Little Rock, Ark. — Arkansas police charged a 28-year-old schoolteacher in the killing of a married couple who were hiking with their children at Devil’s Den State Park, finding him in a nearby city after a five-day search and public pleas for trail-goers to look through their photos.
State Police arrested Andrew James McGann at a barbershop in Springdale, said Col. Stacie Rhoads, commander of the department’s criminal investigation division. He was charged with two counts of capital murder and was being held Thursday in the state’s Washington County jail.
Arkansas State Police
Police announced the arrest at a Wednesday night news conference but wouldn’t discuss a motive. McGann had been hired at Springdale Public Schools as a teacher candidate for the upcoming year but hadn’t yet come into contact with any of its families or students, the district said in a statement.
A lawyer couldn’t be located for McGann, and a message was left for a number listed for him. It wasn’t immediately clear when his first court appearance was.
“If you commit a violent, senseless act here in our state, our law enforcement will hunt you down and bring you to justice, because that’s what the people of Arkansas frankly deserve,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.
Springdale is roughly 30 miles north of the state’s remote Devil’s Den Park, where trails have remained closed since Saturday’s killings.
Clinton David Brink, 43, and Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, were found dead on a walking trail at Devil’s Den. Their daughters, who are 7 and 9, weren’t hurt and are being cared for by family members, authorities have said.
State Police have released few details about the investigation, including how the couple was killed.
In the days after the attack, police released a composite sketch and then a photo of a person of interest that showed them only from behind. Authorities urged trailgoers who had been at the park to check their camera rolls for photos or video that might help point to a suspect.
Rhoads said the public’s help and video footage they received was instrumental in capturing McGann. Tips came in from as far away as Washington state, she said.
“It was overwhelming,” she said.
McGann was a teacher at a small Oklahoma school district until May and then resigned to take a job in another state, according to a statement fron Sand Springs Public Schools, which is near Tulsa. It added that McGann had passed all background checks.
McGann had not yet started his new job in Arkansas at Sprindale Public Schools, said Jared Cleveland, the district superintendent. He said the district could not provide more information, citing the investigation.
“Our entire team extends our deepest condolences to the Brink family. Their children are especially in our thoughts and prayers,” Cleveland said.
Sierra Marcum said three years ago, her son was a student in McGann’s fourth grade classroom in Donald Elementary School in Flower Mound, Texas, and described him as the “most standoff teacher she had ever met.” Her son’s yearbook includes a photo of McGann.
“Pretty cold. You could ask him a question and he would give you a one word response,” she said. “Overall just pretty disinterested in his students.”
Marcum told CBS News that, over the course of the school year, her son reported inappropriate behavior by McGann toward the girls in his class. It included being “very touchy with the girls and having them on his lap and making comments to them and keeping them back from recess.”
In an email sent to parents in 2023 and shared with CBS News, a school administrator said McGann was placed on leave pending the results of an investigation into “complaints of poor classroom management and poor professional judgment.”
“While our investigation did not find any evidence of inappropriate behavior with a student, we did find his classroom management and professional judgment to be below our district’s expectations,” the email said.
McGann resigned effective immediately, according to the email. Marcum recalls McGann departing his position about three quarters of the way through his first school year as a teacher.
CBS News has reached out to the Lewisville Independent School District, of which Donald Elementary is a part, for comment.
Clinton and Cristen Brink had just moved from South Dakota to the small city of Prairie Grove in northwest Arkansas. Their water had been connected less than two weeks ago, Mayor David Faulk said.
Clinton Brink had been scheduled to start a job as a milk delivery driver Monday in the nearby Fayetteville area, according to Hiland Dairy, his employer. Cristen Brink had been licensed as a nurse in Montana and South Dakota before moving to Arkansas.
The Brink family said the couple died “heroes protecting their little girls.”
“Our entire state is grieving for the tragic loss and senseless and horrific crime that’s taken place in this area,” Sanders said.
Devil’s Den is a 2,500-acre state park near West Fork, about 140 miles northwest of Little Rock, the state capital.
The park is known for its hiking trails and rock formations and is a short drive from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and Walmart’s Bentonville headquarters.
It was selected as a state park site in the 1930s and its trails lead to the surrounding Ozark National Forest.
