No IMO Clint was not hinting about a black van..
I will attempt to explain what I believe was his reasons for even mentioning such as the black van{and if ya notice all my posts tend to be God awful long..So am really gonna attempt to make them shorter/sweeter and to the point..lol}
Immediately preceding the "black van" remark made by Clint they were discussing Shawn..the child




..and the possibility of what Shawn may have done to Hailey.. In speaking of this Clint quite naturally became very "heated"..full of emotion..anger..desperation..etc..etc when thinking and speaking of Shawn and what could have possibly happened.. IMO Because Clint tho he consciously doesn't want to admit and face the truth of Hailey being forever gone and it being at Shawn's hands that she dies..I do think deep down Clint knows this.. He' most likely has played scenarios out in his mind..just as he said he did..
While in the heat of these emotions talking of Shawn killing Hailey he made the statement about "Shawn having his hands/or arms around Hailey's neck"..{this IMO was a man describing a direct picture that was forever in his head.playing day after day..hour after hour..of what Shawn possibly did to Hailey}..he quickly tried to recover IMO after this statement as he is desperately trying to not let those thoughts consume his mind..his heart..his entire being..
The host Rachael immediately following Clint's statement of Shawn choking Hailey asks him "why did you just say Shawn's arms/hands around Hailey's neck?".. And as I said immediately Clint was attempting to recover from his "true" and real emotions flooding thru and taking over so he began to tell Rachael that as a father of a missing daughter you have these thoughts and scenarios of nightmarish proportions continually flashing through your head 24/7..with Clint attempting to give another example of some of the scenarios which might would be playing thru his head..This is when he gives the example of Hailey being abducted off the street by a stranger in a black van that just swoops her up and she's gone in an instant..
So as I said IMO he was not hinting or alluding to in any way that a black van was involved.. Rather his very raw and real feelings/emotions that are boiling literally right there under the surface and when speaking of Shawn choking Hailey we saw a very brief glimpse of those very real and raw emotions those feelings of terror and his greatest fears of what he may think happened to Hailey..and because of this the host was then questioning why would he say such about Shawn{when IMO it was obvious this was this man's true fears of what happened}..but the host was questioning it and Clint instead of just "running with" Shawn killed Hailey and he knows deep down that he did..he was telling the host that as a parent you have these nightmare scenarios with which he gave the black van scenario..
IMO that is exactly what happened and exactly why he responded with the black van scenario..jmo tho