A popular television anchorwoman who had a small part in the President Bush biopic “W” was in critical condition Monday after being beaten in her home. Police questioned whether she could have been targeted for attack.
KATV anchor Anne Pressly, 26, was found Monday at 4:30 a.m.—a half-hour before she was due to appear on the station’s “Daybreak” program. Pressly’s mother went to the anchorwoman’s house when she didn’t answer a wake-up call, Little Rock police spokeswoman Cassandra Davis said.
Pressly was in her bed and was unresponsive and a police report noted that she was bleeding from the head. Davis described the injuries as “severe wounds” and that Pressly was stabbed. KATV—citing investigators —later reported that all injuries were from blunt force trauma to the head and upper body. The anchorwoman’s purse was missing and police said Pressly may have been beaten during a robbery. Asked whether Pressly may have been targeted because of her job, Davis said officers were talking to her co-workers to determine whether she “has had any problems.” Davis would not discuss specifics of what the investigation revealed.
In a statement, KATV president and general manager Dale Nicholson said the anchor “is a person who simply lights up the room, by just walking in.”
The last known contact with Pressly was between 9:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Sunday. Davis said Pressly’s mother regularly gives her daughter a wake-up call and went to the home in Little Rock’s Pulaski Heights neighborhood when Pressly didn’t answer.
Pressly is a native of Greenville, S.C., and moved with her family to Little Rock while she was in high school. She is a graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn.
