Devil’s Den victim mom was slaughtered after saving daughters and then running back to help husband: cops

The hero Arkansas mother knifed to death in a Devil’s Den State Park rushed her daughters to safety while her husband fended off their crazed assailant – and was murdered when she went back to help her spouse, police revealed Thursday.

Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, fled with her kids when the family was ambushed by a knifeman on a remote wilderness trail Saturday, with her 43-year-old husband Clinton David Brink grappling with the attacker so they could get away.

Brink got the kids to a safe place – then ran back into danger to help her husband, Arkansas prosecutors and police revealed Thursday.

But she never returned to collect the terrified girls.

By the time the dust settled, she and her husband were dead, and their killer was in the wind.

After a four day manhunt – fueled largely by the courageous girls’ vivid description of the attacker — suspect James Andrew McGann, 28, was finally arrested Wednesday, while he was getting his hair cut at a barbershop in Springdale.

Police say he confessed to the crime and that his DNA matched blood found at the scene – but that he is expected to plead guilty.

No motive in the grisly attack has been revealed, but investigators said McGann had no connection to the victims and that it appeared to be completely random – and that the young girls were not his target.

But McGann – a teacher with certifications to teach elementary and middle school in three states – previously faced allegations of inappropriate behavior at a Texas school he taught at in 2023.

An investigation found no conclusive evidence, but McGann resigned soon afterwards.

Despite those allegations, McGann was due to start teaching again in Arkansas’ Springdale Public Schools next week.

He has no criminal record as an adult, prosecutors said, and also no known history of mental illness.

Prosecutors said they could pursue the death penalty if McGann is found guilty of the murders.