Lansing police confirmed Monday, Sept. 28, that the account given by the family of Denis Dunnebacke, a 70-year-old homeless man who died in July after being found critically injured along the Lansing River Trail, is accurate. His family believes his death is the fifth in a string of violent incidents along the trail since October 2025, though the Ingham County Medical Examiner's Office has not yet determined how he died.

Denis Dunnebacke, 70, was found near the Kalamazoo Street bridge on July 9 with severe brain swelling and four or five spinal fractures, according to his cousin Teresa Sumpter. He was taken to University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Lansing hospital, where he was taken off life support and died July 16, as first reported by the Lansing State Journal.

"On one side of his face he was beaten really bad," Sumpter said. "The brain swelling was so bad doctors said he wouldn't recover."

All five victims were homeless. All were found along the same general stretch of trail in north Lansing. Four of the five sustained head trauma. The fifth, Daniel Lusk, 22, was fatally stabbed Aug. 20.

Lansing Police Department spokesperson Jordan Gulkis said in an email Sept. 28 that police are investigating Dunnebacke's death and looking into whether there may be a connection between the incidents. Police had already signaled they were exploring a link between two of the earlier deaths: WILX reported Sept. 3 that Lansing police were investigating whether the Woodruff and Lusk cases were connected. The Ingham County Medical Examiner's Office has not yet determined Dunnebacke's cause or manner of death.

Jeremiah Wilcox, a senior media relations specialist for U-M Health-Sparrow, said the medical examiner's office is conducting further forensic investigation. He said such determinations can take 60 to 90 days, with complex cases requiring additional time.

A week of violence in July

Dunnebacke died just days before another victim. Police found Robert William Smith, 57, on a bench along the trail July 13 with severe head trauma. Smith died July 17, one day after Dunnebacke.

When Sumpter arrived at the hospital to see Dunnebacke, she said a security guard stopped her. The guard told her Dunnebacke was on security watch because someone else had suffered similar injuries the same night or the night before.

The Ingham County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Smith's death a homicide on Sept. 18. That made it the seventh homicide reported by Lansing police in 2026.

Family says police never called

Dunnebacke's sister, Renee Lagala, said neither she nor Sumpter has been contacted by police about his death. Lagala said that when she requested a copy of his death certificate from Ingham County a few weeks ago, she was told the cause of death had not been determined.

Lagala said Dunnebacke had been in and out of homelessness for nine years. He was diagnosed as bipolar in 2011 and spent six years in a group home, where he consistently took medication. After his release, he stopped.

Before his diagnosis, Dunnebacke was active in church music ministry, composing and arranging music for Catholic masses and accompanying with guitar.

The deaths of Dunnebacke, Smith and Gino Chouinard, 54, were not announced by police in the usual way, the Lansing State Journal reported. Chouinard, a former star athlete at Sexton High School, was found unconscious along the trail Oct. 14, 2025, and died 13 days later.

Louis Woodruff, 57, died after being assaulted Aug. 30 in the 200 block of East Cesar Chavez Avenue. Police are investigating his death as a homicide.

Growing pressure on city officials

Ingham County Prosecutor John Dewane told the Lansing State Journal on Sept. 17 that the Lusk case was the only one in which his office had received a warrant request. "As a prosecutor, it's certainly concerning that we've had four suspicious deaths," Dewane said at the time, when four deaths were known. The count has since risen to five.

Councilman Ryan Kost, whose ward includes the north Lansing stretch of trail, told the Lansing State Journal on Sept. 19 that Mayor Andy Schor told him there was no threat to the public. Kost said it was becoming harder to believe that. Schor told the Lansing State Journal on Sept. 19 that the trail is safe and the incidents were "situational." He also said he would not walk the trail after dark.

Kelsea Hector, executive director of homeless advocacy group Punks With Lunch, said her team has been conducting bike patrols and advising homeless residents to avoid the trail and never camp alone.

Edward Joseph Smith, 23, was charged Sept. 3 in connection with Lusk's stabbing death and is being held without bond. No arrests have been announced in any of the other four cases.

Anyone with information can call Lansing police at (517) 483-4600 or Crime Stoppers at (517) 483-7867.