The two little girls were found first, standing alone about half a mile into the park, uninjured but trembling. When the first responders reached them, the older of the two, barely nine years old, managed to say that something bad had happened to her mom and dad on the trail. That was the only information anyone had at that moment, and it was enough to send a chill through every officer on the scene. Devil’s Den State Park in Washington County, Arkansas, was supposed to be a place of peace.
Nestled in the Lee Creek Valley within the Boston Mountains, the southwestern arm of the Ozarks, the park spreads across 2,500 acres of rugged, beautiful terrain. Its eight-acre lake draws families year-round, and the picnic areas, campsites, and cozy cabins promise nothing more complicated than fresh air, quiet trails, and the simple joy of being outdoors. On July 26, 2025, a warm summer Saturday, the park lived up to its name in the most horrifying way imaginable. Clinton David Brink, forty-three years old, and his wife Kristen Amanda Brink, forty-one, had recently made a new life for themselves in Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
They were originally from California but had moved around the country over the years, living in Montana and South Dakota before finally settling in the Ozarks. Clinton was born on June 14, 1982, and worked as a certified nursing assistant and a delivery driver. Everyone who knew him described him as kind, gentle, and unfailingly dependable—the sort of man who would stop whatever he was doing to help anyone in need. Kristen was born on June 11, 1984, and worked as a registered nurse, holding degrees in both nursing and math.
She was remembered as strong, funny, and deeply loving, a woman who always showed up for her family no matter what. She loved volleyball, singing, crocheting, and needlepoint crafts, and she poured that same creative, warm energy into her home and her children. The Brinks had three daughters. One was already grown and pregnant with the couple’s first grandchild, a joy that was just beginning to take shape.
The two younger girls, ages seven and nine, were still at that golden age where a simple hike with Mom and Dad felt like the greatest adventure in the world. That Saturday, the four of them set out along one of the park’s trails, laughing and talking, surrounded by the green of late July. The trail wound through the trees, filtered sunlight dappling the path. It was the kind of day that made you forget the world beyond the park existed.
The girls ran ahead a little, then circled back to their parents, full of energy and questions. Clinton and Kristen walked close together, occasionally reaching for each other’s hand, grateful for the simple pleasure of a family outing. Then they saw him. A young man in his late twenties, wearing dark pants, a dark ball cap, and sunglasses, approached them on the trail.
There was nothing particularly unusual about his appearance at first glance—just another visitor enjoying the park. Nothing about him suggested danger. But as he drew closer, the energy shifted. He made no eye contact, offered no friendly nod of acknowledgment that hikers often exchanged on the trail.
Without a word, without warning, the man produced a knife. Clinton was attacked first. The blade came out of nowhere, and suddenly the quiet trail became a nightmare. Kristen saw her husband fall, saw the blood, and in that split second, she made the only choice a mother could make.
She grabbed the girls, their hands clutched tightly in hers, and ran. The two little girls later told police that their mother pushed them to safety, shoving them off the trail toward a place where they could hide, telling them to stay quiet and not move. She didn’t go all the way back to the car with them. She stopped just far enough to ensure they were out of sight, then she turned and ran back toward the trail to help her husband.
Kristen was killed trying to save Clinton. The man with the knife turned on her with the same viciousness, and she died on the ground beside her husband, her last act on earth being an attempt to protect the man she loved and the children she had just saved. Arkansas Police Major Stacy Rhodess later confirmed the sequence of events: “We believe that the mother took them to safety and then returned to help her husband. ”
The girls stayed hidden, as their mother had instructed.
They waited, terrified and silent, until finally someone found them and alerted authorities. They were unharmed physically, but they had witnessed something no child should ever have to see—the brutal murder of their parents at the hands of a stranger. The extended Brink family later released a statement calling Clinton and Kristen heroes. They said the couple died protecting their little girls, and it was impossible to argue with that assessment.
