There has been a break in the mystery surrounding the beating death of the Arkansas TV anchorwoman who had a role in Oliver Stone’s film, “W.”
Police in Little Rock, AR, have arrested a suspect, Curtis Lavelle Vance, and charged him with capital murder in the death of Anne Pressly, 26. She died in the hospital five days after being savagely beaten in her home on October 20. For days, Pressly’s friends and family thought she was going to pull through. Police had described it as a random attack.
Police arrested Vance, 28, soon after they revealed his identity during a news conference. But they would not say what exactly led them to name Vance a suspect.
The capital murder charge was based on “a very, very solid case due to solid detective work,” said Police Chief Stuart Thomas.
Earlier Wednesday night, Thomas said Vance had fled his Marianna home with a woman and three young children. Vance was believed to be armed with a 9-mm pistol and a load of ammunition, KATV reported, but police later said he wasn’t armed. The police chief told KATV that Vance was found at a house in Little Rock, and his car was recovered at a different location. Vance only had a few minor traffic violations on his record — up until now.
“It’s very difficult to look at the picture, just knowing what Anne went through, that that was the last guy that Anne saw in her life,” Pressly’s father, Guy Cannady, said just before Vance’s arrest.
Pressly was described as a vibrant young woman who wasn’t afraid of anyone. She was an intern at ABC’s Little Rock affiliate, KATV, before later going on to earn a permanent position at the station. She was an anchorwoman for KATV’s “Daybreak” program when she died.
AP also reports that some workers at St. Vincent Health System in Little Rock were fired for improperly accessing Pressly’s medical records while she was a patient there after the beating.
“Those records were being audited every day, and as soon as we learned of a possible breach, we investigated,” Peter Banko, the hospital system’s president, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
