LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- The parents of an Arkansas television anchorwoman who was beaten to death say there's forensic evidence their daughter was sexually assaulted as well, and she broke her hand fighting off her attacker.Guy and Patti Cannady talked with the Today show's Matt Lauer on Monday, five days after suspect Curtis Lavelle Vance was arrested in the Oct. 20 beating death of KATV anchorwoman Anne Pressly. They said while the police were investigating the case as a homicide, there's a lot of evidence that there was more to it than that.
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"This monster stole my daughter's innocence," Patti Cannady told NBC's "Today" show. "He took her life. He took her identity. He took our lives. Our lives have radically changed as a result of what's happened to Anne."
Patti Cannady said her daughter suffered a broken left hand in the attack. "She fought for her life, she fought her attacker," she said.
Patti Cannady went to her daughter's Little Rock home after she didn't answer a wake-up call and found the 26-year-old had been beaten beyond recognition. Every bone in her face had been broken, Cannady said. "Her jaw pulverized so badly that the bone had come out of it," she said. "I actually thought that her throat, it possibly been cut, but that was possibly the first knockout punch. Her entire skull had numerous fractures from which she suffered a massive stroke."
Pressly died in the hospital five days later without regaining consciousness.
Guy Cannady said the family still has many questions about the murder. He said the police theory is that Pressly interrupted a random robbery, but he isn't convinced of that. "Well, it's just unbelievable that a random robbery like this would involve the brutal slaying of Anne in this way. There just seems to be a lot more to the whole story than just a robbery gone bad," he said. "I think he could have been a stalker."
Guy Cannady said they had mixed feelings about the arrest of the suspect, whom police have said was linked to the slaying via DNA evidence. "Obviously, good news for us, but bittersweet in the sense that now that exits from the first chapter of this, her attack, and now into the next chapter, which is the capture of the suspect and into now the trial phase."
Vance is being held without bond at the Pulaski County jail. He is also accused of raping an east Arkansas school teacher in April.