Five men have died along a narrow stretch of the Lansing River Trail since October 2025, and police still cannot say whether one person is responsible. One suspect, 23-year-old Edward Joseph Smith, faces an open murder charge in the stabbing death of 22-year-old Daniel Lusk, but investigators have not formally tied him to the other four deaths along the same riverfront corridor.
Smith was charged on September 3, 2026, in connection with Lusk's death, which was discovered on August 20 along the trail, according to court and police records reported by ClickOnDetroit. He is being held without bond pending a mental health evaluation, and the outlet notes that Lusk was the only victim of the five killed with a knife, while the other four suffered severe blunt force trauma. The string of deaths has sparked fears that a serial killer may be targeting unhoused men along the trail.
The five victims found along the trail were identified as 54-year-old Gino Chouinard, found October 14, 2025; 70-year-old Denis Dunnebacke, found July 9, 2026; 57-year-old Robert William Smith, found July 13, 2026; 22-year-old Daniel Lusk, found August 20, 2026; and 57-year-old Louis Woodruff, found August 30, 2026, according to ABC10. The timeline spans nearly eleven months, with four of the five deaths clustered in the last four months alone.
Police Describe a Disturbing Pattern
During an October 2 press conference, Lansing Police Chief Robert Backus said all five victims were white, unhoused men who were attacked overnight while sleeping or lying down along a roughly 1-mile stretch of the trail, as reported by FOX 2 Detroit. Four of the five men suffered severe facial and head trauma, and in those cases no physical weapon was ever identified or recovered, the station reported.
The distinction between a feared serial killer and a confirmed one matters legally, and right now the paperwork doesn't support the fear entirely. The Ingham County Medical Examiner's Office officially ruled Robert William Smith's death a homicide on September 18, and it is investigating Louis Woodruff's death as a homicide as well, but cause-of-death rulings remain pending or undetermined for both Gino Chouinard and Denis Dunnebacke, according to the same ClickOnDetroit report. That leaves only three of the five deaths formally classified as homicides so far.
Lansing Police spokesperson Jordan Gulkis confirmed that patrols along the River Trail were increased starting June 14, 2026, weeks before four of the victims were discovered, according to WKAR Public Media. Investigators have struggled with the case because of a lack of overnight witnesses and the absence of surveillance cameras along that stretch of riverfront, the station reported.
Could One Weapon Change Rule Out a Single Killer?
The shift from blunt force trauma to a stabbing in Lusk's case has raised questions about whether the attacks could still be connected.
The Lansing River Trail itself spans more than 20 miles along the Grand and Red Cedar rivers, linking Old Town, Downtown Lansing, REO Town, and Michigan State University, according to Choose Lansing. Yet all five victims were found within a concentrated 1-mile to 1.5-mile corridor between Old Town and Kalamazoo Street, a detail that underscores how isolated this particular stretch is compared to the trail's broader footprint.
A Growing Homeless Population Along the Riverfront
The deaths have drawn attention to a broader crisis facing Lansing's unsheltered population. Point-in-time homelessness data managed by the Capital Region Housing Collaborative showed unsheltered homelessness in Ingham County surged 32% between 2022 and 2025, according to the Spartan Newsroom. A separate city-commissioned study found that more than 2,370 individuals used emergency shelters, outreach teams, or housing programs in Lansing in 2023.
City officials have been working to expand shelter capacity even before the trail deaths drew national attention. The City of Lansing held a public meet-and-greet in August 2026 for its $1.4 million NOVA Lansing Housing Initiative, which aims to build 50 emergency shelter pods, following the expected May 2026 opening of The Nest, a downtown shelter offering overnight beds and daytime wrap-around services, according to the city's official website.
As national media attention intensified this month, WKAR reported increased police presence along the trail and street outreach by social workers meant to connect unhoused residents with emergency shelter. For now, the city is left managing both a public safety investigation and a housing crisis that put five vulnerable men in harm's way along the same stretch of pavement.
