In the first image, the suspected murderer strides in through the revolving door of 30 N. Michigan Ave., wearing a red baseball cap and a gray jacket. A black bag is slung over his back.
About an hour later, the same man emerges from an elevator in the building, wearing a black stocking cap and holding the jacket–turned out to expose its white lining–over his face and torso.
Police believe the unknown man killed Dr. David Cornbleet Tuesday afternoon in his 12th-floor office in the time between when the two images were captured on security video.
There are several promising clues in the video images that police released Friday in hopes that someone might recognize the man. But police cannot get a clear view of the man’s face from the video.
“Hopefully, someone will see this and say, hey, that’s [someone they know],” Police Supt. Philip Cline said.
Police are working on a composite sketch from a description given by a woman who rode the elevator down with the man. She said he was hiding blood spatters behind the jacket.
Detectives do not believe robbery was the motive, said Cmdr. Steve Peterson, who is supervising the investigation. He said it appeared that Cornbleet struggled with his attacker before being stabbed several times with a “cutting instrument.”
The murder weapon has not been recovered, he said, and investigators were not sure whether it was a common knife or a surgical instrument used in the dermatologist’s practice.
Detectives are searching Cornbleet’s patient records for a person who fit the description of the man in the video: white, possibly with blond hair, in his late teens to early 20s, and between 5-10 and 6 feet tall, Peterson said.
The video also reveals that the man was carrying something in his shoulder bag on the way out that he did not have coming in–what looks like a white tube or roll of paper sticking out of the bag’s right side. Peterson and Cline said they don’t know whether the object is something he took, or if it was concealing another object.
An autopsy determined Cornbleet died of stab wounds, and the Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled the death a homicide.
At his memorial service in Temple Sholom of Chicago Friday morning, friends called Cornbleet a “Renaissance guy.”
Rabbi Aaron Petuchowski of the North Side temple called Cornbleet a caring husband, father and an “old school” doctor. On Saturdays “he’d have appointments until noon, but worked until 5 p.m.,” he said. “David never said no to anyone.”
Cornbleet and his wife, Aileen, had planned to celebrate the doctor’s upcoming 65th birthday in Las Vegas and their 40th wedding anniversary on a cruise, Petuchowski said.
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To view the video, visit www.chicagotribune.com/suspect