Lansing police weigh serial-killer link after five River Trail deaths

Lansing police are investigating whether a serial killer may be behind five deaths along the River Trail, with patterns pointing to victims attacked while they were down and possibly asleep.

Police Chief Robert Backus laid out the details at an Oct. 2 press conference, telling the public that five recent deaths along the Lansing River Trail remain active cases and that investigators are examining whether they are connected.

ABC News reported that Backus addressed the question hanging over Michigan’s capital city head-on while stressing that the department is moving carefully.

“One question that we are being asked is ‘Do we have a serial killer in Lansing?’” Backus said.

"What we need the public to know is that we are investigating all of these cases. They are all active investigations, and we are looking at the idea or the possibility that these may be related cases."

The victims were all white males, ages 22 to 70. Four of the five cases appear to involve blunt-force trauma to the face. No weapon has been identified in those four. One case was a stabbing, and a suspect is already in custody for that killing.

Five men dead along the same trail

The timeline stretches from fall 2025 into late summer 2026, all tied to the Lansing River Trail.

On Oct. 14, 2025, officers responded to a call about an injured person and found 54-year-old Gino Chouinard with facial injuries. He died on Oct. 27. The medical examiner’s office later listed the cause of death as undetermined.

On July 9, 2026, police working on the trail found 70-year-old Denis Dunnebacke unresponsive. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition and died on July 16. No medical examiner finding had been issued at the time of Backus’s update.

Four days after Dunnebacke was found, on July 13, 57-year-old Robert Smith was discovered unresponsive and bleeding from the head. He died on July 17. On Sept. 17, the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide.

On Aug. 20, 2026, 22-year-old Daniel Lusk was found stabbed to death. Police arrested Edward Joseph Smith and charged him with open murder. A court docket shows he was arraigned on Sept. 3.

Then, on Aug. 30, officers found 57-year-old Louis Woodruff under a bridge with apparent facial injuries. He was hospitalized and died on Sept. 1. That incident was classified as a homicide.

Backus says victims appear to have been down when attacked

Backus described the pattern investigators see so far. He said the department looks for information, trends, and patterns, and has developed some.

"We believe that our victims in this case were lying down, potentially even sleeping. We don't know that, but based on how we found our victims and their surroundings, it would lead us to believe that this could be a pattern."

That detail matters. If people were struck while down or asleep, the attacks were not random street fights. They look more like someone hunting soft targets on a public trail.

Four deaths show traumatic injuries to the facial area with no known weapon recovered. Only Lusk’s case is a confirmed stabbing with an arrested suspect.

One suspect in custody, and a hard line on overreach

Edward Joseph Smith is charged in the Lusk stabbing. The public question followed quickly: Is he tied to the other deaths too?

Backus refused to stretch the case.

"I've mentioned that we have a suspect in custody for one of these incidents. And so, the question that's been posed to us is, is this a suspect for all the incidents?"

He added that the question is hard to answer and that he has to be cautious.

"Using a suspect, and then with that name using that to develop or find evidence that meets your theory, that leads you down a road of inappropriate charges, misidentification, some very big problems. So in law enforcement, our responsibility and our ethics demand that we approach this in the right manner."

That is the right standard. Rushing a theory to calm the public can wreck a case and put the wrong man in prison. Solid charges beat a convenient story.

ABC News said it reached out to an attorney listed for Smith on the docket. No response was included in the reporting.

Cameras are thin and a tip line is open

Backus also pointed to a practical gap: limited surveillance along the trail.

"We don't have a lot of surveillance footage, and that's a hot topic right now. And I do believe more surveillance would help us. More cameras would help us in this scenario."

Public trails that draw foot traffic at night without cameras invite predators. When five men turn up dead or dying along the same corridor, the lack of video is not a minor inconvenience. It is a hole in basic public safety.

The department has set up a tip line specifically for River Trail assaults. Backus urged the public to bring forward information while investigators keep all five cases open and test whether they connect.

Medical examiner results still lag in places. Chouinard’s cause remains undetermined. Dunnebacke’s finding had not been issued. Robert Smith’s death was ruled a homicide weeks after he died. Woodruff’s case is classified as a homicide. The blunt-force cases still lack a recovered weapon.

None of that is settled science that one killer is at work. It is a police chief telling residents the department sees patterns worth treating seriously, victims down or sleeping, facial trauma, the same trail, without pretending the link is proven.

Lansing is Michigan’s capital. A river trail should be a place people can walk without wondering whether someone is hunting them in the dark. Five dead men say that trust is broken until these cases are solved.

More cameras, more tips, and careful police work beat panic and guesswork, and the people who use that trail deserve all three.