Northwestern Professor Sends Video Apologizing For Grisly Murder
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago police said a Northwestern University professor wanted for killing a 26-year-old man last week has sent friends and family a video apologizing for his involvement.
Wyndham Lathem, 42, and another man are wanted on first-degree murder warrants for the stabbing death of 26-year-old Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau at Lathem's apartment in the 500 block of North State Street on July 27.
In a statement Friday afternoon, Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said "Lathem had sent a video message to various friends and family members apologizing for his involvement in the murder of Trenton Cornell."
Guglielmi said federal marshals have visited with several of those people who received the video, and are assisting police in locating Lathem and 56-year-old Andrew Warren, the other man wanted in Cornell-Duranleau's death.
"The contents of the video message are integral to any future interrogation efforts; therefore, we can not disclose the video at this time," Guglielmi said.
Lathem is an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Northwestern, and Warren is a senior treasury assistant at Somerville College, a part of the University of Oxford in Great Britain. The two remained at large Friday, but Guglielmi has said investigators "have an idea of their whereabouts."
Police have said officers were called to Lathem's building on July 27 to conduct a well-being check after an anonymous caller reported a possible crime in the professor's 10th floor apartment.
According to Guglielmi, officers found a "very gruesome" crime scene inside, adding the victim was "savagely murdered."
Lathem and Warren allegedly traveled to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, after the murder and made a $1000 donation to the Lake Geneva Public Library in the victim's name after committing the murder, according to Guglielmi.
Their relationship to Cornell-Duranleau is unclear, but Lathem and the victim are listed as friends on Facebook. Police said Warren has no apparent connections to Northwestern, and it's unclear why he was in Chicago.
Federal authorities have flagged the suspects' passports, and do not believe they have left the U.S.