Any parent watching the news that night could imagine themselves in that moment, could feel the terror and the impossible sacrifice. Kristen had a choice to make, and she made it without hesitation. She saved her daughters. In the end, that was the only thing that mattered to her.
A massive manhunt was launched across Washington County and the surrounding areas. Witnesses at the park provided descriptions of a vehicle—a black Kia Stinger sedan—seen fleeing the scene. The car became the focus of the investigation as police worked to identify possible owners. Tip lines were flooded with calls.
In total, investigators received around five hundred tips from the public through phone lines and social media. As Arkansas State Police Colonel Mike Hagar later stated, “If you see something, say something,” and the residents of Arkansas had clearly taken that message to heart. Hagar also made a point of thanking the civilian personnel who helped triage those tips, noting that it wasn’t just badge-wearing officers working the case. Behind the scenes, support staff worked around the clock to filter through the flood of information, directing leads to the right investigators and making sure nothing was missed.
It was a cooperative effort that spanned multiple agencies, from the state police to local law enforcement to rangers at the park. On the evening of July 30, 2025, just four days after the murders, the manhunt came to an end. Andrew James McAn, twenty-eight years old, was taken into custody without incident at a barber shop in Springdale, Arkansas, only a short distance from the state park where the crime had taken place. Andrew was born on August 23, 1996, in Chicago and grew up in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood on the city’s southwest side.
He graduated from Fenwick High School in Oak Park in 2015 and left Illinois that same year to attend Oklahoma State University, where he graduated in 2022. He became a certified educator in Flower Mound, Texas, and went on to teach in elementary schools in Broken Arrow and Sand Springs, Oklahoma. But his teaching record was not without its red flags. According to an email shared with CBS News, Andrew had been placed on leave in 2023 pending an investigation into complaints of poor classroom management and poor professional judgment while employed at Donald Elementary School in Flower Mound.
A parent who spoke anonymously with the network said her daughter had reported that Andrew behaved inappropriately in class. She described him as being “very touchy with the girls,” having them sit on his lap, making comments to them, and keeping them back from recess. She called him the most standoffish teacher she had ever met. Those issues followed him.
Andrew resigned from the Lewisville School District the same year over concerns about his classroom behavior, and again resigned from the Plano School District in August 2024 after just four days on the job. He had been living in Springdale, Arkansas, since June 2025, and had been hired as a school superintendent for the 2025–2026 school season at the time of his arrest. At the press conference held the day after his capture, Colonel Hagar began by thanking the responding agencies and the public for their help. He confirmed that DNA recovered from the crime scene had been a positive match for Andrew, and that during an interview with investigators, Andrew had indicated that he committed the murders.
A search warrant was executed at his residence, where articles consistent with involvement in the crime were found. Hagar stated definitively that investigators believed Andrew acted alone: “We have absolutely no reason to believe that there is anyone else involved, and we do not anticipate any future arrest or any other arrest beyond this suspect. ”
Major Stacy Rhodess then detailed how the case had unfolded. Officers had responded to the call at the state park after the two young children were found.
Another witness at the park provided additional information about the suspect and the vehicle seen leaving the area. From witness interviews, investigators compiled a composite sketch, and as they focused on the vehicle, it became clear it was a Kia Stinger. Using that information, they vetted owners and identified the suspect. They located him at a local barber shop in Springdale and took him into custody.
Andrew made statements indicating he had committed the acts. A search warrant was executed on his house and his vehicle. DNA recovered at the crime scene matched the sample taken from Andrew after his arrest. Prosecutor Brandon Carter offered condolences to the Brink children, acknowledging the three girls who had tragically lost their parents.
He praised the cooperation between the seven to nine local agencies that worked hand in hand to solve the crime quickly. “I couldn’t be more proud to be an Arkansan today,” he said. He assured the public they were safe and expressed confidence that the right defendant was in custody. He also stated his intention to use the full weight of his office to bring Andrew to justice for the Brink family.
