Ark. News Anchorwoman Recovering, Reward Fund Set Up

Oct. 22, 2008 — -- Investigators have not yet been able to speak to the Little Rock, Ark., anchorwoman who was nearly beaten to death to find out whether she can describe her attacker, police said today.

As authorities wait to see whether Anne Pressly can identify the person who assaulted her Monday, KATV, the ABC News affiliate in Little Rock, along with Little Rock Police Department Crimestoppers, have set up a reward fund for information leading to the arrest and conviction of her assailant.

Click here for more information on the fund.

Police have no suspects in Monday's attack and are treating the incident as "random."

The 26-year-old newscaster, who was found in her home Monday, is recovering blunt force trauma to the head and upper body.

According to The Associated Press, police have no evidence that suggests Pressly was targeted because of her high-profile job, but they have not ruled out stalking. Police said Tuesday that Pressly's missing purse suggested robbery as a possible motive.

Pressly appears on KATV's "Daybreak" morning show.

"Anne has a long struggle of recovery ahead of her," according to a statement by the Pressly family. "She is a fighter, a strong, healthy and physically fit young woman. We expect her to recover completely."

After Pressly did not answer her wake-up call, Patricia Cannady, Pressly's mother, went to her home and found the anchorwoman in her bed.

"The front door was latched when her mother went there," KATV president and general manager Dale Nicholson told "Good Morning America." "The front porch light was on and I think she almost dreaded going to the back for fear that it wasn't going to be latched. It wasn't."

"[It] is possible that it is something other than robbery," Davis told reporters yesterday. "Our detectives are talking with co-workers because she was a public figure, because she was on the news, in the media."

Brad Garrett, a former FBI agent and ABC News contributor, said the attack has many earmarks related to stalking.

"Someone who is struck multiple times tends to lend itself to someone who had an obsession with her or knew her, because it's personal versus someone who was going to steal," Garrett told "Good Morning America." "Stalking or bothering people is a fairly common thing for people who have daily exposure to the public on television. It tees the ball up for that type of personality that wants to create some fantasy world."

Pressly, who also had a bit part as a Republican pundit in the movie "W.," is not the first young anchorwoman to tragically become the story.

In 1995 Jodi Huisentruit, a morning anchorwoman in Mason City, Iowa, called the newsroom to say she had overslept and was on her way, but never arrived. The contents of her purse were found scattered near her car. She hasn't been seen since.

A few years later Katherine Dettman, a Waco, Texas, reporter, was attacked and killed by a neighbor who had been stalking her. Police said she had left the door open a crack for her cats.