Similarities between the unsolved murder at Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin in 2020 and the stabbing deaths of a couple at Devil’s Den State Park in Arkansas last month have members of the public and authorities wondering if the two cases are connected.
John Schmutzer, 24, of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, was fatally stabbed on Oct. 14, 2020, while reportedly hiking alone at the Wisconsin state park located south of Baraboo, Wisconsin. His murder remains unsolved, despite law enforcement conducting hundreds of interviews and continued efforts to gather additional information.
On July 26, at the state park in Arkansas, 43-year-old Clinton Brink and his 41-year-old wife, Cristen, were fatally stabbed while hiking with their two daughters, ages 7 and 9.
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The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office and Arkansas State Police believe their respective homicide cases were random acts and the victims were not acquainted with their killers.
Sauk County Sheriff’s Lt. Scott Steinhorst said that his department is in contact with Arkansas State Police following “numerous tips from citizens and other law enforcement agencies” who noted the similar names of the two state parks and similar nature of the killings.
Law enforcement have a suspect in the Arkansas homicides: Andrew McGann, 28, a Springdale, Arkansas, resident and former teacher in Texas and Oklahoma, was arrested and charged with two capital murder counts on July 30 and is being held without bond at Washington County Detention Center in Arkansas.
McGann admitted to the killings, according to Arkansas State Police, who say they also matched his DNA to blood found at the scene.
He is 6 feet tall and weighs 180 pounds, according to the center’s detainee database.
But Wisconsin authorities don’t have a firm profile for Schmutzer’s killer.
More than 15 people saw the alleged suspect, now-retired Sauk County Det. Chris Zunker said in November 2022.
Schmutzer was stabbed multiple times by an unknown assailant along Grottos Trail, which is located near the South Shore of Devil’s Lake. Witnesses told Sauk County authorities that they saw a man wearing dark head and facial coverings walking toward a nearby parking lot after the incident and estimated him to be between 5 feet 10 inches and 6 feet tall, but had no definitive description of the suspect.
Retired Sauk County Det. Lt. Chris Zunker talks in 2020 about John Schmutzer, a Wauwatosa man who was stabbed to death at Devil's Lake State Park that year. The case remains unsolved in 2025, but the sheriff's office is talking with Arkansas State Police about a possible link between the Schmutzer case and a July 26 stabbing at an Arkansas state park in which a 28-year-old man was arrested four days later.
In May 2021, additional witnesses reported that the suspect was a roughly 6-foot man who was wearing dark pants ripped at the knees and “possibly a hoodie,” and was running “frantically and out of control” from the parking lot, including falling multiple times, according to Sauk County Sheriff Chip Meister.
The sheriff’s office said it has received hundreds of tips concerning the case.
Steinhorst confirmed that Sauk County authorities are trying to determine McGann’s whereabouts around the time of Schmutzer’s murder. Arkansas State Police did not respond to request for comment.
