Oxford University worker is charged with murder over stabbing in Chicago
AN Oxford University employee has been charged with the murder of a man whose body was found with more than 40 stab wounds.
Somerville College’s Andrew Warren is accused of killing Trenton Cornell-Duranleau.
Warren, 56, originally from Swindon, Wiltshire, was charged alongside Wyndham Lathem, a 42-yearold professor of microbiology and immunology at Northwestern University, Illinois.
The pair are accused of killing hair stylist Mr Cornell-Duranleau at Lathem’s flat in Chicago on July 27.
Their lawyers have said they will plead not guilty to the charges of first degree murder.
A post-mortem examination found the 26-year-old had died from multiple stab wounds and had methamphetamines in his system. Police say that the attack was so ferocious a knife blade broke. Warren flew to
Chicago on July 24 on his first trip to the United States after contacting Lathem on the internet. Chicago police said on Saturday that the two men had both been charged with first degree murder after they were returned to the city from California, where they handed themselves in following a nationwide manhunt.
Lathem had earlier sent a video to friends and family apologising for the “biggest mistake of my life”, raising concerns he would kill himself.
Warren, who lives with his sister in Faringdon, Oxfordshire, was suspended from his job at Somerville College after Cornell-Duranleau’s body was found. Anthony Guglielmi, a Chicago police spokesman, said Lathem had been in a relationship with Mr Cornell-Duranleau, but the couple had recently “fallen out”.
He said that the incident was “domestic in nature” and police were trying to ascertain the motive for the slaughter in the luxury apartment.
Police said that after the killing the two suspects drove 80 miles from Chicago and made a £800 donation in Mr Cornell-Duranleau’s name to a library in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
A spokesman for Oxford University said Warren’s colleagues were “shocked” to hear of the case. Somerville principal Alice Prochaska said: “This comes as upsetting news to all of us.”
Warren worked as a bus driver before taking charge of payroll and pensions at Somerville, graduates of which include former Prime Minister Lady Thatcher.