LITTLE ROCK — Anne Pressly's father and one of her doctors Friday described the KATV, Channel 7, morning news anchor's injuries in the most detail to date since her mother found her beaten, bleeding and unconscious in her Heights neighborhood home Monday morning.
Guy Cannady, who spoke about his daughter for the first time since the attack, thankedall of the people in Little Rock and beyond who have expressed concern and love for Pressly, 26. He said prayers had reached him from Ethiopia, Rwanda, Indonesia and France.
Pressly's injuries, he said, were "both severe and complex." He called his daughter a fighter who battled her attacker relentlessly for survival.
"Certainly we feel that her struggle helped to save her life," said Cannady, who lives inPawley's Island, S.C.
He added, however, that because of the "unbelievably brutal attack," Pressly's "true fight has only begun."
Cannady said Pressly's family remains under almost crushing stress, in no small part because it was Pressly's mother, Patricia Cannady, who found Pressly after she didn't answer her usual wake-up calls.
Dr. Clif Johnson, a St. VincentInfirmary Medical Center pulmonary specialist and a member of Pressly's medical team, said Pressly suffered major injuries, primarily to her head and face. She remained in critical condition and sedated, Johnson said, though doctors were slowly reducing the dosages of the sedatives.
"Her vital signs have been very stable for the last few days," he said. "I would say her prognosis is guardedly optimistic."
Johnson said that what will come in the next weeks, months and beyond will be a "slow process."
"She still has a ways to go," he said.
Asked several times about the Little Rock Police Department investigation into his daughter's beating that has so far turned up little, Cannady deflected the questions.
He had told the hosts of ABC network's Good Morning America on Friday that he believed Pressly was targeted for the attack. But standing at a lectern packed with microphones Friday at St. Vincent's, he demurred.
"As far as any speculation on my part, I'm leaving that to the Police Department," Cannady said.
Little Rock police said again Friday that the case is classified as a robbery - Pressly's purse was missing from her Club Road home - because there was not enough information to suggest it was anything else.
"At this point in the investigation," Little Rock police spokesman Sgt. Cassandra Davis wrote in an e-mail, "we have not produced any evidence to support the theory that Ms. Pressly was targeted."
But as Davis also wrote in the e-mail, "Nothing has been completely ruled out."
Cannady thanked Little Rock police for their professional and tireless efforts, and called Pressly's medical team "divinely appointed."
Progress in the criminal investigation remained slow Friday.
Police said they have few solid leads beyond the use of a credit card belonging to Pressly at a Shell gas station at East Ninth Street and Interstate 30 in Little Rock shortly before her mother discovered her in her bed about 4:30 a.m. Monday and called 911.
Jim Golden, a criminal justice professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a former Jonesboro police officer, said silence from police did not equate to a lack of progress.
"Even if things are progressing and going well in the investigation," Golden said, "the police will more than likely say as little as possible to try and preserve their case and not have information get back to a possible suspect."
He said this type of investigation is likely to be a slow, "long and involved process." Different pieces of evidencecould mean different things depending on the context in which a detective sees them, he said.
"If you've got a purse missing, the people who tend to take purses don't tend to hang onto them too long," Golden said. "You can look at that and go looking at the known dumpsites for things of that nature, or you can think that the suspect is only trying to get you to think that."
Such brutal crimes can mean very delicate and nuanced investigations, he said.
"It's like a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle," Golden said. "Until you get some pieces in place, you're not sure where the others come in or where they fit."
A television reporter asked Cannady on Friday to imagine that if there had been an arrest, if the case were closed, what he would say to Pressly's attacker.
Cannady's answer: "That's probably not appropriate for television, what I would say."
Pressly's family and the Little Rock police Crime Stoppers program have opened a fund for information leading to an arrest and conviction. As of 2:30 p.m. Friday, the fund had received $28,784 in donations.
Arkansas, Pages 13, 19 on 10/25/2008