Law&Crime Sidebar - Is a SERIAL KILLER Terrorizing Michigan?

Episode Date: October 20, 2026

Five men found dead along the same walking trail in Lansing, Michigan have sparked fears that a serial killer could be targeting the city’s homeless population. While one suspect is behind bars in connection with a stabbing death, investigators are scrambling to determine whether the other four suspicious deaths are connected, as disturbing similarities emerge between the cases. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber walks us through the chilling timeline, the evidence investigators are examining, and the actual possibility of a serial killer with retired police sergeant Troy Hillman.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Level up your business with a free 14-day trial of Odoo by visiting https://odoo.com/sidebar. HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Jay Cruz, Christina O'Shea, & Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson, Heather Berzak & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

One question that we are being asked is do we have a serial killer in Lansing? Five suspicious deaths all in a year and all on the same walking trail in Lansing, Michigan, leaving a frightened community begging for answers. We are looking at the possibility that these are related. A suspect is now in custody in connection with one of the victims, but law enforcement is left piecing together the rest of this harrowing mystery. We are breaking down what we know so far alongside an expert on serial killers. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime.

I'm Jesse Weber. Look, I don't know about you, but these days I don't really hear the phrase serial killer thrown around too often. So when you see something like this, a case like this, a story like this, it's a pretty big deal, to say the least. And it's kind of different than what we covered in the past of other suspected serial killers, because you listen to the words from law enforcement, and you wonder, is there something here? When there's concern that a serial killer could be somewhere out there, it can leave entire neighborhood, cities, states on edge.

And here we have five deaths all along the same trail, all within a year. And in this case, we're on the river trail in Lansing, Michigan. This is a paved pathway. Spans over 20 miles. It passes through numerous parks and national scenery, the city's downtown area. It's great for cyclists, great for walkers, all alike. But according to local reports, there are homeless encampments that are also found in a wooded area alongside the trail.

And this is where police began connecting the dots. In fact, here's Lansing Police Chief Robert Backus at a press conference earlier this month. We believe that all of our victims are members of our unhoused community. We suspect that in these instances, the injuries occurred overnight, to be even more specific in the early morning hours. Now, police mention even more similarities during this press briefing, and we're going to get into those in a little bit

because I think that's pretty significant that they say that. But I just want to walk you through the timeline to get a better idea of what exactly is going on here. Our first incident occurred on October 14th of 2025, and this was on the River Trail and the 300 block of East Oakland. Lansing police received a call for an injured subject around 7.35 a.m.

and when officers arrived, they found our victim. So the first victim was identified as 54-year-old Gino Shenard, described in the Lansing State Journal as a former high school star athlete, military veterans served in Iraq. According to police, he was seen with facial injuries and transported to a local hospital, but he was pronounced dead 13 days later on October 27th. Police cited the medical examiner's report,

which initially ruled his death undetermined, though that determination is a force. of course, subject to review pending new information, but there hasn't been an identified suspect in this case, but we'll get more on that later. Meanwhile, Shannard's family told the Lansing State Journal that he suffered massive trauma to the back of his head, numerous broken ribs, that there was allegedly no defensive wounds on his knuckles or knees. They believe the assault was carried out with a weapon similar to a baseball bat, so you're maybe seeing a surprise attack. The second incident occurred on July 9, 26. And just for a redact,

reference, this is 268 days after the death of Mr. Schenard. At approximately 1.30 p.m., our Lansing police officers were working on the River Trail and located our victim, 70-year-old Dennis Dunabec, under the Kalamazoo Street Bridge. He was unresponsive at that time. Now, according to police, Dunabek described in his obituary as an avid musician, a music teacher, he was breathing at the time he was found. Apparently covered in vomit, had apparent facial injuries to, was transported the hospital in critical condition, and was pronounced dead seven days later. And it appears there was some debate as to why police didn't make this case public initially. Here's what the chief had to say. And our conversations with the medical

staff at that time provided some conflicting information, or at least information to consider. The hospital at that time, without further analysis, noted that this entire incident could be medical in nature and not criminal. It's important to focus on this case because they need to explain that when we have unknown instances where we don't know the cause of injuries, we treat these as suspicious situations. In the case of Mr. Dunnebeck, we investigated this as a serious assault, as a suspicious situation. And that is showcased by the idea that we used our major crime detectives and our crime scene investigators who responded to the initial scene at the time of this incident. In instances like this, we do not have a determination of whether this is criminal

in nature, when the medical information that we're being shared says this could be just a medical incident until we know more, we do not regularly share that out to the widespread media. So back in September, Dunaback's cousin, Teresa Sumter, spoke with local station WKAR News, and she spoke about the family allegedly being in the dark about what was going on here. And she also said that Dunabek had several spinal fractures, brain trauma, and according to Sumpter, he also suffered a heart attack at the time of his death. She said, quote, it almost sounds like he was beaten with an object and then kicked maybe while he was on the ground.

