Criminologist professor at Big Ten college offers warning to students as police probe possible serial killer
- MSU criminologist karen Holt says 'don't walk the trail' as Lansing police probe five homeless deaths along the river path.
- One suspect is in custody for one stabbing—but the other four beatings remain a grim, unanswered scavenger hunt.
- All victims were vulnerable men; professor notes killers love 'low-credibility' targets who make getaway math easy.
- Police timeline shows bodies under bridges from Oct 2025 to Aug 2026, including a 22-year-old who broke the blunt-force pattern.
- Official verdict: 'Can't call it a safe community'—but her advice is to just pick a different trail, because that's apparently enough.
Brief Summary
Michigan's finest brainiac, criminology professor Karen Holt, has officially confirmed that danger is dangerous, and that killing homeless men along the Lansing River Trail is bad news for the Big Ten crowd. Five dudes—all unhoused, mostly bludgeoned, one stabbed—have dropped under bridges over ten months. Police are squinting hard at the pattern, but only one suspect, Edward Joseph Smith, 23, is in handcuffs for just one slice of the carnage.
Why This Matters
Your morning jog just got a syllabus update: campus safety now hinges on avoiding jogging routes where the criminology department's common sense meets the coroner's tally sheet. For students, the takeaway is that a murderer possibly stalks the trail, but the expert's grand strategy is switching scenic paths—because apparently, the killer respects trail-choice boundaries. If you're homeless in a Big Ten town, this story is a brutal reminder that society's alarm bells ring louder when the bodies have address issues.