Victim In Brutal River North Slaying Was Stabbed Nearly 50 Times

By Stephen Gossett in News on Aug 11, 2017 7:11PM

Wyndham Lathem (left); Andrew Warren (right)

Although police have yet to cite a motive in the grisly stabbing death at a River North condo last month, some details are starting to emerge. Police said the 26-year-old victim was stabbed more than 40 times in the fatal attack, according to the AP. A source told Michael Sneed of the Sun-Times that the late Trenton Cornell-Duranleau was was stabbed almost 50 times and nearly decapitated.

Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the stabbing was "certainly very intense." Cornell-Duranleau suffered "lacerations and mutilations to his body, his upper body, but not to the point of decapitation," Guglielmi said, according to the AP. Sneed's source described the attack as "a gruesome murder by overkill" and an act of "extreme passion." The blade of the knife believed to be used in the attack was reportedly broken, so violent was the attack.

Cornell-Duranleau was a hair stylist and Pilsen resident. He had moved to Chicago after completing cosmetology school in Michigan.

Wyndham Lathem—a 42-year-old associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Northwestern University—and Andrew Warren—a 56-year-old senior treasury assistant at Somerville College of Oxford—were arrested last week in connection with the murder. Lathem turned himself in at a courthouse in Oakland; and Warren surrendered to authorities at a police station in San Francisco.

The surrender marked the end of an eight-day nationwide manhunt after the two suspects fled Illinois. Before they turned themselves in, the men curiously made a $1000 donation to a Wisconsin library in the victim's name. Lathem also sent a video apology to friends and family over his role in the murder.