Mother killed in Arkansas stabbings went back to help husband after getting her children to safety, police say

CNN

5 days ago

Cristen Brink witnessed the unthinkable. Then she did the unimaginable.
While on a family hike at Devil's Den State Park on Saturday, Cristen's husband Clinton was ambushed and stabbed by an attacker, according to Arkansas State Police. First, investigators say, she ran away to get their young daughters to safety. Then Cristen Brink went back to try to save Clinton.
'The mother did not return all the way to the car with the kids,' said state police Maj. Stacie Rhoads in a news conference Thursday. 'We believe that the mother took them to safety and then returned to help her husband.'
Investigators say the suspected attacker – identified as 28-year-old Andrew McGann – killed the parents as their girls, ages 9 and 7, told other adults at the park what happened. McGann faces two charges of capital murder.
'They absolutely protected those girls to their fullest extent, to the point that it cost them their lives,' Washington County Prosecuting Attorney Brandon Carter said. 'We're in awe of this mom and dad. We're also in awe of these girls.'
Four days later, the statewide manhunt ended 30 miles from where it started, with McGann quietly taken into custody at a hair salon. State police say he admitted to the crimes during police questioning.
McGann, who has no known adult criminal history, is set to make his first court appearance Friday, and investigators are still trying to determine why the killings happened.
'We have no reason to believe that there was any known association between our suspect and our victims,' said Carter. 'There's nothing to indicate that at all. It appears to be a completely random event.'
At first, the only description of the suspect police had come from the children who had just seen their parents attacked.
'All the information that we're working off of started with two little girls that witnessed the most horrific thing that you could ever imagine,' Carter said.
But another witness was able to identify the suspected killer's car, a Kia Stinger, despite tape on the vehicle that investigators believe was designed to obscure the model. Searching Arkansas registration records ultimately led them to make McGann their chief suspect, according to Rhoads.
'Everyone speculates that there was a lot of thought that went into this to conceal his identity,' she said. 'I will say that, on the other side of that, he was also very sloppy.'
The same car described in public advisories as the suspect's vehicle was parked in front of Lupita's Beauty Salon & Barber Shop, where a lanky man with stringy blonde hair walked in and asked for a fade.
'Something felt off about him. He looked pretty scary,' stylist Adriana Ruiz told CNN affiliate KFSM Thursday. 'He didn't look like he was okay. He was very timid. His eyes just looked sunken. Kind of like, soulless.'
Surveillance video shared with CNN by the salon showed McGann did not put up a fight as he was handcuffed.
'He was completely cooperative,' Rhoads said.
The motive in the killings of Clinton Brink, 43, and Cristen Brink, 41, remains a mystery, investigators say. McGann had moved to Arkansas earlier this year and was set to become an elementary teacher in the Springdale Public Schools, the district told CNN.
Statements from school districts in Oklahoma and Texas indicate McGann had been a teacher in three different districts in those states in the past three years.
At Donald Elementary in Flower Mound, Texas, McGann 'was placed on administrative leave in the spring of 2023 following concerns related to classroom management, professional judgment, and student favoritism,' the Lewisville Independent School District said in a statement to CNN.
'An internal investigation found no evidence of inappropriate behavior with students,' the district said. 'The teacher resigned from the district in May 2023.'
Despite understandable concern being raised by McGann's proximity to young students, the prosecutor said they had no evidence of any intention to physically harm the Brinks' daughters. 'From what we know right now, we have no indications that suggest the girls were his target,' Carter said.
In addition to McGann's admission of killing the Brinks, state police say his DNA matches blood evidence they collected.
'The defendant in this case is innocent until he's proven guilty, but I am confident that we have the right defendant in this case and that the public need not worry going forward,' said Carter.
'We have absolutely no reason to believe there was anyone else involved,' added Col. Mike Hagar, director of the Arkansas State Police.
The lead prosecutor says he will not shy away from pursuing the death penalty if McGann is convicted.
'This case certainly has the aggravators that exist where a jury should get to decide what the punishment for this defendant is. It is my intention to pose that to a jury,' Carter said. 'The state will not be waiving the death penalty in this case.'
As the wheels of justice begin their slow turn in the case, officials say their immediate thoughts are to make sure the daughters who witnessed the attack – along with a third daughter who was not at the park on Saturday – get what they need as they move forward without their mom and dad.
'They have very, very strong family support in place,' Hagar said. 'I have no doubt that those three girls are going to be well taken care of.'