So again, as we talk about this, do you see apparent similarities? Now you fast forward to October 14th, and the medical examiner officially ruled Dunabek's death indeterminate. Police said his death still remains suspicious. The investigation is open and active. Okay, real quick, for anybody who owns a business, manages a business, runs a business, you don't even me to tell you running a business is tough enough.

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business's needs. Take your business to the next level by consulting with an Odoo expert today for free at at odoo.com slash sidebar. The third incident occurred on July 13th of 2026. This is that this occurred at 750 in the morning. Officers were called to the river trail again to the 300 block of East Oakland. And here are officers discovered 57-year-old Robert Smith, who was unresponsive and bleeding from his head. Mr. Smith was transported to the local hospital with

life-threatening injuries. Now, police pointed out that Smith's death was noticeably similar to Shinar's nine months earlier, especially since they were both found in the same block of the trail. And they did, by the way, put out a crime stoppers post online regarding Smith's assault, but no suspects have been named in connection with his case. Smith was pronounced dead on July 17th. This was just a few days before his 58th birthday. But it wasn't until September 17th, so two months later, that the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. The fourth incident occurred on August 20th at approximately 354 a.m.

Again, on the river trail, this was under the Michigan Avenue Bridge. And our victim in this case is 22-year-old Daniel Lusk. He was found stabbed to death. According to his obituary, Lusk was known for his witty sense of humor, unforgettable laugh, love of fishing. Now, this case is different from the others in two ways because this appears to be the first time we see a stabbing, and police were able to nail down a suspect through video security footage. That suspect is 23-year-old Edward Smith, now facing a murder charge,

currently being held in the Ingram County Jail without bond. His next court hearing is scheduled for December 14th, which his docket labels as a forensic status review. But there's one more. There's one more incident to get through. Our fifth incident occurred on August 30th at 3.24 a.m. And in this incident, officers were called to the river trail in the 200 block of East Caesar Chavez under the bridge. Officers found 57-year-old Louis Woodruff with apparent facial injuries.

He was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. So Woodruff was pronounced dead two days later on September 1st. His obituary described him as a man with a big heart and a generous spirit. Police said that Woodruff's case was shared publicly for more information to come in, and his death is currently a homicide investigation, but to be clear, no suspects have been publicly named as of yet. But this brings the question of, right? Is there a serial killer in Lansing, Michigan?

As you heard at the beginning of this episode, the police chief is looking into that possibility that these cases could be related. And there are already some similarities that the chief spoke about. The fact that all five victims were on the same river trail, all homeless, police believe the attacks all took place either in the overnight hours or early in the morning. And the police chief pointed out even more similarities while also making note of the differences in lusts killing. We believe that our victims in this case were lying down, potentially even sleeping.

We don't know that. But based on how we found our victims and their surroundings, it would lead us to believe that this could be a pattern. All of our victims are white males, and they range in age from 22 to 70 years. old. One of these incidents is different than the others. Our charge case involves a victim who's been stabbed. Our other four incidents involve what appear to be blunt force trauma, traumatic injuries to the facial area, but no weapon being used or no known weapon being used. But as investigators work to determine whether these deaths are connected, there are some clear

challenges here. Some of those challenges include the location of where these crimes are occurring on the river trail. The time that they occur results in a lack of witnesses. And we also, because of the 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. It would give us that objective evidence, especially during the times and locations that we're covering today. I've also introduced to you that one of the challenges is the medical information that comes to us and I've shared that we've had some medical opinions or theories from the hospitals that have

impacted how we're addressing these cases or how we're classifying these cases and how we're sharing information. We also don't have all the information from the medical side. And I've mentioned that we have pending medical examiner results that we're still waiting on. So we don't have all the information about injuries or a medical examiner's conclusion on the cause of death. But again, this is fluid.

And then the police chief addressed the possibility, something that I'm sure a lot of you've been thinking about, whether or not Daniel Lusk's alleged killer, that suspect, could he potentially be the suspect in all the other cases? I want to be very clear that that is a challenging question to answer, but one I have to be very cautious on. A primary theory in how you investigate crimes is you let the evidence lead you to what transpired in an incident and to suspects in that order. Using a suspect, and then with that name, using that to develop or find a suspect.

