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The man accused of killing a married couple while they were on a hiking trip with their kids in Arkansas July 26 is being looked at for possible involvement in other murders.
Arkansas State Police allege Andrew James McGann killed Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, and Clinton David Brink, 43, while the couple was taking their children hiking at Devil’s Den State Park in Washington County, Arkansas. He pleaded not guilty during his arraignment on Thursday morning.
Col. Mike Hagar, Arkansas State Police director, said McGann confessed to the killings, adding they were stabbed to death in a “completely random event.”
“We have no reason to believe there was any known association between our suspect and our victims,” Hagar said. “During an interview with investigators, the suspect admitted to committing the murders. We also executed a search warrant at his residence and recovered items consistent with the crime.”
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Hagar said DNA was used to link McGann to the couple’s death.
McGann, who has held several schoolteacher positions in the Southeast over several years, is also being looked at for possible involvement in the murders of people in Vermont and Wisconsin.
A detective from the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin told Fox News Digital his agency has received tips regarding a “possible connection” between the July 26 incident and a separate Oct. 14, 2020, incident in Devil’s Lake State Park, where John Craig Schmutzer was stabbed while hiking on the Grottos Trail.
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The detective said police are trying to determine if there’s any link between McGann and the death of Schmutzer.
“We’ve received many tips, both from citizens in Arkansas and Wisconsin, regarding the Devil’s Den Homicide and the possible connection to our homicide from October 2020,” Det. Sgt. Drew Bulin told Fox News Digital. “We’ve been in contact with Arkansas investigators and will be working to determine if the similarities are a coincidence or if there is something more.”
According to ABC 7 News, McGann grew up in Chicago’s Garfield Ridge neighborhood, which is about three hours from Devil’s Lake State Park.
The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office said Schmutzer’s killer was roughly 6 feet tall with a “slender to average build.” Jail records from Washington County, Arkansas, indicate McGann is 6 feet tall.
The Vermont State Police said in an Aug. 7 press release that detectives reached out to law enforcement in Arkansas to discuss the death of Honoree Fleming, whose body was found on the Delaware and Hudson Rail Trail in Castleton.
“After the Vermont State Police learned of the recent double homicide of a couple on a hiking trail in Arkansas and the arrest of a suspect, VSP detectives took the routine step of contacting their counterparts in Arkansas to discuss the case,” the Vermont State Police wrote. “At this time, there is no known link between the suspect in that case and the Honoree Fleming homicide, or to Vermont in general.”
Shane Wilkinson, a criminal defense attorney and former chief deputy prosecutor of Benton County, Arkansas, told Fox News Digital he thinks law enforcement agencies with unsolved hiking murders are likely taking a look at McGann.
“I think anybody that has an unsolved hiking trail murder, they’re probably taking note of this right now,” Wilkinson said.
Former homicide Det. Ted Williams told Fox News Digital McGann’s alleged murder has “raised a great deal of red flags all over the country.”
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“I would have to believe not only are law enforcement in Wisconsin and Vermont interested in McGann. But they also interested him all over this country because of the manner in which he was alleged to have stabbed this couple to death,” Williams said. “And the manner in which he stabbed this couple there in Devil’s Den State Park would lead any law enforcement agency that has a similar situation, where someone has been stabbed to death, to definitely wanna look into Andrew McGann.”
Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
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