Lansing police are probing a possible serial killer after five homeless men died along a river trail near Michigan State, and the campus is fortifying security.

Five men are dead along the Lansing River Trail near Michigan State University, and local police now say they are examining whether the cases are connected. The victims, authorities say, appear to have been homeless White men. One was stabbed. Others suffered fatal injuries along a popular path students and residents use near campus.

Fox News reported that the Lansing Police Department is investigating the string of deaths tied to the trail over the last year, with officials describing a suspect who may have been targeting people at night. Michigan State has already upgraded lighting, emergency phones, and cameras on its stretch of the path while urging students to stay alert after dark.

For a college town that sells itself on safe walks and open campus routes, the question hanging over Lansing is blunt. Are these isolated tragedies, or a predator working the same ground?

Chief Backus faces the serial-killer question head-on

Lansing Police Chief Rob Backus addressed the deaths at a news conference on Oct. 2, 2026, at police headquarters in downtown Lansing. The pressure on the department is no longer abstract. Residents and reporters want to know whether one person is behind the body count.

The New York Post reported Backus stating the question out loud.

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

He did not dismiss it. He framed it as an active investigative path.

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

That is not a closed case. It is police saying the pattern is real enough to chase. Cases like a suspected serial killer abroad who confessed to dozens of murders show how long predators can operate when vulnerable victims leave thin trails. Lansing is trying not to learn that lesson the hard way.

One stabbing, four other deaths, and a narrow corridor of risk

Daniel Lusk, 22, was the youngest victim named in the reporting. He was found fatally stabbed under the East Michigan Avenue bridge on Aug. 20, less than a mile from the Michigan State campus. On Sept. 3, police arrested Edward Joseph Smith, 23, in connection with that stabbing. Smith has not been accused of any crime or involvement in the other four deaths.

Louis Woodruff was critically injured and later died in the 300 block of East Oakland Avenue on Sept. 16, 2026. The trail itself also runs past the 200 block of East Cesar Chavez Avenue, another point of reference in the coverage. Police have linked five deaths overall to the Lansing River Trail corridor.

Supporting reporting describes the victims as White males ranging from age 22 to 70, found along roughly a one-mile stretch near downtown. Most suffered blunt-force traumatic injuries to the face. One was stabbed. The men appeared to have been attacked while lying down or sleeping in the early morning hours, a detail that points less to random street fights and more to someone hunting soft targets.

When human remains turn up in neglected corners of American cities, as in a wooded Cincinnati discovery that shocked neighbors, the public learns the same hard truth: people living outside the normal grid are easier to attack and harder to protect.

Homeless victims leave few digital footprints for detectives

Criminologist Dr. David Hayes noted the core problem for investigators. Unhoused people often lack the physical and digital “footprints” that crack modern cases, cellphone pings, fixed routines, steady witnesses, and camera coverage. If these deaths are connected, Hayes said, it is a tragic case of a killer preying on highly vulnerable people.

That is the accountability test for any city. Lawful residents and taxpayers expect police to stop predators. Victims sleeping along a river path do not get to choose better odds. They get whatever protection the system actually delivers after dark.

Lansing officials insist they are not waiting. Mayor Andy Schor told Fox News Digital the city is pushing a visible response.

"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 necessary. It is not the same thing as an arrest in every open case. Four of the five deaths still sit outside the single stabbing charge tied to Smith. Families and neighbors are left with timelines, locations, and a police chief willing to say the serial-killer question is on the table.

Long-unsolved killings, including an decades-old San Francisco teen murder later cracked by DNA, remind the public that time is not neutral. Evidence ages. Witnesses scatter. Patterns get harder to prove if agencies hesitate.

Michigan State hardens the campus stretch of the trail

Michigan State University’s Department of Police and Public Safety has moved past generic warnings. On the MSU portion of the River Trail, officials say they have added hardware and patrols aimed at night travel along the Red Cedar River corridor students use to get around campus.

A university police spokesperson described the upgrades directly.

"The MSU portion of the River Trail has upgraded security measures to include additional LED lighting and Green Light emergency phones with public safety cameras, and it is routinely patrolled by MSU Police Officers on bike patrols."

The same office told students not to treat the path as risk-free.

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

Lighting, cameras, emergency phones, and bike patrols are the minimum a major campus owes people walking home after dark. Parents sending tuition checks do not want a river trail treated like an ungoverned zone. Neither do lawful residents who use downtown Lansing.

Multiple-victim murder cases elsewhere, including a Hollywood triple-murder suspect with a prior murder conviction, show why early pattern recognition matters. When violence clusters, agencies either connect the dots or explain later why they did not.

What police have, and what remains unanswered

Here is the verified core. Five deaths are linked to the Lansing River Trail. Victims appear to be homeless White men. Lusk was stabbed near campus in August and Smith was arrested in that case in September. Woodruff was critically hurt and later died in mid-September 2026. Chief Backus spoke publicly in early October. The department says the investigation is active and ongoing. MSU has hardened its section of the trail. The mayor says patrols are up around the clock.

Here is what the public record in this reporting still does not settle. Full names, dates, and causes for every decedent beyond Lusk and Woodruff are not laid out in detail. Specific charges against Smith are not listed. No official has announced a proven single killer across all five deaths. “Possible” and “related cases” remain the operative words from the chief.

That gap is not a reason to shrug. It is a reason to demand clear updates, sustained patrols, and honest charging decisions when evidence supports them. Mass-casualty neglect stories, including more than 50 decomposing bodies found at a Chicago funeral home after prior violations, feed public anger when institutions look away from the dead. Lansing’s test is whether it treats these trail victims as priorities, not footnotes.

College towns live on trust: trust that a night walk near campus will not become a crime scene, and trust that police will say hard things when the facts point that way. Backus put the serial-killer question in public view. The trail is still there. So is the duty to finish the job.

Protecting the vulnerable and clearing violent predators off public paths is basic governing, not optional politics, and Lansing will be judged by whether these cases end in answers, not another body by the river.