evidence that meets your theory. That leads you down a road of inappropriate charges, misidentification, some very big problems. So in law enforcement, our responsibility and our ethics demand that we approach us in the right manner. Let me just make something clear. Edward Smith has not, at the time of this recording, has not been charged with any of the other four deaths in this case. Okay. But where do we go from here? Where does the inviourate? investigation go from here? Police Department has offered resources to contact them with new information. We've set up a tip line specifically for our river trail assaults. We'll be sharing that out to the media. But for anyone watching, that phone number is 517, 483-6023. We continue to have,

to offer the ability to report this anonymously, any information anonymously, to crime stoppers at 483-78-78-6-6-6-7-6. seven. And then finally, we have options through social media to contact us if anyone has information. And as police continue their investigation, how can something like this be prevented moving forward? This summer, Lansing PD says it's placed more officers near the river trail around the clock, additional security. They added camera trailers along the trail, increased mental health resources focused on the homeless population living near the trail to help find safer housing. Is there any reason for your casual trail user to be concerned about safety at this quiet? What we have repeatedly said is that we identify a pattern of these instances

happening in the early morning hours. You heard our calls and our responses, 4 a.m., 3 a.m. And we relayed to the public that our incidents are isolated between these times. I do not have concerns the safety on the river trail outside of those hours. Let me bring in a retired police sergeant Troy Hillman, who's an expert on this. Troy, good to see you.

Thanks for taking the time. What I find so significant about this and what's different from other cases that we cover like Lady Bird Lake and all this is this is not police coming out and saying that's nonsense. There's no serial killer. That's absurd.

Don't let the online theories, you know, guide you. They seem to suggest it's possible that they have to look into it, given certain similarities in the time frame here. I think that that is significant, no? Yeah, I mean, you've got to look at each case individually, but you also are staring in the face of a pattern. You've got over 50, typically males being targeted, homeless, under bridges in the dead of night. So, yeah, you've got a definite pattern here. And, you know, what do they say?

One is one is one. Number two, you start to go towards less than a coincidence. And three, yeah, it's something's going on. Are homeless individuals targets for serial killers, generally speaking? Yeah, they fit, unfortunately, in the high-risk lifestyle, meaning they don't have a home to protect them. You know, they generally don't always carry cell phones. You know, they sleep in areas that are secluded, dark, you know, at night. And they generally don't check in with their families and that kind of thing.

So it is a high-risk lifestyle, almost like a sex worker. Do you get the sense from the description of these deaths that these could potentially be surprise attacks while they're sleeping or unconscious? Yeah, absolutely. When I first looked at it, you know, they said elderly, but, you know, a 50-some-year-old male is going to, and even a 70, is going to fight back when you're being attacked and they're not easily overcome. So my guess is, yeah, it was a blitz-style attack to the face and head. And it happened, you know, very quickly. And it's just, you know, awful to read these details.

I mentioned before that there seems to be speculation about whether a baseball bat or heavy object was used. Do you think the evidence would support that from what we know so far? Yeah, and that was something interesting I saw from the chief press conference was there was kind of this back and forth with a medical examiner as to what they were saying. You know, that's definitely a medical thing that they should be able to tell typically what type of instrument was used if it was beyond, you know, a hand or a foot. But at this point, it's unknown or they're not sharing it with the public. Do you find it surprising that in some cases it's undetermined or indeterminate about what happened to them? Yeah, honestly, I was surprised. And it's inexplicable.

If you have multiple head wounds, obviously something happened or something did this to you. So again, I'm not in a position to armchair quarterback, the medical examiner. But I did find that odd when I looked at that, that there was not a ruling. but sometimes if they don't have enough, they just leave it undetermined. Now, of course, there's been a rest in connection with at least, you know, one of these deaths. The stabbing is an outlier, right? So let's presume from, let's just think for a second. I made it clear before I'll say it again.

This guy hasn't been charged in connection with the other deaths. But if you think about it, stabbing would be different. In your experience, would a serial killer use a different method of attack to throw investigators off? Is it maybe the circumstances? You know, sure, there could be blunt force trauma or what appears to be blunt force trauma in other cases, but it doesn't mean they won't, you know, resort to guns or stabbings. In your experience, I know that you always talk about a pattern and an MO, but is it possible that a killer could switch things up to throw investigators off? Yeah, that's an excellent question. It's definitely possible because these types of serial killers enjoy and they target people that are vulnerable.

they kill, and that's kind of where they get their sensation and excitement. So it's definitely they could switch it up, and it's something that they could throw off investigators. But looking at that one crime where a knife that was used, they have the perpetrator under arrest. To me, that would be, you need to unlock what he said during his interview and really his background to see if that was just a random or if something, typically a serial killer will develop over time, and something that I learned on the canal murders, was they develop, you know, starting typically at a young age,

and you can see this pattern developing. How do they potentially connect this one suspect to the other deaths? Well, it's difficult because there's not, it doesn't appear that there's DNA left at the scene, but who knows at this point? Because they're going to keep some information back from the public because they want to make sure it goes through the court system if they do apprehend a perpetrator later on down the road.

