Lansing police investigate whether five deaths of unhoused men along a trail are linked

Police in Lansing, Michigan, are investigating whether five deaths of unhoused men along a single stretch of the city's River Trail since October 2025 are the work of one attacker, the Lansing Police Department said this week. Chief Robert Backus has stopped short of confirming a serial killer is active in the capital city, but said investigators are treating the possibility seriously as they work five still-open homicide and death investigations.

"What we need the public to know is that we are investigating all of these cases," Backus said at an Oct. 2 news conference, according to WDIV ClickOnDetroit. "They are all active investigations. And we are looking at the idea or the possibility that these may be related cases. We look for information, we look for trends, we look for patterns, and we have developed some."

Five deaths in under a year

All five victims were unhoused men found along a roughly mile-long stretch of the Lansing River Trail, a paved path that runs about 20 miles through the city, between Old Town and Kalamazoo Street. Police say the men ranged in age from 22 to 70:

• Gino Chouinard, 54, found beaten with facial injuries on Oct. 14, 2025, near Center and Monroe streets. He died Oct. 27; a cause of death has not been determined.
• Denis Dunnebacke, 70, found with facial injuries on July 9, 2026, under the Kalamazoo Street bridge. He died July 16; police say conflicting information has left open the possibility his death was medical rather than criminal, and the medical examiner has not issued a ruling.
• Robert William Smith, 57, found unresponsive and bleeding from the head on July 13 near Center and Monroe streets. He died July 17; a medical examiner ruled his death a homicide.
• Daniel Lusk, 22, found stabbed on Aug. 20 under the Michigan Avenue bridge. He is the only victim with an identified suspect: Edward Smith, 23, was arrested and charged with open murder.
• Louis Woodruff, 57, found with facial injuries on Aug. 30 near East Cesar Chavez Avenue. He died Sept. 1 and his death is being investigated as a homicide.

Four of the five men died from injuries to the head and face; Lusk was stabbed. Police say all the attacks happened in the early morning hours, in areas without surveillance cameras, and that the victims were likely lying down — sleeping outdoors — when they were attacked.

A vulnerable population, a hard case to make

Criminologists who reviewed the pattern for local reporters say the cases share enough in common to warrant scrutiny even without a confirmed serial offender. "We have a definite victim type. If these are connected and we have a definite M.O., they were all around the bridge. They were probably all sleeping rough," David Hayes, a criminologist, told CBS News Detroit. "What it looks like is, if they are connected, then there could potentially be a single offender with this."

Karen Holt, a criminal justice professor at Michigan State University who studies homicide patterns, cautioned that the switch from blunt-force attacks to a stabbing does not rule out a connection. "In the media that we consume and the portrayals of serial killers, we typically think they're going to do the exact same thing. They're going to leave that signature at every scene. But that's not necessarily the case," Holt said. She added that improvements in policing and surveillance over the past two decades, combined with the tight geographic clustering of the deaths within Ingham County, could help investigators spot a pattern faster than in past decades.

Unhoused people are disproportionately exposed to violence nationally. On a single night in January 2024, more than 770,000 people were experiencing homelessness across the United States, including 274,224 who were unsheltered, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development's most recent Annual Homeless Assessment Report — an 18 percent jump from the prior year. People sleeping outdoors, without locked doors or cameras nearby, are generally harder for police to protect and for investigators to build timelines around, which officials in Lansing say has complicated the case.

Who is affected

Lansing's unhoused community is the group most directly at risk, and advocates say the uncertainty is taking a toll. Kelsea Hector, executive director of the outreach group Punks with Lunch, said the lack of answers is especially unsettling because the people she works with are usually quick to share what they see on the street.

"We just have a lot of anxiety around, could one of our people be next?" said Hector, who added that her organization does not believe another unhoused person is responsible for the deaths.

Her outreach team has increased nighttime check-ins along the trail, but she said they want to do more. The Ingham County Prosecutor's Office declined to comment on the pending cases.

What happens next

Lansing Mayor Andy Schor said the city has already increased police presence on the trail "at all hours of the day and night" and is leaning on street outreach teams to move unhoused residents toward overnight shelter. "The investigation into these tragic deaths is ongoing, including any possible connections between them," Schor said in a statement to local media. "We are unable to provide any further information at this point. However, to confirm information that was already shared, we do have a suspect in custody connected to one of the homicides on the river trail."

Police have set up a dedicated tip line, 517-483-6023, and installed mobile camera trailers along stretches of the trail that previously had no coverage. Four of the five cases remain without an identified suspect, and medical examiners have yet to issue final rulings in two of them. Backus said investigators will continue cross-referencing the cases for shared evidence, witnesses or forensic links as the department decides whether to formally characterize the deaths as connected.