APTOS — Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies on Thursday named the man suspected of shooting two people at a residence in the Aptos hills Wednesday afternoon.
One of the victims, a 61-year-old woman, died in the shooting.
Patrick Aaron Collins, 36, was questioned after he was released from the hospital, and was later charged with murder, Sgt. Dee Baldwin said.
COLLINS
The SCSO on Friday released the name of the victim as Victoria May Aless Seidlinger.
Collins is being held in Santa Cruz County Jail in lieu of $750,000 bail.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call of a shooting in a residence at 3140 Trout Gulch Road at about 4:15 p.m. They arrived to find two people suffering from gunshot wounds and another who was dead.
The victims were flown by air ambulance to a Bay Area trauma center.
According to a source close to the victim who asked not to be identified, Collins was new to town and staying with a woman named Victoria. Victoria’s ex-husband Steve lives on another house on the same property, the source said.
Authorities did not release the names of the victims, and were tight-lipped about the circumstances of the shooting.
Investigators believe that two different people fired guns during the incident, according to Baldwin.
Baldwin said that all the people involved in the shooting lived on the property.
The suspect is expected to be booked into Santa Cruz County Jail after he is released from the hospital.
Javier Muñoz, who lives in the adjacent property, described Victoria and Steve as quiet neighbors who keep to themselves.
“Everyone keeps their privacy here,” Muñoz said.
Muñoz said he saw Victoria at about 3:30 p.m. outside the residence. He said he did not hear any gunshots.
“The next thing I knew all these sheriff’s cars were here,” he said.
Editor’s note: this story previously included a photo and criminal history for a different inmate also named Patrick Collins. The Pajaronian regrets the error.
