Lansing police are investigating five deaths tied to a popular river trail near Michigan State University and say a suspect may have been targeting people at night. The probe has raised hard questions about whether the cases share a common pattern.

Fox News reported that the Lansing Police Department linked the deaths to the Lansing River Trail over the last year and described the investigation as active and ongoing. Officials said the victims appear to be homeless White men.

The trail runs close to campus. Students commute along the Red Cedar River on Michigan State University grounds, and the string of deaths has driven fresh safety warnings and visible security upgrades. For a college town that markets outdoor paths as everyday amenities, the stakes are public safety, police capacity, and whether the deaths point to a single attacker.

What police have confirmed so far

Police have publicly connected five deaths to the trail corridor. They have not released a full public roster of names, dates, and causes for every case. Investigators will need to determine what physical and forensic evidence, if any, ties the deaths beyond shared geography and victim profiles.

Daniel Lusk, 22, was the youngest of the five who died. Officers found him fatally stabbed under the East Michigan Avenue bridge on Aug. 20. The stabbing site sat less than a mile from campus.

On Sept. 3, police arrested Edward Joseph Smith, 23, in the Lusk stabbing. Smith has not been accused of any crime or involvement in the other four deaths. Charges and case numbers have not been detailed in the public accounts provided.

Louis Woodruff was critically injured and later died in the 300 block of East Oakland Avenue, with that event placed in a Sept. 16, 2026 context. Trail location photos were also tied to that date near the 200 block of East Cesar Chavez Avenue. Authorities have not publicly confirmed the full medical manner of death findings for every victim in the set.

Families and communities tracking multi-victim violence often watch how quickly agencies connect scenes and preserve evidence, a pressure also seen when a Long Beach police launch a homicide investigation after a body is found and early facts remain limited.

Chief faces the serial killer question

On Oct. 2, 2026, Lansing Police Chief Rob Backus spoke about the string of recent deaths along the Lansing River Trail during a news conference at police headquarters in downtown Lansing. Full verbatim remarks from that briefing were not reproduced in the seed package beyond later attributed lines.

The New York Post reported additional detail on the suspected pattern along a short stretch of the trail. It described at least five deaths of homeless men since last October, victims who were white men aged 22 to 70, with most suffering blunt force trauma to the face and one stabbed, often appearing to have been sleeping.

Backus addressed the fear directly in lines carried by that coverage.

"One question that we are being asked is ‘Do we have a serial killer in Lansing?’"

He also framed the investigative posture in plain terms.

"We are looking at the idea or the possibility that these may be related cases."

That wording matters. Police are testing a possible link. They have not announced a confirmed serial killer finding. Readers following other multi-victim cases, including coverage of a judge granting Bryan Kohberger a hearing to challenge a guilty plea in the Idaho student murders, know how carefully charging language and pattern claims must be handled in public.

Campus and city response

Michigan State University’s Department of Police and Public Safety sent a statement to Fox News Digital describing upgrades on the MSU portion of the River Trail. A spokesperson said the campus side now includes additional LED lighting and Green Light emergency phones with public safety cameras, with routine bike patrols by MSU police officers.

The same statement urged students to stay alert.

"We encourage students using the trail to remain aware of their surroundings and take reasonable precautions to help ensure their safety, especially at night."

Lansing Mayor Andy Schor also sent a statement to Fox News Digital stressing continued use of downtown and the trail while pointing to heavier police coverage.

"The Lansing River Trail and our downtown remain safe for residents and visitors. LPD has significantly increased their presence downtown and on the river trail at all hours of the day and night."

Increased presence is a tactical response. It does not by itself answer whether the five deaths share one offender, multiple offenders, or overlapping but unrelated violence. How cities handle high-risk corridors and repeat victimization remains a live policy fight, including when a mother of a murder victim slams California policy that could put serial killers back on the streets and demands tighter accountability.

Why these cases are hard to join

Criminologist Dr. David Hayes, in comments tied to WJBK and summarized in the Fox News package, said investigating these crimes is difficult. Unhoused people often lack the physical and digital “footprints,” such as cellphone data or consistent daily routines that housed people leave. Finding the “connective tissue” between cases is much harder as a result.

Hayes emphasized that if the cases are connected, it would be a tragic instance of a killer preying on highly vulnerable people. Motive has not been stated by police in the materials provided. Investigators still need to determine weapons, injury patterns across all five deaths, timelines of last known sightings, and any surveillance that places a common actor near multiple scenes.

Only one death is publicly described in detail as a fatal stabbing. Mechanisms for the remaining deaths were not spelled out in the seed package beyond the New York Post account of blunt force facial injuries in most cases and one stabbing. No public results have been released in these materials about full autopsy comparisons or DNA matches across the set.

Pattern cases can stretch for years before courts sort identity and count, a reality familiar to readers of international files such as an Iranian woman dubbed a black widow facing multiple death sentences after allegedly killing at least 10 former husbands.

What remains unresolved

Authorities have not publicly confirmed the names and exact causes of death for the three deceased individuals other than Lusk and Woodruff in the package used here. They have not said whether every death has been ruled a homicide. They have not detailed what evidence, beyond location, timing, and victim description, links all five files.

Smith’s arrest is limited in the public record to the Lusk stabbing. Investigators have not accused him in the other deaths. No charging statutes or case numbers appear in the provided materials.

Police say a suspect may have been targeting and attacking people at night. That claim sits inside an active investigation. It is not a completed prosecution narrative. Violent multi-victim episodes elsewhere, including when Orange County detectives say an Orlando father stabbed teenage twins then killed himself, show how quickly facts can harden once forensics and charging decisions land. Lansing is not yet at that stage on a full five-case theory.

Campus safety and institutional duty

MSU’s reminder to students and its lighting, cameras, emergency phones, and bike patrols mark a defensive shift on the campus segment of the path. City leaders likewise stress round-the-clock police presence downtown and on the trail.

Those steps address immediate risk. They do not replace the need for clear public updates on manner of death, scene linkages, and whether night targeting is a working theory or a confirmed modus operandi. Residents and students deserve plain answers as evidence is tested.

Homeless men sleeping along a short urban trail are easy to overlook until body counts force a response. If police establish a true pattern, the failure will not be only forensic. It will be whether local government treated vulnerable victims as full victims from the first scene forward.

Law and order starts with equal protection on the path after dark, not with soft language that papers over an open pattern probe.