Court documents reveal new details about the horrific slaying of a mother and father on an Arkansas hiking trail earlier this month.
A 28-year-old school teacher who recently moved to Arkansas from Oklahoma for a new job has been arrested and charged with murder in the deaths of Clinton Brink, 43, and Cristen Brink, 41, who themselves had recently moved to Arkansas from Montana. The couple was hiking in Devil’s Den State Park on July 26 with their 7- and 9-year-old daughters, who were not physically harmed.
The couple had a third daughter who was not with them on the hike, NBC News reports. The children are now safe with family members.
James Andrew McGann has been charged with two counts of capital murder.
Authorities said at a news conference that Clinton Brink was attacked on the trail first, and his wife ushered the children to safety. When she “returned to help her husband,” she, too, was attacked.
Arkansas State Police Director Mike Hagar said there is “no reason to believe that there was any known association between our suspect and our victims.”
Investigators say that they matched McGann’s DNA with samples found at the crime scene. He also made statements to detectives “indicating that he had committed these heinous acts.”
A report from the prosecutor’s office says that another hiker found the two children alone and then came upon the crime scene. The hiker called 911.
Arkansas State Police arrived on the scene and found a trail of blood. Witnesses said they saw a man leaving the trail with what looked like blood on his face. The man got into a black sedan and drove away. Previously, authorities had said the care had tape partially covering its license plate.
Police tracked the Kia Stinger to Springdale, about 30 miles north of the state park, where McGann was arrested as he was getting a hair cut.
Adriana Guadalupe Ruiz Avalos told NBC she had been cutting McGann’s hair at Lupita’s Beauty Salon for about five minutes when an officer enter and asked whose black car was parked outside. McGann hesitated before responding that it was his, she said, and the officer asked him a few questions before taking him into custody.
“I saw him here, and I just had chills. I had chills running down because he looked really sunken and he didn’t look like like any other person could look like,” Ruiz told KNWA.
McGann “just gave in” when he was taken into custody, she said.
The prosecutor’s report said that McGann had cuts on his hands and that officers found blood inside his car. During a search of his home, police found items “that are consistent with being involved in this particular crime,” Hagar said.
Arkansas State Police said McGann worked at several schools in Oklahoma before moving to Arkansas, where he had been hired as a new teacher in Springdale but not yet started work.
The Lewisville Independent School District in Texas said he had worked there during the 2022-2023 school year. There was some concern from parents of inappropriate behavior toward his female students, NBC said, but a district investigation uncovered “classroom management and professional judgment” that were below the district’s expectations but no evidence of inappropriate behavior with a student.
McGann resigned at the end of the 2023 school year and then worked in Oklahoma, where background checks uncovered no untoward behavior, until he resigned in May to move out of state.
The accused murderer is expected to make his first court appearance on Friday, ABC News reported. He is expected to be arraigned next week.
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[Featured image: James Andrew McGann/Washington County Detention Center and the Brinks/Facebook]
