Tip helps police nab suspect in TV anchor's death

[November 28, 2008]  LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- The phones began ringing at police headquarters soon after local television stations broadcast a picture of a man accused of killing a popular TV anchorwoman. Within an hour and a half, he was in custody.

Curtis Lavelle Vance, 28, of Marianna, was being held at the Pulaski County Jail, awaiting arraignment Friday morning on a capital murder charge in the beating death of Anne Pressly. The 26-year-old anchorwoman died Oct. 25, five days after being severely beaten in what police described as a random attack at her home.

A police spokesman, Lt. Terry Hastings, said he did not know if Vance had an attorney. He said a public defender would likely be appointed to the case.

Vance was arrested Wednesday night at a home in central Little Rock after police held a news conference to name him as the suspect in Pressly's death. His picture soon aired on all the local news show.

"We received several phone calls ... but this one turned out to be correct" about where Vance could be found, Police Chief Stuart Thomas said Thursday.

Police did not disclose what led them to suspect Vance.

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.

Hastings said Thursday that police would not disclose how they obtained DNA to match to a possible suspect. "We're going to be very tight-lipped on this case, pre-trial," he said.

Vance was interviewed by officers for several hours late Wednesday and early Thursday, he said. Asked if Vance had made a formal statement, Hastings said: "He talked with detectives. I'll leave it at that."

Pressly's father, Guy Cannady, attended the news conference where Vance's picture was distributed by police.

"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," he said before Vance's arrest.

Pressly's mother, who was 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 her daughter 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.

[Associated Press; By TOM PARSONS]

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