A beloved news anchor dies aged 28 after suffering a brain aneurysm

On December 19, 2024By Littum

TUCSON, Arizona (COLD/Gray News) – An Arizona news anchor has died at the age of 28.

According to 13 News, Ana Orsini died last week from a brain aneurysm.

“The 13 News Family is saddened to report the death of our beloved friend and co-anchor Ana Orsini,” the team said Tuesday.

She has been with the station since June 2023. Her news team added that they were “devastated by her unexpected passing.”

Orsini’s friends and colleagues remember her as someone with bottomless empathy who always stood up for the little guy.

They said she was a smiling face, especially to all her newest and youngest colleagues, and she was known in all newsrooms where she worked to take them under her wing and be a strong mentor for both work and life.

Her team said rescue animals were her passion. She also enjoyed true crime stories. She wanted to share the calendar she kept to track the releases of all the new episodes of the best podcasts. Her favorite was “True Crime Obsessed.”

As a journalist, Orsini was a writer, and she wrote the following about herself in her station biography:

“There are many places Ana once called ‘home,’ but she always knew Arizona was where she wanted to end up. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, she began her college career at the University of Arizona. After one semester she traded the mountains for the plains and graduated from Texas A&M in 2018. With a degree in journalism and a double minor in communications and sports management, Ana was always passionate about making sure viewers had all the information they needed needed to protect themselves and their families.

Before coming back to Southern Arizona, Ana was in Medford, Oregon, where she spent three years as a morning and noon anchor. She did everything from covering large wildfires to helping farm animals find their forever homes. Her career began in 2018 in Lubbock, Texas, where she worked as an anchor/reporter – covering everything from Texas Tech basketball to a months-long investigative series on bridal shop fraud. The highlight of her time in Texas was launching a “Pet of the Day” segment where she also helped local livestock.

When she wasn’t at work, Ana could always be found playing fetch with her own rescue dog, Harley, catching up on all things true crime, or reading a good book by the pool. In the fall, she always spent her Saturdays watching college football and cheering on the Aggies or her sisters’ alma mater, UCLA.”

The Orsini family said they want her to be remembered for the bright, sunny person she was. If anyone would like to do something in Orsini’s memory, the team said to donate to your local animal shelter, as “Ana never met a dog she didn’t love!”