Oxford University employee and US professor wanted for Chicago murder

Police have launched a manhunt for an Oxford University employee and US professor suspected of stabbing a man to death in Chicago on 27 July.

Arrest warrants for Andrew Warren, who works at Oxford University's Somerville College, and Professor Wyndham Lathem, who teaches microbiology at Northwestern University, were issued on Monday (31 July).

Both men are wanted for the first-degree murder of Trenton Cornell-Duranleau who was found dead at Lathem's apartment last week.

Cornell-Duranleau - thought to be a hair stylist -was found with multiple stab wounds in the 10th-floor apartment in Chicago at around 8.30pm (3.30am BST) on 27 July.

Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Warren, 56, and Lanthem, 42, were caught on a CCTV camera leaving the building that night.

Lathem and Cornell-Duranleau knew each other, according to police. It is not clear whether Warren, who was visiting the US for the first time, knew the victim.

"Our search will only intensify,'' Guglielmi wrote on Twitter. "Prof Lathem & Mr Warren, do the right thing & turn yourself into any police dept.''

Lathem has worked at Northwestern University since 2007 where he researches a type of bacteria that causes the bubonic plague.

A spokesperson for the university said Lathem had been banned from campus and placed on administrative leave.

Warren works as a senior treasury assistant at Somerville College where he is in charge of payroll and pensions.

Somerville College's principal, Dr Alice Prochaska, told IBTimes UK: "The college learned of these events only yesterday evening. We have been in contact with the police in the UK and are ready to help the US investigating authorities in any way they need. Andrew Warren's colleagues at Somerville College have now all been informed and we are all shocked to learn of the case."