Police: Suspect Linked To TV Anchor Slay

Forensic Evidence Gave Police A Case Against Arkansas Man In Brutal Murder Of Anne Pressley

(AP)  Police said Friday they talked to the suspect in the slaying of a TV anchorwoman before his arrest this week and gathered physical evidence they say links him to the slaying.

Lt. Terry Hastings told The Associated Press on Friday that detectives interviewed Curtis Lavelle Vance at his home in Marianna and collected forensic evidence in the death of Anne Pressly.

Hastings said the case against Vance "was made off of forensics." Hastings declined to say how they obtained the evidence - whether it willing given by Vance or taken without his knowledge. In Arkansas, police can obtain evidence from discarded material or trash - DNA evidence from a cigarette butt, for example - without a warrant.

Deputy prosecutor John Hout said the evidence found in the victim's home tied Vance to the killing. Hout wouldn't specify whether it was DNA evidence or other material.

Vance, 28, was arrested without incident Wednesday night on suspicion of capital murder in the Oct. 20 attack on Pressly, 26, a morning anchorwoman for Little Rock's ABC affiliate, KATV. She died five days later, having never regained consciousness.

Tips from the public led to the arrest within a couple of hours after police publicly named Vance and his picture was broadcast on television. Vance was arrested at a home in central Little Rock, which is some 90 miles from Marianna, where he lives.

At a closed court hearing Friday, Judge Lee Munson ordered Vance held without bond. Hout said Vance said nothing during the short hearing, which was held inside the Pulaski County jail because courts were closed Friday. Hout said Vance did not enter a plea.

Earlier, Hastings, said he did not know if Vance had an attorney. He said a public defender would likely be appointed.

Valerie Cooper, the mother of Vance's girlfriend, Sheanika Cooper, told KATV that she learned of the charge Thursday morning and doesn't believe Vance committed the crime. She said he has "a real nice personality."

"He didn't give me no kind of hint or nothing. It shocked me," she said. "I don't want to believe he did something like that."

When police announced Wednesday that they were looking for Vance, they had said he might be with Sheanika Cooper and three children. But they was not with him when he was arrested later that day.

Police did not disclose what led them to suspect Vance in the first place.

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.

Asked if Vance had made a formal statement after his arrest, 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 found Pressly early on the morning of Oct. 20. She had checked on her daughter after she didn't answer her daily wake-up call.

Pressly appeared briefly in the Oliver Stone movie "W" as a conservative commentator who speaks favorably of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" event on an aircraft carrier after the start of the Iraq war. She got the part when she was noticed by a casting director as she did a news story on the film while it was being shot in Shreveport, La.

[spredbury]

I''m sorry this lady was murdered and feel so bad for her family and friends but why is her life so much more important than any of the hundreds of others who are murdered everyday in this country. We as a country have begun to put more value on the life or death of one person over that of another. Why does CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, and all other news services keep this case in the headlines when they disregard other murders of other citizens? It is so sad that one person''s death is deemed a greater loss than that of another less famous person. A death is a death no matter who the victim is.

[louiville2]

louiville2 needs to get a life. Murder is part of
life, It''''s not going anywhere. People are violent
by nature. This country was build on violence and
murder, just ask the native American''''s.

Posted by bwlewis1964

Hmmm were you just shopping in walmart?

[petro49l]

Curtis must confess to the killing of Anne. The Public has the right to know. PA inmate Tony Wilson admitted to commission of homicide on his Girlfriend. DNA evidence persuaded the Police that Tony was the murderer. He thought that it was the perfect crime. His former wife Lori swore that Tone was innocent. But, security cameras and scientific analysis of blood proved Wilson guilty. Curtis is severely brain-damaged from the use of street narcotics. His Attorney should make a motion for psychiatric treatment.

[bwlewis1964]

louiville2 needs to get a life. Murder is part of
life, It''s not going anywhere. People are violent
by nature. This country was build on violence and
murder, just ask the native American''s.

[wlmrtpatriot]

This is a high profile case, she was a tv anchor person. She was in the public eye. Not all of us are. Eve Carson was popular on her college campus.
She was well known by a lot of students and teachers.
Someone in here mentioned a case that wasn''t a high profile case unless you were near her location. It was one of the most heinous crimes I''ve ever read about.

[ladyephesus1]

We all know that some of the most notorious mass murderers in history were all white men. So lets talk about that huh??? Innocent people were killed. It happens on a daily basis. I didnt know Anne Pressley but I shed a tear for her when I saw the news coverage of her murder. This is sad what happened to an innocent soul, not to mention her parents that are hurting real bad right now. The whole world is a mess right now. This is not the only murder that has taken place. It is ONE of MANY!!

[pastoroj]

I''m glad they caught this SOB...but I am also concerned as to why the LRPD picks and chooses its cases that it will give its full attention to. The LRPD is suppose to be the dept of ALL the citizens of LR not just the high profile. Let''s face it, this case did receive preferential treatment and that is unfair and wrong! I don''t remember the LRPD holding briefings and press conferences for other victim''s families. Please don''t judge what I am saying until you have been in this situation, you won''t understand the rash differences in this case and others. I can think of at least 7 unsolved murders now...albeit the people who were killed weren''t high profile journalists but a life is a life. I also find it a bit hypocritical and poignant that the community will rally around this case but not ALL cases of violence and murder. If you are so concerned about safety you should be outraged when ANYONE is harmed or murdered not just when someone you are familiar with or who fits your demographics dies.

