Lansing City Council member Ryan Kost is questioning why police did not tell the public sooner about the questionable death of a homeless man on the River Trail.
Denis Dunnebacke, 70, died July 16 after apparently being badly beaten near the Kalamazoo Street Bridge. But police did not confirm until just this week that it is investigating his death as it awaits a medical examiner’s ruling on the cause. And it only did so after a newspaper story revealed his death publicly.
Dunnebacke is one of five homeless men who have died in the last year following violent incidents on the trail.
Kost, whose ward includes the area where the incident occurred, is dubious that anything other than an assault caused the death, such as a fall.
“The cause of death was sustained injuries that appeared to be consistent with a beating of some kind,” Kost said.
“As I look at the area he was found in, there’s no place to sustain those types of injuries from a fall. There’s no cliff. There’s no rocky hill.”
Kost was reacting to a statement Lansing Mayor Andy Schor gave to WKAR News when asked why the police made no formal announcement.
Schor said the police issue press releases when they know deaths were homicides.
“In the others, the circumstances were questionable in terms of if there was foul play or not, so LPD waits for the Medical Examiner to make the determination then announces,” Schor’s statement said.
Kost said that even if the cause of Dunnebacke’s death “was questionable, what’s lacking here is communication” with the public.
It “should have still been communicated that we are investigating a questionable death.”
The Lansing Police Department has announced it will hold a press conference tomorrow on the homeless deaths. Police Chief Robert Backus declined to comment today.
Kost also said he did not understand why the medical examiner has not yet ruled in Dunnebacke’s case.
“I certainly hope that the prioritizing in that office is not taking people that may be homeless and putting them at the back because of their circumstances,” Kost said.
“I’m not saying they are doing that. I certainly hope that they’re not.”
A spokesperson for U of M Health – Sparrow, which is on contract with Ingham County to serve as medical examiner, declined to comment on Kost's remarks.
The spokesperson, Jeremiah Wilcox, provided a statement instead, which said the Medical Examiner's Office was investigating Dunnebacke's cause of death and that the standard timeline for finalizing a pending death certificate is typically 60 to 90 days, though complex cases can require additional time."
Dunnebacke died 78 days ago,
Dunnebacke was found badly injured July 9. His cousin, Teresa Sumpter, who saw him in University of Michigan Health – Sparrow Hospital the next day, said that based on the injuries described to her, “it almost sounds like he was beaten with an object and then kicked maybe while he was on the ground.” He was taken off life support a week later.
“I have no doubt there is foul play,” Sumpter said. “I don’t know about the other victims, but I can tell you my cousin was definitely a victim of foul play.”
On July 13, four days after Dunnebacke was found on the river trail, another homeless man, Robert William Smith, 57, was found severely beaten on the river trail about a mile north near Oakland Avenue.
Nine weeks later, on Sept. 18, the medical examinar declared Smith’s death was a homicide — a day after the Lansing State Journal reported his violent death.
That story led Dunnebacke’s family to contact the Journal about his death, which resulted in police confirmation that it was investigating it as questionable.
An earlier homeless death only came to light after family members brought it to the attention of media outlets as well, because of which police confirmed it. Gino Chouinard, 54, was found unconscious on the river trail on Oct. 14, 2025, and died 13 days later. The family said he suffered massive head trauma, the Journal reported. The police called the death “suspicious” in an Oct. 27 press release.
A fourth homeless man, Louis Woodruff, 57, was found unconscious on the River Trail with facial trauma on Aug. 30 and died after he was removed from life support Sept. 1.
A fifth man, Daniel Lusk 22, was fatally stabbed Aug. 20 on the River Trail. Police have arrested Joseph Smith, 23, and charged him with homicide.
Kost said he understands why city officials might have “some nervousness about having so many similar deaths and what that could mean.”
But he said, “I have seen press releases on suspicious death, and typically we don’t wait,” raising questions about why the police did so in the deaths of homeless individuals.
Police did not respond Thursday to a request for comment.
(Andrew Roth contributed to this story.)
