watch City Brewing.

“Restaurant people run together,’’ she said.

Notable deaths in 2015