Northwestern prof, Oxford staffer accused of murder captured in California

The Northwestern professor wanted in connection with a Chicago murder was taken into custody in Oakland, California, by U.S. Marshals Friday night, Chicago police confirmed.

Wyndham Lathem, 42, and University of Oxford employee Andrew Warren, 56, were both wanted for the murder of Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, 26. Warren was captured in San Francisco, police said.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported the two are expected to appear in court in California on Monday, according to Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. The two will then be extradited to Chicago. A press conference is planned for next week

"We hope today's announcement brings some kind of closure to the family," Guglielmi said in an email.

Lathem had sent a video to friends and relatives apologizing for his involvement in a crime that he called the "biggest mistake of my life," raising concern among investigators that he might kill himself.

"We are trying to keep this from becoming more tragic than it already is," Guglielmi said earlier Friday.

Guglielmi said the U.S. Marshals Service, which joined the investigation, interviewed several of the people who received the video from Lathem, an associate microbiology professor at Northwestern. Guglielmi declined to discuss details of the video or release it because he said it could be used in future interrogation efforts.

The video was the latest twist in the bizarre slaying of Cornell-Duranleau, 26, whose body was found mutilated, stabbed several times inside Lathem's River North apartment July 27. First-degree murder warrants were issued for Lathem and Warren, who was seen on surveillance video leaving the high-rise building with Lathem on the day of the slaying.

Police also disclosed earlier that on the day of the slaying - but before the body was discovered - Lathem and Warren drove about 80 miles northwest to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where one of them made a $1,000 cash donation to the public library there in Cornell-Duranleau's name. Lake Geneva police said the man making the donation did not give his name.

Police said there is no surveillance video of the encounter at the library and were at a loss to explain the donation.

"I've never seen where suspects in a homicide would make a donation in the victim's name," said Lt. Edward Gritzner.

Chicago police had said they believed they knew where the men were heading but did not disclose details. To prevent them from leaving the United States, authorities flagged their passports. Authorities also were alerted in England, where Warren was a resident at Somerville College, a part of the Oxford University Network.

The connections between the three men remain unclear. The Sun-Times reported that Lathem and Cornell-Duranleau lived together in the luxe condo, just blocks from tourist destinations like the Rainforest Cafe, and about a mile from Lathem's lab at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine.

Colleagues described Lathem as a brilliant researcher who made important discoveries about the pathogens that caused the pneumonic plague, but who seldom discussed his personal life around the lab.

London's Sun newspaper on Friday detailed screenshots of Warren's profile on the Grindr dating app, which the tabloid said showed Warren saying he was seeking a dominant person, and that he had "no limits." Warren's family had reported him missing three days before Cornell-Duranleau's body was discovered by police, the London Telegraph reported, and Warren left behind a boyfriend to make his first trip to the U.S.

Cornell-Duranleau had moved frequently after arriving in Chicago from his small hometown in Michigan a few years ago, friends said. Even in Michigan, he bounced among jobs after finishing his cosmetology degree.

Police have released very few details about the investigation. They have said Lathem had a personal relationship with Cornell-Duranleau, but they are still trying to determine how Cornell-Duranleau or Lathem knew Warren, or if Warren knew them before he flew to the United States for the first time three days before the slaying.

They have said that on the night of the slaying, the front desk of the apartment building where Lathem lives received an anonymous call from a person who said that a crime had been committed in Lathem's 10th floor apartment. When police opened the door they found Cornell-Duranleau's body, and by that time, Cornell-Duranleau had been dead for 12 to 15 hours.

• The Chicago Sun-Times contributed to this report. For related coverage, check chicago.suntimes.com.