(CNN) When the suspect paused for a haircut on Wednesday, the vigorous hunt for a man suspected of committing a gruesome double murder in northwest Arkansas over the weekend came to an end.
A stylist at Lupita’s Beauty Salon and Barber Shop in Springdale wrote on Facebook, “I was in the middle of cutting his hair when detectives came in and got him.”
Arkansas State Police said Wednesday that Andrew James McGann, 28, had been taken into custody in relation to the murders of a married couple who were attacked and killed while hiking at a state park in the Ozark Mountains with their two young daughters. His first and middle names were previously mistranslated by the agency, a representative said Thursday.
According to officials at a news conference Thursday afternoon, McGann confessed to killing the victims in an interview with investigators after his DNA matched evidence found at the scene.
A check of McGann’s residence also turned up knives and things seen in a suspect’s photo, however it’s unclear if the weapon used in the crime was among them, according to Arkansas State Police Maj. Stacie Rhoads.
Police and jail records show that McGann is charged with two charges of capital murder. According to a district official, he had just been hired by Springdale Public Schools as a teacher candidate, but he had not yet begun working there.
After being arrested, McGann was taken to the Washington County Detention Center in Fayetteville for processing.
Clinton According to state police, David Brink, 43, and Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, were discovered fatally stabbed on a walking trail in Devil’s Den State Park in northwest Arkansas on Saturday.
The public is safe, according to officials, who said they think McGann acted alone.
During Thursday’s news conference, Arkansas State Police Col. Mike Hagar stated, “I can confirm that we have absolutely no indication, no reason whatsoever to believe there was any connection between our suspect and our victims.”
Hagar stated that although the motive for the killings is yet unknown, they seem to be entirely random.
According to Rhoads, McGann just relocated from Oklahoma to Arkansas and secured employment at a nearby school. Citing the ongoing case, officials refused to provide additional details about the circumstances surrounding the arrest.
According to jail records, McCann is being held without bond. He is expected to appear in court for the first time on Friday morning. Gregg Parrish, executive director of the Arkansas Public Defender Commission, stated that as of Thursday afternoon, he had no lawyer.
According to authorities, the Brinks’ girls, who are seven and nine years old, were unharmed and are safe with family. In response to the killings, state parks throughout Arkansas saw an increase in the number of law enforcement officers.
To find the perpetrator and provide justice to this family, state police have been collaborating with federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities since the weekend, according to Hagar.
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 Wednesday in a statement.
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.
arrested in the middle of a barbershop snip
It s going to be a haircut and beauty shop, a law enforcement officer said Wednesday on audio dispatch radio as officers approached the arrest site, some 7 miles from McGann s address in jail records.
According to a recording on Broadcastify.com, an officer stated, “We’re going to have one detained.”
Meanwhile, a granddaughter of one of the owners of Lupita s Beauty Salon and Barber Shop was in the middle of cutting a man s hair, the shop s owners said in a Facebook video workers posted recounting the scene.
The man did not speak when he entered and only indicated what hairstyle he wanted, the owners said.
Soon, plainclothes officers walked in and asked the man if he was the owner of a car outside.
The man said yes, and the officers arrested him and collected some of his hair the shop s owners said on the Facebook video.
Officers also identified a vehicle belonging to McGann and arranged via dispatch for it to be towed to headquarters, according to the audio recording.
Arkansas State Police did not immediately confirm the barbershop where McGann was arrested.
The granddaughter does not appear in the video and was too distraught to talk about what happened, someone on the track says.
Detectives have asked for camera footage and other information from the salon, according to an unidentified woman in the video who interviews the owners and employees.
A former fifth-grade teacher
Springdale Public Schools can confirm that Andrew McGann was a teacher candidate hired for the upcoming school year, who has not yet begun employment with the district, Superintendent Jared Cleveland said in a statement to CNN.
This individual has not at any time come into contact with Springdale students or the families we serve, Cleveland added. At this time, we cannot offer any additional information due to the ongoing investigation.
State records show McGann is currently licensed to teach elementary and middle school grades in at least three states: Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
McGann was most recently a fifth-grade teacher in the Sand Springs Public Schools in Oklahoma, just west of Tulsa, according to the district.
Andrew McGann was employed at Sand Springs Public Schools from the summer of 2024 to May 2025, the district said in a written statement. At the end of the 2024-25 school year, McGann resigned his position to move out of state.
McGann passed all background checks, the district added.
McGann had been a fifth-grade teacher at Spring Creek Elementary in Oklahoma during the 2023-2024 school year, Broken Arrow Public Schools said in a statement to CNN. He left of his own accord to work out of state, the district said, noting that like all employees, he was subjected to and passed the required background checks prior to being hired.
McGann was placed on administrative leave from his teaching job at Donald Elementary in Flower Mound, Texas, in the spring of 2023 over allegations of inappropriate behavior, like favoritism and uneven treatment of students.
An internal investigation, however, found no evidence of inappropriate behavior with students, the Lewisville Independent School District told CNN in a statement Thursday.
An email sent to parents at the time said the investigation did determine McGann s classroom management and professional judgment to be below district expectations. He resigned in May of that year, the school district said.
Sierra Marcum, whose 12-year-old son had McGann as his fourth-grade teacher at Donald Elementary three years ago, told CNN her family s experience with McGann as a teacher was unsettling.
He was very disinterested, cold, wouldn t make eye contact. He wasn t very good at responding if you had questions, Marcum recalled of her son s former teacher.
Still, Marcum said was shocked when her son told her Wednesday night he d seen an article reporting that his former teacher had been charged with double homicide.
It was shocking to see something so violent, horrific and grisly, Marcum told CNN.
Dayslong search finally ends
Earlier this week, police in Arkansas 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 Brinks 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.
Officials got an overwhelming amount of tips from the public, they said Wednesday. A lot of the video footage that we received was instrumental in helping us identify this particular subject, Rhoads said.
Last 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.
On Thursday, authorities said they believe Clinton David Brink was attacked first while Cristen Amanda Brink took the girls to safety and returned to help her husband.
The suspect was injured in the attacks, resulting in blood loss, which allowed investigators to establish a DNA profile that ultimately led to his arrest, Hagar said.
Everyone speculates that there was a lot of thought that went into this to conceal his identity, Rhoads said about McGann. But he was also very sloppy.
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.
