A possible serial killer investigation is unfolding in Lansing, Michigan, after police connected five male deaths and serious assaults along the Lansing River Trail.
Lansing Police Chief Robert Backus acknowledged the question during a recent press conference: Could a serial killer be operating in the city? He said investigators are examining every case and have not ruled out the possibility that they are connected.
The victims were white men ranging in age from 22 to 70 who were believed to be homeless. They were discovered along roughly a one-mile section of the trail between October 2025 and August 2026. Police believe the attacks or incidents took place overnight or during the early morning.
According to Backus, one man died from stab wounds, while the other victims suffered apparent blunt-force injuries, including severe trauma to the face.
Investigators suspect the men may have been lying down or sleeping when they were attacked. Backus said the victims’ positions and the conditions at each scene suggest a possible pattern, although police have not confirmed that conclusion.
The first known victim was 54-year-old Gino Chouinard, who was found on the trail with facial injuries on Oct. 14, 2025. He died in a hospital on Oct. 27. The medical examiner later listed his cause of death as undetermined.
On July 9, authorities found 70-year-old Denis Dunnebacke unresponsive beneath the Kalamazoo Street Bridge. Backus said Dunnebacke was breathing, covered in vomit and showing apparent injuries to his face.
Dunnebacke died on July 16, and the medical examiner has not yet released a final determination. Backus said conflicting details initially raised the possibility that his condition resulted from a medical event rather than a criminal assault.
Still, police treated the circumstances as suspicious. “When we have unknown instances, where we don’t know the cause of injuries,” Backus said, “we treat these as suspicious situations” and investigate them as serious assaults.
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Four days later, on July 13, officers found 57-year-old Robert Smith unconscious and bleeding from the head. His death was ultimately classified as a homicide.
Backus said investigators quickly noticed similarities between Smith’s death and the earlier case involving Chouinard, including the location and other circumstances surrounding the discoveries.
The fourth victim, 22-year-old Daniel Lusk, was found stabbed to death beneath the Michigan Avenue Bridge on Aug. 20.
As detectives pursued the case, they identified 23-year-old Edward Smith as a suspect. The prosecutor’s office charged him with open murder, Backus said.
Smith’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Oxygen, and it remains unclear whether Smith has entered a plea. Police have not named him as a suspect in the other cases.
The fifth victim, 57-year-old Louis Woodruff, was found beneath a bridge with facial injuries on Aug. 30. His death, like Robert Smith’s, was ruled a homicide.
Backus described the incidents as isolated events that occurred during the early morning hours. He said he does not currently believe the Lansing River Trail poses a safety risk outside that timeframe.
A Lansing Police Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to Oxygen’s request for additional comment.
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