Cops Tie Anchor's Alleged Killer to Rape

Law enforcement revealed it had forensic evidence connecting Vance to Pressly's death following his arrest Wednesday night, but refused to give specifics.

Little Rock Police Department released this photo of suspect Curtis Lavelle Vance of Marianna, Ark., who is wanted for the murder of Little Rock television anchor Anne Pressly in October.

(Little Rock Police Dept./AP Photo)

Deputy prosecutor John Hout said details are being guarded closely to protect the case.

"There are a lot of people that are intensely eager to find out what the facts are," Hout told the AP. "At this point and time, due to all the hard work of the police and crime lab, we probably don't need to say" what the evidence is.

Mystery Motive

Pressly's parents, who live in South Carolina but vowed to stay in Arkansas until their daughter's killer was found, never believed the woman's death was just about burglary.

"Anne had never had a reason to be afraid before. She lived in a very safe neighborhood. She was a rising star at KATV. She worked so hard to get to the level that she had just recently gotten to. And then, for it to all be taken away, to me, seems very coincidental," Pressly's mother Patti Cannady said on "Good Morning America" today.

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Pressly's mother said she and her husband planned to attend Vance's hearing.

"We have a lot of friends that are going to go with us. We're going to stand together, linked arm-to-arm, to face this man," she said.

"We want him to know how strong we are in standing together to see him face trial, and ultimately conviction. This is a capital murder case. and we fully anticipate that this will be tried and he will be convicted as a capital murderer, and be sentenced appropriately," Pressly's father Guy Cannady said on "Good Morning America" today. "It's a relief to have this character off the street. Certainly, the public safety issue has been removed."

Vance has no previous record of crimes except for traffic violations in Little Rock and Marianna that resulted in a suspended driver's license, and McCree said the alleged killer had no record of any serious crimes that he knew of.

Some wonder how a man without a history of violent crime could have a connection to such a macabre case.