Aamer Madhani

USA TODAY

CHICAGO — Authorities are searching for a Northwestern University professor and University of Oxford employee wanted in connection with the stabbing death of a 26-year-old Chicago man.

Cook County Judge Sandra Ramos issued first-degree murder warrants Monday for Wyndham Lathem, 42, a Northwestern associate professor of microbiology-immunology, and Andrew Warren, who is listed as an employee of Somerville College at Oxford, in the death of Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, whose body was found in a high-rise in Chicago’s posh River North neighborhood.

Lathem and Warren allegedly "stabbed (Cornell-Duranleau) multiple times thereby causing the death," according to the arrest warrant.

Police arrived at Lathem's apartment shortly after an employee at the building's front desk notified authorities of an anonymous call about a crime in the professor's apartment. When the officers arrived, they found a gruesome scene, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Cornell-Dureanleau, who suffered multiple lacerations, was pronounced dead on the scene.

Lathem and Warren, who police described as "armed and dangerous," are believed to have left Chicago, Guglielmi said. He said the pair had a relationship with the victim but declined to elaborate. Cornell-Duranleau, who was living in Chicago, was licensed as a cosmetologist in his native Michigan, according to Michigan's Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

"Something pivotal happened that resulted in the victim being attacked," Guglielmi said.

The Northwestern professor has been placed on administrative leave and is banned from entering the school’s campuses, university spokesman Alan Cubbage said in a statement.

“There is no indication of any risk to the Northwestern community from this individual at this time,” Cubbage added.

Warren is a senior treasury assistant at Oxford's Somerville College, according the university's directory.

"Andrew Warren’s colleagues at Somerville College have now all been informed and are shocked to learn of the case," Oxford said in a statement. "Whatever the circumstances, we would urge him to contact the US authorities as soon as possible, in the best interests of everyone concerned.”

Chicago Police issued an all-points-bulletin to departments across the country to be on the lookout for the men, and notified the State Department as well because Warren holds a British passport.

"The investigation is only intensifying," Guglielmi said. "We strongly encourage them to do the right thing and turn themselves in."

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