The man who authorities say admitted to fatally stabbing two hikers in Arkansas grew up in Chicago and went to high school in Oak Park.
Andrew James McGann, a 28-year-old teacher who was expected to start a new job in northwest Arkansas on Aug. 11, has been charged with two counts of capital murder in the July 26 killing of Clinton David Brink, 43, and Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, the Associated Press reported.
Police said McGann stabbed the couple, whom he didn’t know, at Devil’s Den, a 2,500-acre state park about 140 miles northwest of Little Rock. They were hiking with their 7- and 9-year-old daughters.
McGann was cooperative during his arrest, authorities said, and admitted to killing the couple soon after. Police also matched his DNA to blood found at the crime scene.
McGann, who has no criminal record, grew up in Garfield Ridge and lived there through his high school years. He attended Fenwick High School in Oak Park, graduating in 2015, according to school spokesperson Scott Hardesty.
McGann is pictured as a senior in Fenwick’s 2015 yearbook and quoted as well. The question posed to students was, “What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you at Fenwick?” McGann, who called himself “Andy,” responded to the question by saying, “Slipping up the stairs, lemonade in hand.”
McGann returned to Garfield Ridge two years ago to show his girlfriend the home where he grew up, according to Anthony Morales, a 71-year-old retired CTA maintenance worker who bought the home from the McGann family in 2020.
Morales said that his wife communicated with the McGann family during the period that they bought the home and that he only met Andrew McGann that one time. He said McGann told him who he was when he arrived unannounced with his girlfriend.
“I didn’t let him in the house. I just let him in the yard,” Morales said, adding that he believed the McGann family lived in the home for at least two decades before selling it to him.
“He appeared like a normal kid,” Morales said, adding that he was surprised to learn the news of McGann’s arrest.
Morales also said that since the news of McGann’s arrest, he has not heard anything from neighbors indicating there were any problems with McGann in the past. He also said the neighborhood is peaceful and quiet.
“It’s beautiful around here. A lot of police, a lot of firemen. Never a problem,” Morales said.
Police arrested McGann on Wednesday at Lupita’s Beauty Salon and Barber Shop in Springdale, about 30 miles from the state park.
Reached by phone, salon owner Armando Avalos told the Chicago Sun-Times that McGann was arrested about halfway through his haircut.
“My niece was right in the middle of cutting his hair when the police came. That’s the way he left,” Avalos said.
He added that after the arrest people in the shop were shaken.
“While he was here, nobody had any idea, but afterward people were kind of scared.”
According to the Associated Press, McGann bounced among four school districts in three states in recent years. He was placed on administrative leave at an elementary school in the Dallas suburb of Flower Mound in the spring of 2023 after concerns were raised about his classroom management. But he passed background checks in two different Oklahoma school districts and was expected to start his new teaching job in Arkansas Aug. 11.
Officials said they have no motive for the slayings and that McGann stabbed Clinton Brink first, about half a mile into the park. They said Cristin Brink then ushered the couple’s children to safety before returning to try to help her husband. She was also stabbed to death.
McGann is being held without bond.
Contributing: Associated Press