News Anchor who Played Coulter in 'W' Beaten and Stabbed

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[FLASH]http://www.liveleak.com/e/531_1224568409[/FLASH]Arkansas Television Anchor Anne Pressly Attacked & In Critical Condition
Monday, October 20, 2008


An Arkansas television anchor who filmed a bit role for the movie "W." was found in her home early Monday suffering from life-threatening injuries caused by a brutal beating.

Anne Pressly, 26, the morning anchor for KATV-TV in Little Rock, was found by her mother at about 4:30 a.m. lying in h More..er bed and bleeding from "severe injuries," police said.

"We do believe she was beaten," Sgt. Cassandra Davis of the Little Rock Police Department told FOXNews.com. She said the injuries were to the upper body and included stab wounds.

Pressly was listed in critical condition at a local hospital, Davis said.

Pressly may have been attacked during a robbery, as her purse is missing. But Davis said that police haven't found any forced entry to her home on Club Road in Little Rock.

"It’s not a neighborhood known for any violent crime," Davis said.

Police do not have suspects in the case, but said they were questioning neighbors, friends and co-workers, Davis said.

Anne Pressly Pressly was seen in "good condition" at 10:30 p.m. and her mother, who normally gives Pressly a wake-up call, found her daughter, Davis said.

"She didn’t get an answer so she went to the address on Club Road, and she found her daughter inside the residence lying in the bed suffering from some severe injuries," Davis told FOXNews.com.

Pressly's dogs, which were also missing, have been found.

Early Monday afternoon, a man who answered a phone listed for Pressly's mother, Patricia Cannady, said the family had no comment.

According to her resume on the Internet Movie Database, the ABC anchor played a news commentator in Oliver Stone's new movie, "W." She also played a sorority girl on the soap opera "As The World Turns."

Pressly won her role in "W.", which was filmed in Shreveport, La., when she went to the city for a story on the movie and Shreveport's film industry. She appears briefly as a conservative commentator who speaks favorably of President Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech.

KATV's Web site notes that Pressly's most notable interview was with Vice President Dick Cheney. Pressly was returning from a story in Humphrey and traveling through Stuttgart, where the highway was blocked in front of hunting supply store Mack's Prairie Wings.

It turned out that Cheney, an avid hunter, was inside. Pressly asked for an interview, which she conducted on the ammunition aisle.

Pressly is a 2004 graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn.

During its 11:30 a.m. newscast, anchor Jason Pederson read a story about the attack and said Pressly was hospitalized.

"We would ask that you keep Anne in your thoughts and, especially, in your prayers," Pederson said.

Her fans had created a Facebook prayer page Monday afternoon.
 
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TV Anchor in Arkansas Dies of Beating Wounds </font size></center>



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The New York Times
By STEVE BARNES
Published: October 26, 2008


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A local television anchorwoman found savagely beaten in her home last week died of her wounds on Saturday night.

The death of the anchor, Anne Pressly, was announced by her parents through St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center. On Friday, it had been reported that Ms. Pressly was somewhat improved, although still in critical condition and unable to communicate verbally. Her doctors had described themselves as “guardedly optimistic” that she would recover.

“It was our hope, as was yours, that Anne would overcome the injuries inflicted upon her in the brutal attack at her home,” her parents, Patricia and George G. Cannady, said Saturday in the hospital’s news release. “We were with her in her last moments, and although our hearts are broken, we are at the same time comforted by our faith knowing that Anne is now with our heavenly father.”

Ms. Pressly, 26, was discovered by her mother, who went to her daughter’s home in the prosperous Pulaski Heights neighborhood when Ms. Pressly failed to answer a routine wakeup call. Ms. Pressly appeared on the “Daybreak” program on KATV, the ABC television affiliate here.

Mrs. Cannady had been visiting Little Rock from her home in Pawleys Island, S.C., when the attack occurred.

The police said Ms. Pressly sustained trauma to her face, head and neck during what they believe was a robbery in her home. Detectives have said they have no evidence that Ms. Pressly had been singled out or stalked. A credit card belonging to Ms. Pressly was used at a service station several miles from her residence shortly after Mrs. Cannady discovered her daughter, the police said.

Ms. Pressly was a native of Greenville, S.C., and a political science graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis. She had been employed by the station since 2004 after serving several technical and editorial internships there.

Ms. Pressly appears in an uncredited role in the Oliver Stone film “W,” based on the presidency of George W. Bush. Mr. Stone awarded her a 30-second part when he reportedly noticed her physical resemblance to the conservative commentator Ann Coulter when Ms. Pressly visited the set of the film, in nearby Shreveport, La., to prepare a feature story on the production.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/us/26anchor.html?hp
 
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Police nab suspect in anchor's death</font size></center>



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In this photo released by the Little Rock Police
Department Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008, suspect
Curtis Lavelle Vance is shown in Little Rock, Ark.
Vance, of Marianna, Ark., is wanted for the murder
of Little Rock television anchor Anne Pressly in
October. (AP Photo/Little Rock Police Dept.)



Associated Press
By TOM PARSONS
November 27, 2008

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Police for weeks had neither a suspect nor a motive in the beating death of a popular television anchorwoman. A suspect is now in custody, but many questions remain unanswered.

Officers arrested Curtis Lavelle Vance, 28, at a home in Little Rock on Wednesday night — tipped to his location after police held a late-evening news conference to reveal him as their suspect. "We went there and he's in custody," said Lt. Terry Hastings, a police spokesman.

Vance was charged with capital murder in the death of Anne Pressly. The 26-year-old anchorwoman, who had a small part in the President George W. Bush biopic "W," died Oct. 25 — five days after being severely beaten in what police described as a random attack at her home.

Vance lived in Marianna, in eastern Arkansas, but had numerous contacts in central Arkansas, Police Chief Stuart Thomas said. He named Vance as the suspect earlier Wednesday night and said Vance was traveling with a woman, three kids, a pistol and "lots of extra ammunition."

Within an hour of the news conference's end, officers were at a home south of downtown. Vance apparently was not armed when arrested, Hastings said early Thursday.

Police did not disclose what led them to suspect Vance, with Thomas saying only that the capital murder charge was based on "a very, very solid case due to solid detective work."

Hastings had said previously that DNA and other evidence from the scene gave police a portrait of the person they were looking for, though they did not have a name until this month. One of Pressly's credit cards was used at a gas station after the beating, but Hastings said security camera footage didn't provide a good look at the person using it.

Pressly lived alone in the city's Pulaski Heights section, a mix of mansions and bungalows near a country club. Her mother, visiting from out of town at the time of the attack but not staying at her daughter's home, found Pressly on Oct. 20, a half-hour before the anchorwoman was due on KATV's "Daybreak" program. The mother checked on the woman after she didn't answer her daily wake-up call.

The anchorwoman had been beaten severely on the head and upper torso. She never regained consciousness.

In the police station lobby before Thomas' news conference, several of Pressly's KATV colleagues quietly wiped tears from their faces. The station raised $50,000 for a reward fund.

Pressly was a native of Greenville, S.C., and moved with her family to Little Rock while she was in high school. She was a graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., which has discussed establishing a scholarship to honor her.

In the Oliver Stone movie "W" — the subject of a news story she covered as the film was being shot in Shreveport, La. — Pressly appeared briefly as a conservative commentator who speaks favorably of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" event on an aircraft carrier after the start of the Iraq war.


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h3sRmbkYztmZI0Nrt0KBPjomlK1AD94N6BSG1
 
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