CHICAGO–Two suspects in the murder of 26-year-old Trenton Cornell-Duranleau have been taken into custody "without incident'' by authorities in California, officials said.
Andrew Warren was arrested in San Francisco and Prof. Wyndham Lathem surrendered to U.S. Marshals at the federal courthouse in Oakland, according to Ed Farrell, a supervisory inspector of the U. S. Marshal Service's Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force.
Lathem, 42, is an associate professor of microbiology at Northwestern University and Warren, 56, is an employee of Oxford University in England.
About 6:30 p.m. Friday, Warren walked into the San Francisco Police Department's Park District Station by himself and turned himself in, said Officer Grace Gatpandan, a spokesperson for the department.
Warren had not communicated with San Francisco officers before his surrender, Gatpandan said.
Both men were taken into custody "without incident,'' said Chief Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi late Friday.
They will appear before an Oakland Court and be returned to Chicago where they will be questioned by homicide detectives, Guglielmi said.
Cornell-Duranleau, 26, was found repeatedly stabbed and slashed in Prof. Lathem's home on July 27 on Chicago's Near North Side.
Earlier Friday, police said Lathem sent a video message to family and friends apologizing for "his involvement" in the slaying. In the video, Lathem said he'd made "the biggest mistake of his life," Guglielmi said.
On Thursday, police said either Lathem or Warren made a $1,000 cash donation in Cornell-Duranleau's name at the Lake Geneva Public Library on the day of the slaying. The person gave no indication why the contribution was being made.
Both men were wanted on charges of first-degree murder. Earlier, police said they had an idea of where the men fled.
Warren traveled to the United States for the first time just three days before the slaying.
"We believe they're together or (at) least in very close communication," said Guglielmi earlier.
Guglielmi would not say when the video was made or when it was sent out. He urged Lathem to turn himself in.
"At this point, he's reached out to family and friends," Guglielmi said earlier. "We don't want to see this get any worse."
Police believe Cornell-Duranleau was killed in Lathem's apartment around 5 a.m. on July 27. But officers were not alerted until an anonymous caller reached the front desk of the building around 8:30 p.m., more than 15 hours later. They found Cornell-Duranleau lying face down, dead from stab wounds to his back, law enforcement sources said. In the kitchen, police found a knife with a broken blade in the trash can and another knife near the sink. Blood was everywhere, the sources said.
Police said they suspect Lathem fled with Warren. Both men were seen on surveillance video at the building, police said.
Around 5 p.m. that day – more than three hours before the body was discovered – one of the suspects walked into the library in Lake Geneva, Wis., and approached the circulation desk, according to Lake Geneva Police Lt. Edward Gritzner.
The man told a staffer he wanted to make a donation in the name of Cornell-Duranleau but asked to remain anonymous. The staffer accepted $1,000 in cash from the man, who turned and left through the main door.
No one saw him get into a car.
The man did not specify what he wanted the money to be used for, and Gritzner described it as a "general'' donation, nothing unusual for the library.
"They do take donations, a lot, as a matter of fact," he said. "Accepting a donation is not uncommon."
Four days later, Chicago police detectives arrived at the library and began asking questions. They showed the staffer a photograph of the suspects and the staffer picked the man out.
The library does not have video surveillance, Gritzner said. He did not know if the man was Lathem or Warren.
Authorities have so far offered little information about what may have led to the attack. Lathem and Cornell-Duranleau were involved in some sort of relationship and had "some type of falling out," Guglielmi said. He could not elaborate on the relationship and could not say how Warren knew Lathem and Cornell-Duranleau.
Cornell-Duranleau, who had been living in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood, grew up in the small town of Lennon in eastern Michigan. He attended high school in Grand Rapids and earned a state certification in cosmetology in 2011. He moved to Chicago last year, telling friends he got a job at a salon in the city.