Lansing police weigh links in five River Trail deaths

LANSING — Lansing police are investigating whether the violent deaths of five homeless men along the city’s River Trail over the past year are connected, Police Chief Rob Backus said Friday.

“One question we are being asked is ‘Do we have a serial killer in Lansing,’” Backus said at an Oct. 2 press conference, MLive reported. “We are investigating all of these cases. They are all active investigations and we are looking at the idea or the possibility that these may be related cases.”

The men were found injured on Oct. 14, 2025, and on July 9, July 13, Aug. 20 and Aug. 30 of this year, according to MLive. They ranged in age from 22 to 70, and four had injuries to the face or head.

All five attacks happened overnight or in the early morning along a 1-mile stretch of the trail, most of them in north Lansing, the Detroit Free Press reported.

“We believe our victims were lying down, maybe even sleeping,” Backus said, according to the Free Press.

A medical examiner has ruled three of the deaths homicides. One was ruled undetermined, and another remains under investigation, MLive reported.

One case has brought a charge. A 23-year-old man was arraigned Sept. 3 on an open murder charge in the Aug. 20 stabbing death of Daniel Lusk, 22, the Free Press reported. In the other four cases, the men died at hospitals days after they were found, according to MLive.

Police have placed portable cameras along the trail and are weighing the cost of permanent ones, Backus said. Patrols on the trail were stepped up in June, and night-shift officers now check it overnight for people sleeping there so they can be moved, according to the two reports.

“We don’t have a lot of surveillance footage,” Backus said. “More would help us.”

Asked whether the trail is safe for public use, Backus said, “I do not have a concern for safety on the river trail outside of those hours,” referring to the overnight and early-morning hours when the attacks happened, the Free Press reported.

Police ask anyone with information about the deaths to call the department’s tip line at 517-483-6023.

Sources:
MLive, “Lansing police investigating ‘commonalities’ of 5 homeless deaths along city’s River Trail,” Oct. 2026, https://www.mlive.com/news/2026/10/lansing-police-investigating-commonalities-of-5-homeless-deaths-along-citys-river-trail.html
Detroit Free Press / USA TODAY Network, Jalen Williams, Ken Palmer, Rachel Greco and Dan Basso, “Deaths on Lansing River Trail raise fears. Is there a serial killer?” Oct. 5, 2026, https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2026/10/05/lansing-river-trail-deaths-serial-killer-homicide/92101619007/
Photo: Tony Webster (Flickr), “Lansing River Trail on the Grand River - Old Town - César E. Chávez Avenue - Lansing - Michigan,” Jan. 9, 2023, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), cropped and color-corrected, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lansing_River_Trail_on_the_Grand_River_-_Old_Town_-_C%C3%A9sar_E._Ch%C3%A1vez_Avenue_-_Lansing_-_Michigan.jpg

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