Northwestern Professor Wanted: 5 Things We Know About The Brutal Murder Case So Far

CHICAGO, IL — Nearly 24 hours since Chicago police sent an alert announcing they were hunting for the suspects, the search for two men wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of a licensed cosmetologist last week in a River North apartment spread nationwide, according to reports. Police believe Northwestern University associate professior Wyndham Lathem, 42, and Andrew Warren, 56, an employee of Somerville College in England, have fled the state after arrest warrants were issued for them stemming from the murder of Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, 26, who was found dead July 27 in a North State Street apartment that Lathem lists as his home address.

While the suspects remain on the run, details are surfacing about what unfolded that deadly and brutal night, as well as some facts about the men involved. There's the anonymous call that led to the grisly discovery of the victim's body with its mutilated genitals.

Charged in a fatal stabbing, Wyndham Lathem and Andrew Warren have sparked a US manhunt. We piece together what's known about the case.

Patch pieces together what information is known so far and what leads authorities are pursuing as they try to apprehend the men. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Chicago — or your neighborhood. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

1. The Charges

Lathem and Warren face first-degree murder charges in Cornell-Duranleau's death. Officers discovered the victims body during a well-being check at around 8:30 p.m. July 27 in a 10th-floor unit in the Grand Plaza Apartments in the 500 block of North State Street in the River North neighborhood. Cornell-Duranleau had several lacerations to his back, and an autopsy by the Cook County medical examiner's officer determined that he died from multiple sharp force injuries.

RELATED: Manhunt For Northwestern Professor Wanted In Fatal Stabbing

So far, the reasons why Cornell-Duranleau was at Lathem's apartment and what events led to his murder have not been revealed. An email last week to the apartment building's residents said investigators were looking at different possible motives and that the killing could have been the result of a "domestic incident," the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

In fact, a top police source told the Sun-Times' Michael Sneed that "a relationship issue" could have been a factor in the brutal incident.

"The victim was 26. The others were in their 40s and 50s," the source told Sneed, adding that investigators don't believe the murder was over drugs. "We know there was no official reason Warren, an Englishman, was sent to Northwestern on official business as a visiting professor. We were told it was Warren’s first time in the United States."

Cornell-Duranleau's mother, Charlotte Cornell, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that the family didn't know the men. Because the investigation was still ongoing, she also wouldn't comment on whether her son had talked about the suspects before his death.

2. The Crime Scene

Officers were doing the well-being check on Lathem's apartment because of an ominous and anonymous call to the apartment building's front desk. The unknown caller said a crime had been committed in a 10th-floor apartment and someone from the high-rise needed to check it out, law enforcement sources told the Chicago Tribune. A building maintenance worker called police after no one answered the phone at the apartment the anonymous caller identified.

Once inside Lathem's apartment, police notice blood everywhere, the Tribune reports. Cornell-Duranleau's body was found, face down, in the bedroom, which had blood on the door, the report stated. Two knives were discovered in the kitchen; one with a broken blade was in a garbage can, while another was by the sink.

The broken knife illustrates the savagery of the attack, Sneed's police source said. Cornell-Duranleau wasn't simply stabbed; his body was mutilated and his genitals cut, the source added.

3. The Search So Far

Warrants for Lathem and Warren were issued after police were unable to locate the Northwestern professor. Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi urged the suspects online Wednesday "to do the right thing" and turn themselves in.

"Our search will only intensify," he wrote in an update on his Twitter account.

Indeed, help with the manhunt has grown to include the US State Department flagging the suspects' passports and the US Marshal Service participating in the search, according to the Sun-Times. The men were last seen driving a gray 2017 Hyundai sedan, and Guglielmi told the AP that a security camera video shows Lathem and Warren leaving the apartment high-rise together the night Cornell-Duranleau was killed.

Detectives believe the men fled the state after the murder, and evidence supporting this has come by way of a $1,000 donation in Cornell-Duranleau's name to the public library in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, a Chicago police source told the Sun-Times' Sneed. Why the donation was made is unclear, but the source said it could indicate remorse by Lathem and Warren.

As investigators continue to sift through information and narrow their hunt for the suspects, Guglielmi told the Sun-Times that the ultimate goal of authorities is to "facilitate a safe surrender" by the men.

4. The Victim

Born in Lennon, Michigan, Trenton Cornell-Duranleau was a licensed cosmetologist in that state and was living in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood after recently moving to the city, according to the Sun-Times. He was raised in Lennon, which is about 50 miles outside of Lansing, after he was adopted by a lesbian couple following his biological mother's death.

Mischelle Duranleau, Cornell-Duranleau's mother, posted her son's obituary to her Facebook page before changing her privacy settings on the social media platform.

"There are no words to describe this. Please keep him in our prayers as we navigate this very dark part of our Journey," she wrote in the posting for the obituary, which described her son's love for video gams, cartoons, cars, music and animals.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press on Thursday, Charlotte Cornell, Trenton's mother, asked that the public respect the family's privacy while it mourns:

"It is our hope that the person or persons responsible for his death are brought to justice. We are asking that you allow our family to process and grieve this tragedy privately. We are asking all media outlets to not contact our family, friends or associates. When we have had sufficient time to mourn our child's passing, we will release a more in depth statement if we believe it is appropriate to do so."

A funeral for Cornell-Duranleau will be Aug. 12 in Lennon, according to his death notice.

5. The Suspects

Lathem is an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology-Immunology at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine, and he has been at the university since 2008. His work as a faculty researcher at the Chicago campus had him working in a laboratory and not teaching classes. When investigators discovered Lathem, an expert in the area of the bubonic plague or "the Black Death," had access to "sensitive biological materials dealing with infectious diseases," police identified him as dangerous in the alert sent by the department Wednesday, a police source told Sneed of the Sun-Times.

Police alerted Northwestern about the investigation Monday, and Lathem was placed on administrative leave and banned from all of the university's campuses.

Before coming to Northwestern, Lathem was a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis and participated in a post-doctoral fellowship there in 2007, according to the Riverfront Times, an alt-weekly in the city. Despite moving to Chicago, Lathem had not sold his St. Louis home, the report added.

Lathem's LinkedIn page states he earned his undergraduate degree in biology from Vassar College (1992-96) and his doctorate in microbiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1998-2003). His page, which has photo of Lathem with a mohawk, also indicates he worked as a research technician at Rockefeller University from 1996 to 1998.

A sporadic user of Twitter, Lathem posted multiple updates and photos from the March of Science protest in Chicago in April. His last tweet commented on the TV show "RuPaul's Drag Race":

More via The Associated Press, Chicago Sun-Times, Michael Sneed and the Chicago Tribune

UPDATED (1:46 a.m. Friday, Aug. 4)

Wyndham Lathem (left) and Andrew Warren (Photos via the Chicago Police Department)

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