[perk235]

When 92% of women are murdered by their spouses, boyfriends or estranged husbands, most crimes against women are personal. The data shows overwhelmingly that crimes against women are by people they know.

It is the very nature of infrequency (8%) that makes stories of murders of women by strangers to sensational. Yet this also leads people to thinking this is the norm, not the exception to who kills women.

[simplemind2]

Regardless of whether Curtis Lavell Vance confessed or not, if the collected forensic evidence from the crime scheme matches him and if jury convicts him - then he deserves the death penalty!
No "If" and "But" please!
Justice needs to be served swiftly and mucho pronto!

[hatesthecolt]

If this had been a white man who violently murdered a black female news anchor, it would be called a hate crime and would be getting the coverage the Duke Lacrosse case received. Reverend Sharpton would be protesting with his bulllhorn in Little Rock right now.


Posted by pugarm

The only racist here is you because the only evidence that this was MOTIVATED by race is that there is a difference between the race of the perpetrator and the victim. I didn''t hear any of you screaming when the last black guy in TX was dragged to his death by a bunch of skinheads in spite of clear evidence that it was a racially motivated crime. This guy should fry for the crime, not for being black, unless you can show it was motivation for what he did. (By the way, if you''re so offended by a guy beating up on a woman maybe you could stand up against some black-on-black crime and white-on-white spousal abuse cases ... there are lots of guys who beat up on women who ought to go to jail, not just this guy).

[pugarm]

If Vance had walked into Pressly''s home with a gun and demanded her purse, she would have given it to him willingly to save her life. Instead, this black thug chose to murder a helpless white female, violently. I hate people like him, with every fiber of my being.

How about death by slow torture for savages like Vance when their proven guilty? May make these hip-hop gangsta thugs think twice before they murder.

If this had been a white man who violently murdered a black female news anchor, it would be called a hate crime and would be getting the coverage the Duke Lacrosse case received. Reverend Sharpton would be protesting with his bulllhorn in Little Rock right now.

[lilly1232]

I have been reading these post, what is wrong with you people? You talk about racism as if it is only white who are racist, and that is not true. Now your saying this woman caused her own death? Just what is just cause for murder? I am so sick of seeing all the garbage that is put in these things. that you will not see me again. Come on people wake up and use your brains, no matter what your color,cause you sure are not using them here

[rushlimpdrug]

The story is about a woman that
was MURDERED.

Get it tuckerndfw?

Now my afro bro go talk your
DNA science on an appropriate
site.

[hatesthecolt]

If there was no other motive, then by default the motive was this black scum''''s hatred of white women. Time for the media to do a service and stop hiding black on white criminality. I live in PC country and the local media will not report the race of a perpetrator, unless he/she is white.

Posted by rmblroy

The reason they don''t report it is because unless there is EVIDENCE that the crime is racially motivated it''s IRRELEVANT. Now, just because I need to spell this out for the uneducated (rmblroy), let''s see how requiring EVIDENCE before drawing conclusions might accrue to everyone''s benefit, EVEN rmblroy. Howzabout if YOU had an argument with someone who turned up dead. Let''s report on that argument and draw conclusions that anyone who had an argument like that MUST be guilty. FRY HIM!

[rmblroy]

If there was no other motive, then by default the motive was this black scum''s hatred of white women. Time for the media to do a service and stop hiding black on white criminality. I live in PC country and the local media will not report the race of a perpetrator, unless he/she is white.

[hatesthecolt]

Anyone as "intellligint" as Limbowhead probably has friends who are equally "intellligint", such as Rowdy.

Posted by tuckerndfw

And speaking of intellligint, here comes WILLIAM209!

[denn034]

It''s good to see something is being done to get Pressly''s family justice. If he''s guilty, then, throw the book at him. Don''t be surprised if he also killed Jennifer Salvo in Texas, another blonde female news reporter in Lubbock that was killed under similar circumstances.

This was an interracial hate crime. Why? Because one of the prerequisites of a hate crime is the viciousness of the attack. This woman was beaten so severely that pieces of her brain were stuck on the ceiling. And the police had incorrectly thought that she had been stabbed in the head and face, because pieces of bone were sticking ou through the flesh.

"criminality comes in all colors", "ignorance comes in all colors", "This story has nothing to do with race", "This violent crime has nothing to do with race", "This was not a hate crime", "It doesn%u2019t matter what race you are", ect., ect.

Can anyone recall the media reporting black on white violence as a hate crime, and without posters like the above, who have a personal need to cover-up and down-play black racial hatred and violence toward whites, by insisting it had nothing to do with race?? Yet they NEVER do the same when the races of an interracial violent crime are reversed.

Remember: When blacks attack whites, it''s NEVER about race. When whites attack blacks it''s ALWAYS about race. Let''s all get with the Politically Correct Program.

[hatesthecolt]

The ignorance of racists such as Rushlimberdick is almost suffocating at times. . .

:-)

Posted by tuckerndfw

Yes, I don''t know why you waste your time on him. Like Rowdy, Rush appears to be another willfully woefully ignorant who doesn''t engage in discussion not because he won''t but because he can''t.

[rushlimpdrug]

The ignorance of racists such as Rushlimberdick is almost suffocating at times. . .
:-)
Posted by tuckerndfw at 11:04 AM


Trying to make yourself sound intellligint
won''t cut it.

If I call myself an AFRO-American
to ANYONE they would laugh.

You are pathetic.

Your logic is as good as Hitler''s logic.

Waste your stupidity on other "logic"