Warrant for hitchhiker leads cops to suspects in 2 slayings

Lanning and a hitchhiker that the couple had picked up, James Miller, are both in custody, according to WSOC-TV. After he fled with a gun stolen from the home, police said, he picked up Lanning and the two stole prescription painkillers during pharmacy robberies in Aberdeen and Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, and Georgetown, South Carolina, before apparently heading north.

Police officers gathered outside a hotel in Bensalem after shots were fired.

Police said that it appears that Franklin died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head during a standoff at a hotel in Trevose, Pa, which is a suburb of northeast Philadelphia. Lanning will be sent to the Bucks County Correctional Facility.

Township officers were patrolling the area of the inn about 2:30 p.m. Saturday when they discovered that a subject staying in room 142 had an active Pennsylvania arrest warrant out for his arrest for a parole violation.

The officers were not struck and did not return fire, police say.

SWAT units got involved and eventually gained access to the room. The woman then surrendered and told police there were two men in the room, one with a gunshot wound. Franklin’s body was later discovered inside. Officials in Pennsylvania said Franklin was found dead in the room and Lanning surrendered to police.

Franklin and 38-year-old Jennifer Michelle Lanning had been on the lam since October 29, when police found Davie Lee McSwain, 82, and his wife, Joan McSwain, 78, dead in their Thomasville home. Police say Franklin also took a.38-caliber revolver from the home.

Bensalem and Bucks County detectives are working with North Carolina authorities on the case. Miller has a warrant in Pennsylvania for parole violation and was booked at the Bucks County Correctional Facility. Bensalem Police said, this is an active investigation and no more information is being released at this time.