An Arkansas television anchor who filmed a bit role for the movie W. has died, after being found in her home early Monday, October 20, 2008, 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 her 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.
Earlier in the week, Pressly was listed in critical condition at a local hospital, Davis said. She reportedly was improving by mid-week, before she died on Saturday.
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. (Emphasis added - LC.)
"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.
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 in the ammunition aisle.
Anne Pressly, 26, died Saturday at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Margaret Preston said.
In a statement released by the hospital, Pressly's parents Guy and Patti Cannady asked for privacy as they grieved their daughter's death.
"It was our hope, as was yours, that Anne would overcome the injuries inflicted upon her in the brutal attack at her home," the statement read. "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."
Pressly was beaten around the head, face and neck. She had been unable to communicate with her family or police while being kept sedated in the intensive care unit.
She was discovered Monday morning a half-hour before she was to appear on ABC affiliate KATV's "Daybreak" program. Her mother went to her home after she didn't answer her regular wake-up call.
Little Rock police have yet to identify a suspect.
Pressly was a native of Greenville, S.C., and moved with her family to Little Rock while she was in high school.
Pressly is a 2004 graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn.
2 comments:
That is so sad. It's amazing to me how some people can be ruthless enough to another human being and somehow justify beating them to death. I pray that Anne's killer rots with guilt and turns themselves in. Consider this a call for justice.
the Cheney connection is spooky indeed. Payback?
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