While tributes swarmed the Web site of the Little Rock television station whose morning news anchorwoman died this weekend, hundreds of flowers and candles lay outside Anne Presly’s home, where she was found severely beaten last week.

Anne Pressly, who presented KATV’s morning news program, died on Saturday night in a hospital, her parents announced in a news release issued by St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center.

In spite of the fact that she was still in critical condition and was unable to talk because of the wounds she had suffered, her physicians explained on Friday that they were “guardedly optimistic” with regard to her recovery. Dr. Clifton R. Johnson informed reporters that swelling in the patient’s brain had decreased since she had been under medical observations and that doctors had been gradually reducing her sedative doses.

“It was our hope, as was yours, that Anne would overcome the injuries inflicted upon her in the brutal attack at her home,” the anchorwoman’s parents, Patricia and George G. Cannady, wrote in the hospital’s news release. “We were with her in her last moments, and although our hearts are broken, we are at the same time comforted by our faith knowing that Anne is now with our heavenly father.”

After Anne Pressly, 26, failed to answer her usual wake-up call on Monday morning, Patricia Cannady paid her daughter a visit at her home in the wealthy Pulaski Heights neighborhood and found her brutally beaten.

Police officials said that the anchor of KATV’s “Daybreak” had sustained injuries to her head, face and neck in the attack, which they suspect to have been a robbery, as a credit card belonging to Anne Pressly was used at a gas station not far from her house, soon after Patricia Cannady found her beaten daughter.

KATV, the ABC television affiliate in Arkansas, has set a reward fund for any details that would help authorities find Anne Pressly’s killer. The station announced on Sunday that the fund had been boosted to $30,000.

A statement released by the television anchorwoman’s parents asked for both privacy and encouragement. “Our lives will not be the same without her. We ask that you continue to pray for us as we struggle to move forward without our dear sweet daughter,” the statement read.

Anne Presley was born in Greenville, S.C., but moved with her parents to Little Rock while she was still a high school student. She was a political science graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis and began working for the television station in 2004.

Anne Pressly had a small part in Oliver Stone’s new movie, “W.,” based on the life of president George W. Bush. Her brief appearance in the film portrays a conservative commentator praising Mr. Bush for his “Mission Accomplished” event on an aircraft transporter soon after the beginning of the Iraq war.

In the meantime, shocked viewers express both their regret and anger on the station's Web site, urging officials to find the murderer of Anne Pressly and sentence him for his cruel deed.