Colonel Hagar spoke about the Brink family’s courage and the importance of fair, accurate, and sensitive reporting in cases of violent crime. He noted that spreading rumors could revictimize the family, hinder the investigation, and in some cases damage a trial. He referenced past cases where baseless speculation had caused problems, emphasizing the need for the public to let law enforcement do their work without interference. During the question and answer portion, reporters pressed for details.
Asked about the motive, Major Rhodess confirmed that investigators had no reason to believe there was any known association between the suspect and the victims. “It appears to be a completely random event,” she said. The weapon was a knife, and the victims died from stab wounds. Reporters also raised the concerns about Andrew’s past teaching behavior, asking whether investigators believed the girls were the target and whether this was his first crime.
Rhodess stated that there was no indication the girls were his target. She also revealed an important detail: Andrew was injured during the incident. His injuries resulted in blood loss, and it was that blood loss that allowed investigators to establish a DNA profile in the first place—a profile that was later matched to him after his arrest. The sequence of events was confirmed: Clinton was attacked first.
Kristen did not return all the way to the car with the children. She took them to safety and then returned to help her husband, and that is when she was killed. Asked whether the state would pursue the death penalty, Prosecutor Carter responded carefully: “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.
So the state will not be waiving the death penalty in this case. ”
Asked about the safety of state parks, Colonel Hagar pointed out that there was no pattern of people being assaulted in the parks, and that statistically, one was far more likely to be attacked at a convenience store than on a park trail. He said he would not hesitate to visit a state park that day. Because the attack appeared to be random, reporters asked whether Andrew might be connected to other crimes.
On August 7, 2025, the Vermont State Police joined the investigation to look into a possible connection to a murder in the town of Castleton. In 2023, seventy-seven-year-old retired university dean Horry Fleming had been shot and killed while walking along the Delaware and Hudson Rail Trail. She entered the trail near the Vermont State University Castleton campus around 4 p. m.
and was found dead less than an hour later. Police had been looking for a suspect described as a male with short red hair, about five-foot-ten, last seen wearing a dark gray t-shirt and carrying a black backpack. The Vermont State Police had been unable to establish a link between Andrew and their suspect. The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin also joined the investigation to look into a possible connection between Andrew and the stabbing death of twenty-four-year-old John Schmutzer, who was killed on October 14, 2020, while on a solo hiking trip at Devil’s Lake State Park in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
Although DNA had been collected at the time of that murder, no arrest had been made. The only apparent link between the two cases was the similar names of the parks. Anyone with information about the Schmutzer murder was urged to call the Sauk County tip line. Asked whether Andrew had any criminal history, Major Rhodess confirmed he had no adult criminal history that investigators had been able to find.
Asked whether Andrew had given any indication that he planned to flee the area, she said there was no indication. He actually had a residence in Springdale, which was why he was in the area. He gave no indication he was trying to conceal anything—he didn’t hide his car or make any attempt to evade capture. Asked about a history of mental illness, she said investigators were still exploring and vetting information as they had only taken him into custody the night before.
The details of his capture were striking. According to a timestamp, Andrew visited Lupita’s Beauty Salon and Barber Shop in Springdale on the afternoon of July 30, 2025. He sat down for a haircut, asking only for a fade on the sides and refusing to have anything cut from the top of his head. The stylist later described him as looking “pretty normal” at first, but something felt off.
His eyes looked sunken, almost soulless, and he kept his head down with long hair covering his face. He was timid and confused, unsure of what he wanted. About five minutes into the haircut, a man arrived and asked whose car was parked outside. Andrew stood quiet, seemingly scared.
The stylist saw officers with evidence stickers and realized something serious was happening. She asked if it could be related to the Devil’s Den incident, and they said it could have been. She later said she couldn’t stop thinking about the little girls who had seen his face. “These people can be among us,” she warned.
