Man wanted in North Carolina double murder killed in Pennsylvania
TREVOSE, Pennsylvania -- Police seeking someone on a Pennsylvania parole violation stumbled upon another man and a woman who were wanted for a double homicide in North Carolina at a hotel in Trevose, Pa. on Saturday afternoon.
The male murder suspect is now dead, while the woman and the hitchhiker are in custody.
"They picked up the wrong hitchhiker," Bensalem Public Safety Director Fred Harran said. "Criminals picking up criminals ... bad luck for all of them."
The dead man was identified as 34-year-old Lloyd Wayne Franklin. He and one of the other suspects, Jennifer Lanning, had active arrest warrants out of Davidson County, North Carolina for homicide.
Lanning is in police custody. Police say it appears Franklin died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
The third person involved, James Miller, was the hitchhiker.
Police say officers were on patrol around 2:30 p.m. when they discovered Miller was staying at the hotel. They went to his room and Franklin, who apparently assumed police were looking for him in the homicides, opened fire.
Harran said the officers did not return fire because they knew there were other people inside.
The suspects barricaded themselves inside, police say, and the SWAT team was called.
After a tense standoff, Lanning finally surrendered. Then, unable to contact the men inside, officers deployed a robot to scope out the room.
Negotiators eventually convinced Miller to come out. TV cameras were there as he crawled out to waiting police.
Franklin's body was later discovered inside.
"It appears the individual may have killed himself so as not to be taken into custody by police," Harran said.
Bensalem and Bucks County Detectives say they are currently investigating and are cooperating with the North Carolina authorities.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
