School Officials ID Teen Found Dead in Newark Motel as Patricia Martin

 Grief counselors are on hand at Pleasanton's Village High School this week after a 17-year-old student was found dead along with a 24-year-old man at a Newark motel last week.

The student was Patricia Martin, Pleasanton Unified School District management assistant Nicole Steward said this morning.

Martin attended Village High School and lived in Pleasanton, Steward said.

Village High is an alternative high school with about 130 students, Steward said. Counselors have been on call at the school to comfort grieving students since Martin was confirmed dead on Friday, she said.

Martin and a Livermore man were found shot to death at the E-Z 8 Motel at 5555 Cedar Court at about 11:45 a.m. Friday by motel staff, Newark
police Cmdr. Michael Carroll said.

Investigators are working to determine whether the deaths were the result of a murder-suicide or a double suicide, police said.

Martin's mother, Kathy Martin, is an employee at the Pleasanton Weekly, Pleasanton Weekly president Gina Channell-Allen said.

Kathy Martin said her daughter was last seen with 24-year-old James Shanelec, also known as James Cole, according to Channell-Allen.

Autopsies have been conducted, but it could take months for the
results of related lab tests to come back, Carroll said.

- Bay City News