A US-wide manhunt has been launched for an Oxford University employee suspected of murdering a 26-year-old man.
Chicago police have issued an arrest warrant for 56-year-old Andrew Warren - a senior treasury assistant at the university’s Somerville College - following the fatal stabbing of Trenton Cornell-Duranleau.
Officers are also hunting bubonic plague expert Wyndham Lathem, a 42-year-old microbiology professor at Northwestern University, in connection with the killing, the Press Association reported.
Police say Cornell-Duranleau - thought to be a hair stylist - was found with multiple stab wounds in his 10th floor apartment near the city centre last Thursday, before being pronounced dead at the scene.
Residents were told by the building’s managers that police were investigating “a variety of motives including a possible domestic incident”, the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper reported.
According to an Oxford University web page which has since been deleted, suspect Warren is in charge of payroll and pensions at Somerville College.
While court files give his address as the Oxford College, he claims to live in Swindon, Wiltshire on his Facebook page.
Social media accounts also suggest he has previously worked as a cashier and a Stagecoach driver in the past.
According to the Chicago Tribune, an Oxford University statement said it was “not aware of this case, which is clearly extremely concerning”.
“We will liaise with the relevant investigating authorities and provide any assistance that is required,” it added.
Meanwhile Lathem, who specialises in the bacteria that caused the bubonic plague, has worked at Northwestern since 2007.
Alan Cubbage, vice president of the university, said Lathem has been banned from the campus and placed on administrative leave.
Cubbage added: “This is now a criminal matter under investigation by the appropriate authorities, and Northwestern University is co-operating in that investigation.”
Lathem is friends with the victim on Facebook but their relationship is not yet clear.