(CNN) — The intense search for a man accused of a grisly double murder in northwest Arkansas over the weekend ended 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 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 Wednesday. The agency earlier had transposed his first and middle names in error, a spokesperson confirmed Thursday.
McGann, a former fifth-grade teacher, faces two counts of capital murder, according to police and jail records.
His booking photo appears to show McGann still wearing a barber’s cape as he was processed into the Washington County Detention Center in Fayetteville.
The bodies of Clinton David Brink, 43, and Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, 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.
A motive for the killings is still being determined, Arkansas State Police Major Stacie Rhoads said during a news conference after Wednesday’s arrest.
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.
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.
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 Wednesday in a statement.
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.
Arrested mid-snip in a barbershop
“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.
“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 hair style 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, an unidentified woman in the video who interviews the owners and employees says.
A former fifth-grade teacher
McGann recently had been hired at Springdale Public Schools for the upcoming school year but had not officially begun work, the district told CNN affiliate KFSM.
“This individual has not at any time come into contact with Springdale students or the families we serve,” Superintendent Jared Cleveland told the station. “At this time, we cannot offer any additional information due to the ongoing investigation.”
McGann had been a fifth-grade teacher at Spring Creek Elementary in Oklahoma during the 2023-2024 school year, Broken Arrow Public Schools told CNN affiliate KOKI. 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 still listed Thursday morning on the website of Sand Springs Public Schools, just west of Tulsa. It indicates he also was a fifth-grade teacher there.
Days-long 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.
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 story has been updated with the latest developments.
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