A suspect has been arrested for the heartless double murder of two parents who were slain protecting their young daughters on a hiking trail in Arkansas’ Devil’s Den State Park Saturday — ending a frantic five-day manhunt.
James Andrew McGann, 28, was arrested on Wednesday in Springdale, Ark. and charged with two counts of capital murder, according to a release from the Arkansas State police.
Clinton David Brink, 43, and his wife Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, were hiking with their two daughters, 7 and 9, through Devil’s Den State Park on Saturday when a man alleged to be McGann attacked them on a trail around 2:30 p.m., officials said.
The children escaped unharmed and reported that their parents were stabbed along a trail at the tourist destination famous for its caves and rock formations, according to a CNN report.
“Clinton and Cristen died heroes protecting their little girls, and they deserve justice,” the Brink family told local ABC News in a statement.
The hero parents’ bodies were found on the popular hiking trail hours after the grisly attack, setting off a desperate search for their killer described as a man wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses and fingerless weight-lifting gloves.
The Brinks had recently moved to Arkansas from South Dakota. Clinton was set to start his new job as a milk delivery driver on Monday, his employer said.
Investigators have not announced a motive for the twisted killings but state officials praised the arrest.
“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,” Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in the release.
“If you target innocent people, law enforcement will hunt you down and bring you to justice,” Sanders said.
Local law enforcement called McGann a “monster” and praised investigators for the hasty apprehension.
“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,” ASP Col. Mike Hagar said in the arrest announcement.
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