A British gorilla expert died after her throat was slit while she was bound and gagged in her Cameroon home. Ymke Warren, 40, was apparently attacked by a man armed with a machete hiding in her attic. It's not certain if the killing occurred during a robbery or if she was singled out for attack. "We would all like to think that this is a robbery gone wrong, but we don't know," said a friend. Warren was found by her boyfriend, who rushed her to a local hospital where she was declared dead, reports the Telegraph.
The two were studying threatened Cross River gorillas in a project run by the American Wildlife Conservation Society. Warren was a highly respected primatologist who escaped genocide in Rwanda in the early 90s, and then ran the Dian Fossey project. Fossey, an American zoologist and famed gorilla protector, was murdered by suspected poachers in Rwanda in 1985. Police are continuing to investigate Warren's murder.
(More Dian Fossey stories.)