So that's very difficult to say, to be honest. Do you think they're all connected? Do you think it's all one person? My gut feeling was the four where you have facial injuries and head trauma are connected, and the other one is a outlier. But I always said in investigations it's important to not rule anything out and keep an open mind. What seems so difficult about this, and it was mentioned in the press conferences, it's kind of this area late at night, right? You know, no cameras.

Now they're putting in more cameras. They're putting on more patrols. We'll talk about that in a minute. But, you know, no eyewitnesses. Is it going to be a really difficult challenge to try to solve these cases? Yeah, it's definitely not going to be easy. But you do have, you know, there's somebody may have seen something or heard. somebody scream out, and typically the unhoused slash homeless don't, they don't associate with the police.

And so I think the police and the chief said that they're trying to work through advocacy groups and community groups to try to get these unhoused homeless to come forward and give information. I think somebody, given that there's been four, somebody would have seen something. And there's something out there. And I always go back to the case we worked with the canal murders was it was in our files. And somewhere along the line, somebody will see or say something. And the perpetrator will have screwed up and done something to where he gets caught. But it's definitely not an easy. And I'm fearful that these may go cold, but hopefully it sounds like they have a lot of manpower on it and a lot of scrutiny and things are moving forward.

I also think it's interesting, the time frame, right? you have this all happening within a year, but there is a separation of months, too. Is that weird to you? Yeah, it's difficult, though, but there are cases of serial killers. I believe the most famous one is BTK, which went dormant for a while. And something I learned from a profile area was that basically they're not done with the murder until they're done with the murder. So, meaning, you know, we think it's done, you know, basically on this date of the incident,

but the murderer may be still enjoying that or getting his excitement off it later. So there are periods of dormancy for various reasons. But, you know, it's an opportunity, an opportunity, right? Opportunity and availability and access. Absolutely. And maybe it has something to do with the cold weather. You know, it was October, I think the first one. And then you get into the summer months for the second one.

Maybe he didn't want to, there weren't that many homeless unhoused out there at that time. Are you confident if they're adding more officers, more security, more cameras that they're going to be able to see something? Yeah, I think eventually something will connect. There's, again, you know, if you just had one or two, but again, there's a pattern here. And I guess you can't say that they're all connected, but it sure, sure looks like it. So at some point, there's going to be some, I always call it a nugget of information that's going to lead investigators down a path, and that's going to break the case wide open. From your perspective, another component of this story, another narrative is the way law enforcement has relayed this information to the public and the families. There's a difficulty there, right? I kind of heard it in the press conference about what information they're receiving from the medical examiner, what information they're receiving, how much they relay it to the public.

There's at least one case that I mentioned where the family didn't learn about what had happened immediately from law enforcement. Talk to me about what we should be thinking about that and what the role is of a chief of police or, a police department to relay information to the public and the families? Yeah, it's such a tightrope because you basically want to give information, as much information as you can, but you also want to hold some stuff back because you've had certain people that maybe are mentally unstable, insert themselves into an investigation and send it in another direction, that eats up band power, that kind of stuff. So it's this tightrope balance, And you definitely don't want to come out with, you know, maybe the second assault and say,

hey, this is a serial and cause widespread panic. It's a very difficult position for that chief to be in and that police department. And I honestly, looking at this, and what we went through with the Phoenix Police Department, we had similar things. And it's just this push pull of trying to get as much information out there, but also hold some stuff back. Because, again, you don't want widespread panic. You don't want a wild goose chases, that kind of thing. How do you reassure the public that they're safe?

I'm sure there's concern. I'm sure there's fear. How do you reassure them that they're going to be okay or what precautions they should take? What do you say to them? Well, typically, I think there'll be, there's surveillance cameras out there now. It sounds like they're working on the lighting to make better lighting. It sounds like there's a saturation of patrol officers out there in that area. So you can't police, unfortunately, are short-staffed.

They can't be everywhere to be at every single crime scene before it happens. But, you know, just be aware. Be aware of your surroundings. It sounds like this particular perpetrator is taking advantage of the fact that it's late at night. These are vulnerable, unhoused people that are sleeping. Obviously, just be careful if you're going to go sleep on a park bench or do something like that. Be safe. Do you think the community should be scared?

You know, I wouldn't say scared. I would say aware. And I think the unhoused should have a little bit more scrutiny about where they stay and maybe a buddy system and that kind of thing just to make sure that you know they're not attacked they're not alone that kind of thing okay really disturbing really unsettling um i want to stay on top of it see where it goes um yeah yeah this is this is a this is a weird one troy helman thanks for taking the time i really appreciate it thank you jesse appreciate and that's all we have for you right now here on sidebar everybody thank you so much for joining us i'm jesse weber i'll speak to you next time