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

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

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

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

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

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

Her team said rescuing animals is their passion. She also liked true crime stories. She shared the calendar she kept to track the releases of all new episodes of the best podcasts. Her favorite was “True Crime Obsessed.”

As a journalist, Orsini was a writer and 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 committed to ensuring viewers had all the information they needed to protect themselves and their families.

Before returning to Southern Arizona, Ana was in Medford, Oregon, where she worked as a morning and midday anchor for three years. She’s done everything from covering major wildfires to helping shelter animals find their forever homes. Her career began in 2018 in Lubbock, Texas, where she worked as an anchor/reporter on everything from Texas Tech basketball to a month-long investigative series about a bridal store fraud. The highlight of her time in Texas was launching a “Pet of the Day” segment where she also helped local animal shelters.

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 as the bright, sunny person she was. If anyone would like to do something in Orsini’s memory, the team recommends donating to the local animal shelter because “Ana has never met a dog she didn’t love!”

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