Five men died after being found injured along a short stretch of the Lansing River Trail, and Lansing Police Chief Robert Backus says investigators now treat a related pattern as a live possibility. The cases span months on roughly one mile of the 20-mile path near downtown in Michigan’s capital, and one suspect already faces an open-murder charge in a single death.
The New York Post reported the chief’s public briefing on the discoveries, the limited camera coverage, and the question now hanging over the city. Backus did not declare a serial killer. He did say the scene details push police toward a connected theory while hard proof remains thin.
That posture matters for public safety along a trail used by runners, cyclists, and walkers, and for a justice system that must separate one charged case from four others still under review. Residents want answers. Police say they want evidence they do not yet have.
All five deceased men were white and ranged in age from 22 to 70. Reporting described them as appearing to be homeless. Authorities have not publicly detailed a confirmed housing status for each man.
The first case reached police on Oct. 14 last year. Gino Chouinard, 54, was found around 7:35 a.m. along the trail with injuries to his face. He died almost two weeks later. His cause of death remains undetermined.
On July 9 this year, Dennis Dunnebacke, 70, was found around 1:30 p.m. under the Kalamazoo Street Bridge, unresponsive and with facial injuries. Backus noted the find came 268 days after Chouinard’s death. Dunnebacke died a week later. His cause of death has not yet been confirmed.
Four days after that discovery, on July 13, Robert Smith, 57, was found unresponsive and bleeding from his head shortly before 8 a.m. He died three days later.
On Aug. 20, Daniel Lusk, 22, was found stabbed to death under the East Michigan Avenue bridge shortly before 4 a.m. Edward Smith, 23, was charged with open murder in Lusk’s death. Backus discussed that charge without linking Edward Smith to the other cases.
On Aug. 30, Louis Woodruff, 57, was found under the East Cesar Chavez bridge around 3:30 a.m. with facial injuries. He died on Sept. 1. His death was ruled a homicide.
Most of the men showed what appeared to be blunt force traumatic injuries to the facial area. Lusk’s case stands apart as a stabbing. Several causes of death remain pending or undetermined in public statements.
Backus told the public that police are investigating all of the cases and suspect a pattern. He framed the serial-killer issue as a question coming at the department, not as a closed finding.
He put the community’s worry in plain terms during the briefing.
"One question that we are being asked is ‘Do we have a serial killer in Lansing?’"
He then described the investigative stance without overstating certainty.
"We are looking at the idea or the possibility that these may be related cases,"
Backus pointed to how officers found the men and what surrounded them. He said the victims “were laying down, potentially even sleeping,” then added that police “don’t know that” for certain. The physical picture still shaped the working theory.
"But based on how we found our victims and their surroundings, it would lead us to believe that this could be a pattern,"
He also owned the limits of what he could say in public.
"When I’m reporting these patterns to you, I wish I had more information to share,"
And he returned to the same gap a moment later.
"I wish I could be more certain and concrete in what I say, but there are challenges in these cases."
Open murder is a serious Michigan charging form that keeps the degree of homicide open as the case develops. Edward Smith’s charge applies to Lusk’s death. Police have not publicly tied him to Chouinard, Dunnebacke, Robert Smith, or Woodruff.
Woodruff’s death carries a homicide ruling. That ruling marks manner of death. It is not the same thing as a completed prosecution. The other cases still lack fully settled public cause-of-death findings in the material police have shared.
Investigators will need to determine whether the facial trauma cases share a common weapon, attacker, or method. They will need to test whether Lusk’s stabbing belongs in the same series or stands alone. They will also need to resolve pending medical findings and any forensic links that have not been released.
No public results have been released that confirm witnesses tying all five scenes together. Backus stressed the opposite problem: thin visual evidence on the corridor where the bodies were found.
The Lansing River Trail runs about 20 miles and connects downtown Lansing toward Michigan State University in East Lansing. The deaths clustered on a small downtown section measured at roughly one mile. Bridges figure in several finds, including Kalamazoo Street, East Michigan Avenue, and East Cesar Chavez.
Backus said location undercut surveillance. He called cameras a hot topic and said more coverage would help.
"Because of location, [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,"
He added what that footage would supply.
"It would give us that objective evidence, especially during the times and locations that we’re covering today."
Early-morning and overnight discovery times appear again and again in the timeline. Chouinard was found near 7:35 a.m. Robert Smith was found shortly before 8 a.m. Lusk was found shortly before 4 a.m. Woodruff was found around 3:30 a.m. Dunnebacke’s afternoon find under a bridge still fit the same narrow geography.
Authorities have not publicly confirmed whether any single suspect beyond the Lusk case is in custody for the series. They have not publicly confirmed a motive. They have not released a full forensic map tying all five deaths to one actor.
Absolute calendar years for “last year” and “this year” were not fixed in the briefing language beyond those relative labels. Official manners and causes of death for Chouinard, Dunnebacke, and Robert Smith still need clear public resolution. Lusk’s stabbing has a charged defendant. Woodruff’s case has a homicide ruling. The bridge between those files and the earlier facial-injury deaths remains an open investigative question.
Police also have not said whether additional charging decisions are imminent. Court identifiers, plea posture, and full charging papers for Edward Smith were not laid out in the public summary. Who issued the Woodruff homicide ruling, and on what full medical findings, was not named in detail.
That leaves a city with five dead men, one defendant in one case, and a police chief describing a feared pattern without claiming a finished theory. The trail stays open to ordinary traffic while detectives work the gaps that cameras did not catch.
Law-and-order starts with clear facts, honest charging, and enough evidence to protect the living without inventing a closed story for the dead. When bodies fall along the same short path, institutions owe the public hard proof, not fog.
