A man has been arrested in connection with the deaths of a married couple attacked and killed while hiking with their two young daughters at a state park in the Ozark Mountains, Arkansas State Police announced on Wednesday.
James Andrew McGann, 28, was arrested Wednesday afternoon at a Springdale, Arkansas, business and faces two counts of capital murder, police said.
The deaths of Clinton David Brink, 43, and Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, are being investigated as a double homicide after their bodies were found Saturday on a walking trail in Devil’s Den State Park in northwest Arkansas, state police said, without saying how they were killed.
The Brinks’ daughters, ages 7 and 9, weren’t harmed and are safe with relatives, police said. Law enforcement presence was increased at state parks across Arkansas in response to the killings.
CNN is working to determine whether McGann has an attorney.
“No news can heal the enormous harm done to the Brink family in last weekend’s crime, but this announcement is a comfort and reassurance for our State,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Wednesday.
Since the weekend, state police had worked with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to track down the suspect and bring “justice to this family,” Arkansas State Police Col. Mike Hagar said.
“Because of their hard work and investigative skill, we were able to take a monster off the streets, and bring relief to those two precious girls, and the rest of our citizens,” Hagar said.
Police in Arkansas had released a photo and a sketch of a man seen Saturday in the Devil’s Den State Park and said they wanted to question him in connection with the deaths. They also asked the public to watch out for a medium-build White male who may have driven a Mazda near the park and to send them any photos or videos from the area that day.
On Saturday afternoon, “Washington County received a call from the visitor center,” police audio captured by Broadcastify.com says. “Two children are there. They advised that their parents were assaulted. One was possibly stabbed. The parents are missing.”
The Brinks had recently moved from another state to Prairie Grove, a small town in northwest Arkansas near the Oklahoma border, according to police.
Their family has asked for privacy. “Clinton and Cristen died heroes, protecting their little girls and they deserve justice. They will forever live on in all of our hearts,” relatives said in a Monday statement.
The killings happened in a part of 2,500-acre Devil’s Den State Park with thick vegetation and no cell phone service, police said. The park is known for its rugged natural scenery, with waterfalls, caves and rock formations.
The couple’s bodies were found on the Devil’s Den Trail, audio from first responders indicates. The 1.5-mile loop of “moderate” difficulty is one of 11 trails in the park, and its trailhead is close to the park’s visitor center.
While searching the trail, first responders heard shouts, scanner audio indicates, though it’s not clear from whom.
“I hear yells calling for help. We’re walking down,” a first responder says.
“Try to relay to the office that we found the victims down here,” a first responder says. “They’re on the lower Devil’s Den Trail. … I think I see you right there. I’ve got two bodies down here.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
