Ex-Northwestern professor, Oxford staffer expected back in Chicago to face murder charge

CHICAGO — A former Northwestern University professor and a University of Oxford financial officer are expected to be returned to Chicago by early next week to face first-degree murder charges in a savage stabbing in a Near North Side high-rise apartment, Chicago police said Tuesday.

The two — ex-Northwestern microbiologist Wyndham Lathem and Andrew Warren — waived extradition in court hearings in California last week after both surrendered to authorities after allegedly spending eight days on the run.

An “extradition team” that includes Chicago police detectives plans to travel to the San Francisco-Oakland area this week and bring the two back to Chicago by early next week, said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. Both are being held in custody without bond.

The two are charged in the July 27 slaying of 26-yearold Trenton Cornel-Duranleau in Lathem’s 10th-floor apartment on the 500 block of North State Street. He was found lying facedown on Lathem’s bedroom floor, dead from stab wounds and slashes to the back.

Police believe the killing took place about 5 a.m., but authorities didn’t learn of the stabbing until an anonymous caller reached the front desk of the apartment building around 8:30 p.m. and warned of a possible crime in Lathem’s residence.

The two suspects fled on a cross-country odyssey, according to authorities. On the same day of the killing, investigators believe one of the suspects made a $1,000 donation in Cornell-Duranleau’s name at a library in Lake Geneva, Wis.