Police said on October 2, 2026 that all five men were unhoused. Listed in the order they were found.
Found unconscious with serious injuries to his face. Police described the death as suspicious when he died and did not release his name at the time. As of October 2, 2026, police have no new suspect information.
Found by officers working the trail, unresponsive, with apparent facial injuries. The major crimes unit responded and police investigated it as a serious assault. Because hospital staff suggested the incident might be medical, the department did not release it to the media. The public first learned of his death on October 2, eleven weeks after he died.
Found bleeding from the head in the same area where Chouinard was found. Chief Backus said the department recognized immediately that the case was very similar to Chouinard’s. Police identified him as an assault victim two days after he was found and announced the homicide ruling September 21. No suspect information has been released.
The only one of the five killed by a stab wound and the only case with a charged suspect. Lansing police included his death among the five cases they are reviewing. Police have not said whether it fits the pattern described in the others.
Found by police with severe facial injuries. His family removed him from life support two days later. His daughter remembers him teaching his children to fish on the river trail. He had three grandchildren he never met.
Had not seen her father in fifteen years when her aunt called the morning he was found. On September 2, she told WILX the city should put cameras on the trail, especially at a spot where people kept getting hurt, and asked why the city was debating license plate cameras instead of protecting people on the trail. Police said in that same story that they were exploring whether the deaths were connected, the first such public statement Clutch Justice has found.
Has spoken to the press throughout September and October about trail safety, acknowledging the tradeoff between surveillance concerns and safety, and advising trail users to go out in daylight, walk with a partner, and share their location. After the October 2 press conference, he said more transparency from Lansing police would leave everyone better off.
Held the October 2, 2026 press conference laying out all five cases. Said the cases may be related, could not rule out a serial killer, described the victims as unhoused men attacked overnight while lying down, opened a dedicated tip line, and disclosed Dunnebacke’s death publicly for the first time. Explained that the department does not regularly release incidents that medical information suggests may not be criminal.
On August 20, 2026, the day Daniel Lusk was killed, issued a statement calling the stabbing a tragedy and saying the city’s parks and river trail remain safe places. By that date, Chouinard, Dunnebacke, and Smith had already died.
Has ruled Chouinard’s cause of death undetermined, ruled Smith’s death a homicide on September 18, 2026, and has not yet issued a finding on Dunnebacke. The office’s findings determine whether a death is counted as a homicide.
Identified by Lansing police as the suspect in the August 20 stabbing of Daniel Lusk and charged with open murder. He is presumed innocent. He is a different person from Robert Smith, one of the five men who died. Police have not connected him to any of the other four deaths.