Anne Pressley, 26, was gorgeous, intelligent, and a rising star as a local television news anchor in Little Rock, Arkansas. But her promising life was cut short just over a month ago, when she was found in her home on October 20th beaten beyond recognition. Never regaining consciousness from her attack, she died five days later from complications of her injuries.

While her story gained worldwide attention, the world wondered: who could have wanted to kill such a kind-hearted, hard-working young woman?

Over a month passed since Pressly’s death, and the police had not named any suspects nor possible motives for the murder, only stating that they believed it was a robbery gone bad. But on November 26th, police in Little Rock arrested 28-year-old Curtis Lavelle Vance for the beating death of Anne Pressly. They did not disclose what led them to arresting Vance, only stating police would have to remain “very tightlipped” before trial.

Then Pressly’s parents, Patti and Guy Cannady emerged on television with riveting new details about the case. Yesterday they appeared on The Today Show stating that there was evidence of their daughter being sexually assaulted during the beating, and furthermore that she broke her hand trying to fight off her attacker. They shared gruesome details about Pressly’s physical condition, including that “every bone in her face was broken,” and immediately condemned Vance as her killer. Mrs. Cannady said that Vance is a “monster [who] stole my daughter’s innocence. He took her life,” while Mr. Cannady added, “I think he could have been a stalker.” Read More »

Spotted: Dorota getting her own TV show?!

An arrest for the murders of Jennifer Hudson’s family members.

All I want for Christmas is the perfect butt.

Lindsay isn’t breaking up with Samantha.

Some reasons to hate Christmas.

More Americans are waiting for college acceptance letters…from overseas.

SJP is looking for a new home for her chic-and-cheap fashion line.

Stay warm without spending the big bucks.

Enough pink (and blue) to make you sick.

You may not be eating as healthy as you think you are.

As you’re lounging by the pool, at the beach or even outside, summer reading can be one of the most relaxing activities in the warm weather. Engrossing yourself in some great chick lit novel can help ease your mind while you work on your rays. Here are some great reads:

Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand. This is beach reading at its finest; three women – one sick with cancer, one just fired after having an affair with her student and one whose husband cheated, all move to the Hamptons for the summer. Juicy, juicy.

The Other Boleyn Girl. Before you see the movie (or if you haven’t already), read this book about the tragic love affair that will suck you in and make you unable to leave the page.

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. This book chronicles best friends in love with the same man and how an unexpected romance changes everyones lives for the better. The best part: there’s a sequel! Read More »

This past week CC asked our readers whether or not racism was still an issue in the country. You all were pretty mixed in your responses—a third of you said that it was a major issue, another third said that we’d made progress but still need to work on it, and another third said that it wasn’t an issue anymore.

Probably a lot of the confusion comes from what we perceive to be racism.

For example, a male Caucasian clerk is friendly with a Caucasian female and then rude to an African American male—now this could be a clear cut case of sexism—clerk is hitting on the female and rude to the male, or a clear-cut case of racism.

The way in which you experience that scenario is really dependent on your previous life experiences.

During my childhood in Southern California, I understood racial tension to be part of a larger issue—i.e. gang violence or immigration. For me the civil rights movement was a thing of the past. In the scenario above, I definitely would have leaned towards the sexist explanation.

Then I moved to Washington, DC. Read More »

A few weeks ago Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) member Sara Jane Olson was freed on parole due to a clerical error made three years ago.

The SLA terrorized California between 1973 and 1975 through a series of high profile robberies and attempted bombings. They rose to international notoriety when they kidnapped 19-year-old Patti Hearst.

Sara Jane Olson aka Kathleen Soliah, took part in a bank robbery in Carmichael CA on April 21, 1975. During the robbery, Myrna Opsahl, a mother of four, was shot and killed while depositing money for her church. In 1976 Soliah was indicted for planting pipe bombs under two Los Angeles police cars.

Following the indictment, Kathleen Soliah fled from CA and adopted a new identity, Sara Jane Olson in St. Paul Minnesota where she remained for 23 years. It was only when she was profiled on America’s Most Wanted that she was finally captured on June 16, 1999. At the time of her arrest she had married a doctor and together they had had three daughters.

She pled guilty to both crimes. Read More »

Two old women from L.A. apparently had a really unusual, really twisted idea of how to fund their retirement (and, as it turns out, youth-preserving plastic surgery): Murder homeless men.

Here’s how it would go. They would befriend some poor homeless guy, put him up in an apartment, and get him to sign a life insurance policy listing them as the beneficiaries. After waiting a couple of years (as an immediate death would raise the insurance company’s suspicions), they would drug him senseless, run him over with a car that — presumably — would not be traced back to them, and claim the payouts.

Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt evidently did exactly this in 1999, and got away with it. Then they did it again in 2005 and got caught. Even weirder — both women are in their 70s! These are serial-killing grannies we’re talking about!

Serial-killing grannies with expensive habits, evidently: A letter from Helen to Olga talks about Helen’s plastic surgery (at age 72!) and how painful it was. Since this letter was written in 2002, it was probably the first man’s murder that paid for said plastic surgery. Morbid to think about it, isn’t it? Read More »

Reason 798 why the Internet creeps me out: (which is even weirder than reason 797: the government probably reading everything I’ve ever put on here), people not being who they say they are online.

Wired Magazine recently featured a story that is the mother of all mistaken Internet identity tales, and reads like some kind of psychotic Lifetime movie of the week. Stay with me now.

Thomas Montgomery, a 45-year-old husband of 16 years and father of two teenage girls was living a pretty uneventful life in upstate New York. After spending 12 years at the same boring job, something inside Montgomery must have snapped, causing the man to live a monotonous life no more—at least in cyberspace. Deciding to log onto the game and chat site Pogo.com as a “19-year-old marine” named Tommy who was getting ready to ship out to Iraq, stood 6 feet tall, and had a “9 inch dick”, Montgomery set out to live a double life.

And live it he did, once he began talking to a 16-year-old girl from Virginia named Jessi. Jessi fell in love with Montgomery’s Tommy, talking to him for hours at night and sending him G-strings in the mail. Read More »

Texas. Everything is bigger and better, so the story goes. The Lone Star State is known for it’s world famous Bar-B-Que and long list of notorious murderers. Usually they are separate headlines, but not today.

Neighbors of Timothy Wayne Shepherd of Houston, wondered about the cloud of black smoke and horrid odor that leaped from the balcony of the 27-year-old’s apartment, according to news.yahoo.com

“The smell was awful,” said Louis Evans, Shepherd’s neighbor, who also became alarmed after seeing a blaze shoot out from the grills. “I was wondering: What is he burning? Not cooking, but burning. There is a difference.”

As it turns out, Evans was right. Shepherd was not cooking anything at all, but rather burning the remains of his girlfriend, Tynesha Stewart, a 19-year-old Texas A&M University student. Read More »