Highway Patrol officers started a hunt for Zaiee Talbert about a week ago because the 24-year-old was wanted for allegedly crashing a car with a pound of weed and an illegal handgun stashed inside after leading cops on a chase.
By the time two patrolmen tracked him down Saturday, Talbert was also a suspect in the murders of two teens in March.
A false report by Talbert’s girlfriend that the rental car crashed in the first incident was stolen was the nail in the coffin for the murder suspect, police said Monday. After Highway Patrol Officer Mike Kelly ran Talbert’s name in the system late last week and saw he was also wanted in the murders of Jonathan Stokley, 18, and Dexter Bowie, 17 — two cousins gunned down in a hail of AK-47 and 9 mm bullets on 9th Street near Cambria — he followed some leads with Officer Joe Carter based on the Northeast Philly address the girlfriend had provided.
