Manhunt for accused murderer in Arkansas, US, ends when he stops to get his hair cut

The intense search for a man accused of a grisly double murder in the US last weekend ended on Wednesday when the suspect stopped for a haircut.

“I was in the middle of cutting his hair when detectives came in and got him,” a stylist at Lupita’s Beauty Salon and Barber Shop in Springdale, northwest Arkansas, said in a Facebook post.

Andrew James McGann, 28, was 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.

Clinton David Brink, 43, and Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, were found stabbed to death on Saturday on a walking trail in Devil’s Den State Park.

McGann’s DNA matched evidence left at the scene and he admitted to killing the victims during an interview with investigators, officials said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.

Additionally, items seen in a photo of a suspect were found during a search of McGann’s home, along with knives, though it is unclear if the weapon used in the crime was among the collected items, Arkansas State Police Major Stacie Rhoads said.

McGann faces two counts of capital murder, according to police and jail records. He had recently been hired as a “teacher candidate” by Springdale Public Schools, according to a district spokesperson, but had not yet started working there.

McGann was booked and processed into the Washington County Detention Centre in Fayetteville.

Officials said they believe McGann acted alone, indicating that the public is safe.

“I can confirm that we have absolutely no indication, no reason whatsoever to believe there was any connection at all between our suspect and our victims,” Arkansas State Police Colonel Mike Hagar said during Thursday’s news conference.

A motive for the killings is still being determined, but Hagar said they appear to be “a completely random event”.

McGann recently had moved to Arkansas from Oklahoma and gotten a job at a local school, Rhoads said. Officials declined to give specific details about what led to the arrest, citing the ongoing prosecution.

Jail records indicate McCann is being held without bond. His first court appearance was scheduled for Friday morning. He did not have an attorney as of Thursday afternoon, executive director of the Arkansas Public Defender Commission Gregg Parrish said.

The Brinks’ daughters, ages 7 and 9, were not harmed and are safe with relatives, police said. Law enforcement presence was increased at state parks across Arkansas in response to the killings.

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”, Hagar said.

“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 Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Wednesday.

“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 mid-snip in a barbershop

“It’s going to be a haircut and beauty shop,” a law enforcement officer said on Wednesday on audio dispatch radio as officers approached the arrest site, some 7 miles from McGann’s address in jail records.

“We’re going to have one detained,” an officer said, according to a Broadcastify.com recording.

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.

“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.

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 behaviour, like favouritism and uneven treatment of students.

An internal investigation, however, found “no evidence of inappropriate behaviour with students”, the Lewisville Independent School District said 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, said 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 was shocked when her son told her on 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 said.

Days long search finally ends

Earlier this week, police in Arkansas released a photo and a sketch of a man seen on 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 white man of medium build 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 on 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 centre”, 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,” relatives said in a Monday statement.

“They will forever live on in all of our hearts.’

Authorities 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 2500-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 centre.

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 said.

“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.”