{"id":21542,"date":"2025-08-01T13:58:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T17:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=21542"},"modified":"2025-08-01T13:58:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T17:58:47","slug":"couple-killed-along-devils-den-park-trail-died-heroes-protecting-their-little-girls-family-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/08\/couple-killed-along-devils-den-park-trail-died-heroes-protecting-their-little-girls-family-says.html","title":{"rendered":"Couple Killed Along Devil’s Den Park Trail ‘Died Heroes Protecting Their Little Girls,’ Family Says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Cristen Brink \/ Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What began as a peaceful hike in one of Arkansas\u2019 most beautiful parks ended in heartbreaking tragedy for the Brink family\u2014but also in a powerful act of love and bravery.<\/p>\n

Clinton David Brink, 43, and Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, were walking along a trail at Devil\u2019s Den State Park with their two young daughters, ages 7 and 9, when they were attacked and killed in what police are now calling a \u201ccompletely random\u201d act of violence.<\/p>\n

According to Arkansas State Police, Clinton was attacked first. Investigators believe Cristen rushed their daughters to safety before returning to help her husband. Tragically, both parents were fatally stabbed.<\/p>\n

\u201cClinton and Cristen died heroes protecting their little girls,\u201d their family said in a statement. \u201cThey deserve justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to the bravery and quick thinking of their mom, the two girls were not physically harmed. They are now in the care of relatives. The couple also has a third daughter who was not on the trail that day.<\/p>\n

After a dayslong manhunt, police arrested 28-year-old Andrew James McGann, a newly hired teacher who had recently moved to Arkansas. He was taken into custody at a barbershop in Springdale on Wednesday evening. During an interview with investigators, McGann confessed to the double murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a senseless and horrific crime,\u201d said Arkansas State Police Director Col. Mike Hagar. \u201cThere is no known connection between the victims and the suspect. It appears to be completely random.\u201d<\/p>\n

DNA evidence from the crime scene and wounds on McGann\u2019s hands linked him to the attack. Items found at his home also matched the evidence. Though he had passed background checks in previous school jobs in Oklahoma and Texas, he had faced concerns in one district over classroom management and judgment. He had not yet started his new teaching job in Springdale.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s daughters were key in helping police identify the suspect. \u201cWe are in awe of them,\u201d Hagar said. \u201cThe information that they were able to provide started us down this path to make this arrest. It all started with those two little girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders expressed deep sorrow over the loss. \u201cOne of the worst experiences I\u2019ve ever had was making a phone call to the Brink family earlier this week,\u201d she said. \u201cOur entire state is grieving.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the investigation continues and McGann awaits his first court appearance, the Brink family\u2014and their incredible sacrifice\u2014remain in the hearts of many.<\/p>\n

Please pray for the Brink family, especially their children, as they walk through this unimaginable grief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What began as a peaceful hike in one of Arkansas\u2019 most beautiful parks ended in heartbreaking tragedy for the Brink family\u2014but also in a powerful act of love and bravery. Clinton David Brink, 43, and Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, were walking along a trail at Devil\u2019s Den State Park with their two young daughters, ages…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":21545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages"],"yoast_head":"\nCouple Killed Along Devil's Den Park Trail 'Died Heroes Protecting Their Little Girls,' Family Says<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A loving couple died protecting their daughters in a random attack at Devil\u2019s Den Park. Their sacrifice is being remembered as heroic.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/08\/couple-killed-along-devils-den-park-trail-died-heroes-protecting-their-little-girls-family-says.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Couple Killed Along Devil's Den Park Trail 'Died Heroes Protecting Their Little Girls,' Family Says\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A loving couple died protecting their daughters in a random attack at Devil\u2019s Den Park. Their sacrifice is being remembered as heroic.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/08\/couple-killed-along-devils-den-park-trail-died-heroes-protecting-their-little-girls-family-says.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-01T17:58:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/08\/Clinton-Cristen-Brink_credit-Cristen-Brink-Facebook.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beliefnet Contributors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Couple Killed Along Devil's Den Park Trail 'Died Heroes Protecting Their Little Girls,' Family Says","description":"A loving couple died protecting their daughters in a random attack at Devil\u2019s Den Park. Their sacrifice is being remembered as heroic.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/08\/couple-killed-along-devils-den-park-trail-died-heroes-protecting-their-little-girls-family-says.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Couple Killed Along Devil's Den Park Trail 'Died Heroes Protecting Their Little Girls,' Family Says","og_description":"A loving couple died protecting their daughters in a random attack at Devil\u2019s Den Park. Their sacrifice is being remembered as heroic.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/08\/couple-killed-along-devils-den-park-trail-died-heroes-protecting-their-little-girls-family-says.html","og_site_name":"Inspiration Report","article_published_time":"2025-08-01T17:58:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/08\/Clinton-Cristen-Brink_credit-Cristen-Brink-Facebook.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Beliefnet Contributors","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/08\/couple-killed-along-devils-den-park-trail-died-heroes-protecting-their-little-girls-family-says.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/08\/couple-killed-along-devils-den-park-trail-died-heroes-protecting-their-little-girls-family-says.html","name":"Couple Killed Along Devil's Den Park Trail 'Died Heroes Protecting Their Little Girls,' Family Says","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/08\/couple-killed-along-devils-den-park-trail-died-heroes-protecting-their-little-girls-family-says.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/08\/couple-killed-along-devils-den-park-trail-died-heroes-protecting-their-little-girls-family-says.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/08\/Clinton-Cristen-Brink_credit-Cristen-Brink-Facebook.jpg","datePublished":"2025-08-01T17:58:47+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-01T17:58:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/aea408b5be59bf6e05556b03859b6b79"},"description":"A loving couple died protecting their daughters in a random attack at Devil\u2019s Den Park. Their sacrifice is being remembered as heroic.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/08\/couple-killed-along-devils-den-park-trail-died-heroes-protecting-their-little-girls-family-says.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/08\/couple-killed-along-devils-den-park-trail-died-heroes-protecting-their-little-girls-family-says.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/08\/couple-killed-along-devils-den-park-trail-died-heroes-protecting-their-little-girls-family-says.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/08\/Clinton-Cristen-Brink_credit-Cristen-Brink-Facebook.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2025\/08\/Clinton-Cristen-Brink_credit-Cristen-Brink-Facebook.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Cristen Brink \/ Facebook"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/08\/couple-killed-along-devils-den-park-trail-died-heroes-protecting-their-little-girls-family-says.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Couple Killed Along Devil’s Den Park Trail ‘Died Heroes Protecting Their Little Girls,’ Family Says"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/","name":"Inspiration Report","description":"Inspiration News, Life Advice and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/aea408b5be59bf6e05556b03859b6b79","name":"Beliefnet Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6f7\/6f77b66a3e683e8aeba5be93e4ae3e04x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6f7\/6f77b66a3e683e8aeba5be93e4ae3e04x96.jpg","caption":"Beliefnet Staff"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/author\/skirk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21548,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21542\/revisions\/21548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}