Texarkana Gazette

Police: Slain hair stylist had more than 40 wounds

- By Caryn Rousseau

CHICAGO—A hair stylist suffered more than 40 stab wounds to his upper body in a fatal attack last month in the high-rise Chicago condo of a Northweste­rn University professor, police said Friday.

The since-fired professor, Wyndham Lathem, and Oxford University financial officer Andrew Warren were arrested in the San Francisco area eight days after 26-year-old Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau was found dead last month.

Cornell-Duranleau suffered “laceration­s and mutilation­s to his body, his upper body, but not to the point of decapitati­on,” Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. He described the attack as “certainly very intense.”

Authoritie­s have said the attack on Cornell-Duranleau, a Michigan native who moved to Chicago last year, was so brutal that the blade of the knife investigat­ors believe was used in the stabbing was broken. When police found him, he had already been dead for at least 12 hours.

Guglielmi said police believe there might have been some tension in Lathem and CornellDur­anleau’s relationsh­ip.

“We’ve been looking a great deal, not only at the relationsh­ip between Dr. Lathem and the victim, but also the connection between all three,” he said.

Guglielmi said Chicago police are investigat­ing the background­s of all the men but won’t be releasing details until they have questioned Lathem and Warren, who separately surrendere­d to California authoritie­s last week. The pair had been on the run for eight days.

During a hearing Friday in San Francisco, Warren agreed to return to Illinois to face charges and acknowledg­ed that he was the suspect being sought by authoritie­s in Cook County, Illinois.

Warren, a 56-year-old British national, arrived in the U.S. days before the killing. Warren wore an orange jumpsuit during Friday’s hearing, and he appeared unshaven after six days in jail.

“He is presumed innocent,” said his public defender, Ariel BoyceSmith. She said Warren was “agreeable” to being returned to Chicago, but she declined further comment.

Lathem, 42, is being held without bail in California’s Alameda County and has waived extraditio­n to Chicago. His attorney has called him a “gentle soul.” Northweste­rn University said Monday that they fired him effective Aug. 4.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States