A serial killer is feared to be targeting homeless people in Michigan’s state capital after a string of similar deaths were discovered along a hiking trail.
At least five deaths have been reported along a short stretch of a river trail in Lansing since last October — with all of the victims appearing to be homeless people who were “potentially even sleeping,” Lansing Police Chief Robert Backus said at a press conference.
“One question that we are being asked is ‘Do we have a serial killer in Lansing?’” Backus said, adding that authorities are “investigating all of these cases” and suspect there is “a pattern.”
“We are looking at the idea or the possibility that these may be related cases,” he added.
The five deaths — all white men between the ages of 22 and 70 — occurred along a small, roughly one-mile section of the 20-mile Lansing River Trail, near the downtown area.
The popular trail — frequented by runners, cyclists and walkers — connects downtown Lansing to Michigan State University in East Lansing, according to a city website.
Tthe five victims “were laying down, potentially even sleeping” when killed in the early hour, Barkus said, while cautioning that they “don’t know that” for certain.
“But based on how we found our victims and their surroundings, it would lead us to believe that this could be a pattern,” the top cop warned.
Most of the dead men suffered “what appear to be blunt force traumatic injuries to the facial area,” while one was stabbed, Backus said.
The first incident was reported on Oct. 14 last year when 54-year-old Gino Chouinard was found around 7:35 a.m. along the trail with injuries to his face, Backus said.
Chouinard died almost two weeks later and his cause of death remains undetermined.
Then on July 9 this year — “268 days after the death of Mr. Chouinard” — the eldest victim, Dennis Dunnebacke, 70, was found around 1:30 p.m., unresponsive with facial injuries under Kalamazoo Street Bridge, the chief said.
Dunnebacke died a week later and his cause of death has also yet to be confirmed.
Less than a week later, Robert Smith, 57, was found unresponsive and bleeding from his head on July 13 shortly before 8 a.m., according to the top cop. He died three days later.
Just over a month after that, Daniel Lusk, 22, was found stabbed to death under the East Michigan Avenue bridge shortly before 4 a.m. on Aug. 20.
A suspect — Edward Smith, 23 — has been charged with open murder in Luck’s death, Backus said, without linking him to the others.
The final victim, Louis Woodruff, 57, was found under the East Cesar Chavez bridge around 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 30 with facial injuries, according to Backus.
He died two days later on Sept. 1, and the death was ruled a homicide.
“When I’m reporting these patterns to you, I wish I had more information to share,” Backus said, adding, “I wish I could be more certain and concrete in what I say, but there are challenges in these cases.”
The chief said among the challenges are the locations and times of the incidents, noting that there are no cameras or witnesses.
“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,” Backus said.
“It would give us that objective evidence, especially during the times and locations that we’re covering today.”
