Arkansas couple hiking with daughters were stabbed to death in ‘random’ attack

An Arkansas couple killed Saturday while hiking in a state park with their two young daughters were stabbed to death in what appears to have been a random attack, authorities said Thursday.

Investigators believe Clinton David Brink, 43, was attacked first at Devil’s Den State Park, and his wife, Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, took the children to safety. She then “returned to help her husband,” authorities said at a news conference.

Andrew James McGann, a former teacher from Oklahoma, was arrested Wednesday at a Springdale, Arkansas, barber shop after a dayslong manhunt and booked on charges of capital murder, jail records show.

It’s not clear if McGann, 28, has an attorney.

The couple’s children, who are 7 and 9 years old, were not injured and officials do not believe they were the targets. A motive is unclear.

“That’s still a part of the investigation,” Mike Hagar with Arkansas State Police said. “I can tell you that we have no reason to believe that there was any known association between our suspect and our victims.”

Clinton’s sister, Katrina Hutchins, said the couple and their children had just moved to the state about three weeks ago.

The family said Clinton and Cristen died “protecting their little girls.”

“They deserve justice,” the family said in a brief statement. The couple has another daughter who was not with them on the trail.

Authorities said McGann’s DNA matched DNA found at the scene and that he made statements to investigators “indicating that he had committed these heinous acts.”

Hager said McGann suffered an injury during the attack that caused a loss of blood, which was used to link him to the crime.

During a search of his home, “there were articles found there that are consistent with being involved in this particular crime,” Hager said.

Brandon Carter, Washington County’s prosecuting attorney, said his office will not waive the death penalty.

Arkansas State Police had released a sketch of the suspect after they were notified of the deaths shortly before 3 p.m. Saturday at Devil’s Den, where trails have remained closed. Authorities said witnesses described seeing a black, four-door sedan with tape partly covering its license plate.

Adriana Guadalupe Ruiz Avalos, a barber at Lupita’s Beauty Salon in Springdale, said she had been cutting McGann’s hair for about five minutes when a law enforcement officer asked whose black car was parked outside.

She told NBC News that McGann appeared to hesitate before answering that it was his. The officer asked McGann a few questions inside the shop, and then took him into custody, she said.

Ruiz Avalos said that because she watches a lot of true-crime documentaries, she made sure to leave his hair on the floor.

“I know police want to have hair in cases like this, so I left it there,” she said.

McGann did not talk while getting his haircut and seemed “very reserved, very timid and very shy,” she said.

She said she was “really saddened” by the deaths. “I’m thinking about what those two girls went through. … I was just thinking about them. I had my hands on that monster.”

Sprindale is about 30 miles north of the state park where the couple was killed.

Arkansas State Police Maj. Stacie Rhoads said that McGann had recently moved to Arkansas from Oklahoma, where he had worked at several schools.

He was hired as a teacher at Springdale Public Schools in Arkansas, but had not yet started, a district administrator said. He did “not at any time come into contact with Springdale students or the families we serve,” Superintendent Jared Cleveland said in a statement.

McGann had worked for about a year at the Sand Springs Public Schools in Oklahoma but resigned in May to move out of state, the district said.

During the 2023-24 school year, he worked as a fifth-grade teacher at Spring Creek Elementary School in Oklahoma. Broken Arrow Public Schools said McGann left at the end of the school year to work out of state and had faced no disciplinary action while employed.

He had passed background checks for his employment in both Oklahoma districts as well as for the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

One mother whose son was in McGann’s class at Spring Creek said the teacher was “awkward around the parents” and “struggled to make eye contact during parent-teacher conferences.” She said he was “pretty quiet, but all the kids loved him,” including her son. While at the school, he started a running club for students.

He was also employed during the 2022-23 school year with the Lewisville Independent School District in Texas, a spokesperson said Thursday.

He was placed on administrative leave in spring 2023 from Donald Elementary School, “following concerns related to classroom management, professional judgment and student favoritism,” the Texas district said.

Donald parent Lindsay Camp Polyak said her son was periodically taught by McGann. She said she was among parents who had concerns that he wasn’t properly teaching their children and that some students were falling behind. She also said she noticed “grooming” behavior.

The district said in a message to the school community shared Thursday with NBC News that an internal investigation “did not find any evidence of inappropriate behavior with a student.”

Polyak said that her son told her that “Mr. McGann loves to play tag. He plays tag at recess every day with the girls.”

She said her son also told her that he would give out candy and special prizes to female students.

Polyak recalled going to the school for events and seeing female students “flocking around him.”

“In early May, late April, other parents start telling me that he was having special lunches during the lunch break, where all the kids would go to the cafeteria, but then he would ask some of the special girls to stay in his classroom and have lunch with him, which was weird,” Polyak said. “Other moms alleged that he had encouraged some girls to sit in his lap.”

She said parents raised their concerns to the school principal.

In its message to the school community, the district said that its investigation determined that McGann’s “classroom management and professional judgment” was below the district’s expectations, but that there was no evidence of inappropriate behavior with a student.

He resigned from the district in May 2023.