Josephina Betancourt’s body is recovered from the Grand River in May. Her boyfriend, Manuel Pena, 56, last seen in April, is recovered October 7 after a fisherman finds his leg. No cause of death had been determined when Pena was identified. River recoveries, not trail assaults; listed for location only.Source: Associated Press via CBS Detroit, October 2015

A Lansing man in his 20s is found around 7 a.m. under a bridge on the trail near Kalamazoo Street, a belt around his neck tied to a railing. Police call the death suspicious; no cause is immediately apparent. Same bridge where Dennis Dunnebacke would be found in 2026.Clutch has not located a published cause-of-death finding or a public name.Source: CBS Detroit (WWJ), citing the Lansing State Journal, July 26, 2016

An unhoused man reports that someone came out of the woods swinging a knife at him. He is cut on the neck and survives. Lansing Township police cannot find the attacker and say they have no reports of other attacks.Source: FOX 47 News (report undated)

Lansing police and fire crews recover a body near the Brenke Fish Ladder. Police later say he was a 49-year-old man. The circumstances of his death have not been released. Under the chief’s October 2 statement, this death is not one of the assault-related cases.Source: WILX News 10, April 2026

Police called to East Oakland Avenue near Washington Avenue find a man unresponsive with serious injuries to his face. He is taken to the hospital.Source: WILX, Oct. 27, 2025; WILX, Oct. 2, 2026

Police say they are awaiting the medical examiner and investigating whether a crime occurred. The man’s name is not released. The medical examiner later rules the cause of death undetermined.Source: WILX, Oct. 27, 2025; WILX, Oct. 2, 2026

Officers working the trail find him unresponsive and breathing, with apparent facial injuries. The major crimes unit responds. Hospital staff give conflicting information about whether the incident was medical. Police investigate it as a serious assault.Source: WILX, Oct. 2, 2026

Officers called to the 300 block of East Oakland Avenue find Smith and take him to the hospital in critical condition. Major crimes detectives respond.Source: WILX, Sept. 21, 2026; WILX, Oct. 2, 2026

Chief Backus later says the department recognized immediately, from the location and other common factors, that Smith’s case was very similar to Chouinard’s.This similarity was not shared publicly until the October 2 press conference.Source: WILX, Oct. 2, 2026

Two days after Smith is found, the department shares information about the case, including that he was assaulted.Source: WILX, Oct. 2, 2026

Backus later explains that when medical information suggests an incident may not be criminal, the department does not regularly share it with the media. The medical examiner has not issued a finding.The public does not learn of this death until October 2, eleven weeks later.Source: WILX, Oct. 2, 2026

Smith dies four days after he was found.Source: WILX, Sept. 21, 2026

Officers dispatched to the 300 block of East Michigan Avenue, near the Lansing Center, for a suspicious situation find Lusk with a stab wound. He is pronounced dead at the scene. City Pulse reports it as the city’s fourth homicide of the year.Source: WILX, Aug. 20 and 24, 2026; City Pulse, Aug. 2026

The mayor calls the stabbing a tragedy, says police are aggressively looking for the attacker, and says the city’s parks and nearly 30 miles of river trail remain safe places for residents and visitors.Chouinard, Dunnebacke, and Smith had already died, and police had connected two of their cases internally.Source: WILX, Aug. 20 and 24, 2026

Police find him in the 200 block of East Cesar Chavez Avenue in the Old Town section of the trail. He is rushed to the hospital.Source: WILX, Sept. 2, 2026; WILX, Oct. 2, 2026

His family makes the decision so he would not spend the rest of his life in a vegetative state. Police classify the death as a homicide.Source: WILX, Sept. 2, 2026; WILX, Oct. 2, 2026

Louis Woodruff’s daughter, who had not seen her father in fifteen years, tells WILX that the trail holds memories of him teaching his children to fish. She asks why the city is focused on license plate cameras instead of protecting people on the trail.Source: WILX, Sept. 2, 2026

In the same WILX story, police say they are exploring a possible connection and have added patrols.The first public acknowledgment of a possible connection Clutch Justice found. It came in response to a family’s public questions.Source: WILX, Sept. 2, 2026

The ruling comes Friday, September 18. Police announce it Monday, September 21, and say no suspect or motive information is available.Nine weeks after Smith died.Source: WILX, Sept. 21, 2026

Regular trail users describe narrow wooded stretches under railroad bridges. Richard Miles of the Friends of the Lansing Regional Trails advises daytime use, awareness, and sharing your location. Police say they have increased patrols and are still determining whether the incidents are connected.Source: WILX, Sept. 29, 2026

Chief Backus says investigators identified Edward Smith as the suspect in the Lusk stabbing. He is presumed innocent. Police have not said whether this case fits the pattern described in the other four.Source: WILX, Oct. 2, 2026

All five victims were unhoused. Investigators believe the injuries happened overnight or early morning while the men were lying down, possibly asleep. Backus discloses Dunnebacke’s death publicly for the first time and opens a dedicated tip line at 517-483-6023. He says there are no other assault-related deaths on the trail outside these five.Dedicated tip line opens nearly a year after Chouinard was found.Source: WILX, Oct. 2, 2026

Police have deployed camera trailers and extra patrols, are exploring permanent cameras at overpasses and bridges, and have worked with advocacy groups to keep unhoused people off the trail in the early morning hours, reporting a 50 percent reduction in people in those areas.Source: WILX, Oct. 2, 2026

Clutch Justice publishes “Lansing Police Saw a Pattern in July. A Daughter Made It Public in September.” and begins tracking the case in real time.Source: Clutch Justice, Oct. 4, 2026