“I would never realize that you could have someone in your chair that has done these horrible things. ”
Andrew was taken into custody by three plainclothes officers. He didn’t even get to finish his haircut, which explained in part why his mug shots looked so bizarre—one side of his head buzzed short, the other still long and disheveled. The top comment on coverage of the arrest read: “From the barber chair to the electric chair.
”
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement after the capture, expressing that no news could heal the enormous harm done to the Brink family. She praised the Arkansas State Police, park rangers, and local law enforcement for their non-stop work, and said, “Let there be no mistake. We do not tolerate violent crime in Arkansas. If you target innocent people, law enforcement will hunt you down and bring you to justice.
” Colonel Hagar echoed her sentiment, describing the phone call he had made to the Brink family as one of the worst experiences of his life. He became visibly emotional when speaking about the effort that brought the suspect to justice: “Because of their hard work and investigative skill, we were able to take a monster off the streets and bring relief to Clinton and Kristen’s precious girls and to the rest of the citizens of Arkansas. ”
On August 14, 2025, Andrew pleaded not guilty to his charges, setting the stage for a lengthy court trial that could take multiple years. State prosecutors stated their intent to seek the death penalty, which was on the table for capital murder in Arkansas.
Prosecutor Carter said, “I anticipate this will be a lengthy litigation. The state is going to pursue the death penalty in this case. I’ve never been involved in a death penalty case that didn’t last multiple years, so I anticipate lengthy litigation in this case going forward. I would tell the public it will be slower than you think it will be.
”
Andrew’s next court appearance was scheduled for November 14, 2025. Prosecutor Carter noted that a gag order might be issued due to the notoriety the case was receiving. Andrew was being represented by public defenders Catherine Street and James Wyatt. As with any case yet to go to trial, Andrew was considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
As of October 2025, police had yet to establish a motive for the killings or anything linking Andrew to the Brink family. It was quite possible this was a completely random attack, which made the simple act of living your life and enjoying nature even more frightening. A man could appear on a peaceful trail on a summer day and take everything from a family in seconds, for no reason at all. There was no explanation that would ever make sense of it.
A celebration of life for Clinton and Kristen Brink was held on August 18, 2025, at Grace Baptist Church in Bakersfield, California, with live streams on both Facebook and YouTube. A reception followed at the church’s fellowship hall. Mourners were asked to donate to a GoFundMe organized by Sheri Reid and Katrina Hutchkins, who shared a message describing Clinton as a son, brother, nephew, uncle, cousin, and loving husband and father. “Clinton and Kristen were loving parents to their two precious daughters, devoted to one another, devoted to their girls, and devoted to God.
Their lives were stolen senselessly and cruelly. We want this individual caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. He robbed these precious girls of their mom and dad, a mother of her son, a mother and father of their daughters. ”
The fundraiser raised nearly ninety-eight thousand dollars of its one hundred twenty thousand dollar goal from over a thousand donations.
Their shared obituary offered a final image of who they were: “They leave behind not just the legacy of a loving marriage and family, but a ripple of kindness, strength, and joy that will be felt for generations. In their lives and in their passing, Clinton and Kristen were heroic, not for grand gestures, but for the everyday acts of love that changed the lives of everyone they touched. ”
Two little girls came home that day without their parents. A young woman prepared to welcome their first grandchild without her mom and dad there to meet them.
A community buried a couple who went on a simple family hike and never came back. And in a jail cell in Washington County, the man accused of ending their lives waited for a trial that would likely take years to unfold. Kristen Brink made a choice in her final moments. Her daughters survived because of it.
The memory of that trail, that ordinary stretch of dirt beneath the Ozark trees, would be forever marked by what happened there. The park would reopen eventually, and life would go on for everyone who wasn’t there that day. But for the Brink family, nothing would ever be the same. The girls had seen his face.
That was what the stylist couldn’t stop thinking about. Those two little girls had watched a stranger murder their parents, and they would carry that image with them for the rest of their lives.
