Possible Serial Killer Targets Homeless in Michigan
Left 50%
Center 0%
Right 50%
1 left · 0 center · 1 right
What happened
Between October 2025 and September 2026, five men who appeared to be homeless were found dead or fatally injured along roughly the same one-mile stretch of the Lansing River Trail in Lansing, Michigan. Gino Chouinard, 54, was found unconscious with head trauma on October 14, 2025, and died on October 27 with his cause of death still undetermined; Denis Dunnebacke, 70, was found with severe head trauma on July 9, 2026, and died on July 16; Robert Smith, 57, was found with severe head trauma on July 13 and died on July 17; Daniel Lusk, 22, was found with a fatal stab wound on August 20; and Louis Woodruff, 57, was found with facial trauma on August 30 and died on September 1. Police arrested Edward Joseph Smith, 23, in connection with Lusk’s death and have not accused him in the other four; Lansing Police Chief Robert Backus said investigators are looking at the possibility the cases “may be related” and that the circumstances “could be a pattern,” though they have not established that the deaths are connected. Four of the five men were found with severe facial injuries, police said the victims appear to be homeless white men, and officers suspect the injuries were inflicted overnight or in the early morning, possibly while the men were lying down or sleeping. Lansing Mayor Andy Schor said the trail and downtown “remain safe for residents and visitors” and that police have significantly increased their presence; Michigan State University, noting Lusk’s stabbing occurred less than a mile from campus, cited additional lighting, emergency phones, cameras, and bike patrols.
Sourcing check · Fully on the record · 2 articles
2 of 2 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
- On the record · names a source 2 of 2
- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Lansing Police Chief Robert Backus, Lansing Mayor Andy Schor, Michigan State University Department of Police and Public Safety and Lansing’s police chief
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 0 of 2
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: None cited.
- Credits another outlet 0 of 2
- The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
- Unnamed sources 0 of 2
- The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Oct 12, 18:47 UTC by Daily Wire, naming its source.
- Not counted 0
- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Left-leaning coverage never identifies the people found along the trail as homeless men, so a reader cannot tell who appears to be targeted. The dead are described as bodies along a greenway in the New York Times, with police hunting a killer. Police said all of the victims appear to be "homeless white men" along the same stretch of trail, according to the Daily Wire. Most had severe facial injuries, possibly inflicted while they were sleeping.
Left-leaning coverage leads with police hunting a killer. Right-leaning coverage reports the same serial-killer possibility but states investigators have not established that the deaths are connected, and the arrested suspect is not accused in the remaining cases.
Have police found any link among the head-trauma deaths besides the shared stretch of trail where people were sleeping?
Bottom line
The New York Times reports five bodies and a killer hunt but never says the victims were homeless men, leaving out who has been dying on the trail.
The receipts — 5 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Police said all of the victims appear to be homeless white men
- All five men were found along roughly the same one-mile stretch of the Lansing River Trail
- Daniel Lusk was found with a fatal stab wound, unlike the head trauma described in the other cases
- Gino Chouinard’s cause of death remains undetermined
- Mayor Andy Schor said the Lansing River Trail and downtown remain safe for residents and visitors
The Left View
The New York Times frames the episode as police hunting “a killer,” highlighting Lansing’s police chief saying the string of attacks along a greenway “raises the possibility that a serial killer has been at work.” It notes that a man is under arrest in one of the deaths, presenting the cases primarily as a possible serial-killing investigation.
The Right View
The Daily Wire frames the story as “serial killer fear” while stressing that investigators have not established the deaths are connected. It emphasizes that the victims “appear to be homeless white men,” quotes Chief Backus on a possible “pattern,” and reports the arrest in the stabbing without accusations in the other deaths. It gives substantial space to Mayor Schor’s reassurance that the trail and downtown remain safe and to Michigan State University’s upgraded security and advice that students “remain aware of their surroundings… especially at night.” It also situates the case against Northeastern University research and criminologist James Alan Fox documenting a decline in known active serial killers from hundreds in the 1970s and 1980s to below 50 by the 2010s, attributed to forensic technology, higher incarceration, and changes such as the decline of hitchhiking.
Our Take (balanced)
The left’s strongest argument is that local law enforcement itself has publicly raised a serial-killer possibility, with the police chief describing a string of attacks that “raises the possibility that a serial killer has been at work.” The right’s strongest argument is that investigators have not established the deaths are connected—a point reinforced by mixed injury types, an arrest confined to the stabbing, and one undetermined cause of death—alongside long-term data showing far fewer known active serial killers than in past decades. The central unresolved tension is whether the clustering of deaths of homeless men along the same trail stretch is evidence of a single predator or a set of unlinked cases that have generated serial-killer fear without a demonstrated pattern.
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