News Anchor Reveals Colleague’s Unexpected Death During Broadcast

A newscast in Arizona turned emotional as anchors delivered heartbreaking news about their own team, announcing the sudden passing of their 28-year-old colleague Ana Orsini. The CBS affiliate KOLD-TV in Tucson shared the devastating announcement during their Monday, Dec. 16 broadcast. “Sad news to share with you, our beloved friend and co-anchor Ana Orsini passed away unexpectedly last week,” anchor Tyler Butler informed viewers, followed by co-anchor Carsyn Currier who added through tears, “Ana has been here at 13 News since June of 2023, and we are devastated by this loss.”

Butler later revealed on Facebook that Orsini died of a brain aneurysm. “It’s so horrible, so sudden,” he wrote. “Ana was a force of nature. I keep thinking about how at times, I’d make a self-deprecating joke and she’d snap, ‘Hey! Don’t talk about my friend like that!’ Her genuine care for everyone around her will be missed.”

In a separate post, he added, “She was truly one of a kind. Crazy passionate about helping animals, she had a great and sarcastic sense of humor and was so dedicated to her family. She LOVED her family and talked about them all the time. I’m glad to have been a small part of her work family.”

The young journalist, who began her career in 2018 after graduating from Texas A&M University, had quickly made her mark in broadcast journalism. Before joining KOLD, she worked in Lubbock, Texas, and spent three years in Medford, Oregon, where she covered stories ranging from “major wildfires to helping shelter pets find their forever homes.”

Colleagues remembered Orsini as someone “with bottomless empathy who always stood up for ‘the little guy’” and maintained a reputation for mentoring younger coworkers. The station highlighted on its website her passion for animal rescue and true crime podcasts, describing her as a “peanut-butter-M&M-loving” and “platform-Ugg-wearing” anchor who remained a “ray of sunshine, even at 4:00 in the morning.”

“Rescue animals were her passion, and if she wasn’t celebrating Fur Baby Friday, she’d be trying to find a new home for a cutie in need,” the station noted. “If Ana found out you loved true crime like she did, she would share the calendar she kept to track the releases of all the new episodes of the best podcasts. Her favorite was True Crime Obsessed, and if you spent longer than 5 minutes with Ana without hearing her favorite quote, ‘Let the women do the work,’ then something was seriously wrong!”

Co-anchor Carsyn Currier shared a heartfelt tribute on Instagram: “Ana was not only beautiful, talented and hilarious, but she was unlike anyone I’ve ever met. To know Ana was to LOVE her. She made everyone around her feel so special, heard and understood.” Currier added that Orsini “made it that much easier” to wake up for the early morning shift, and was “a proud daughter, sister and the best dog mom to her baby boy, Harley.”

Fellow anchor Dan Marries offered an emotional remembrance: “There are special people who come into our lives that will have an everlasting impact and Ana Orsini was one of them. Ana, you were one in a trillion; wise beyond your years, full of practical insight, smart, compassionate, quick-witted and possessed a contagious love for animals, especially dogs.”

He added, “We are all so heartbroken over this sudden and unexpected loss. Ana, your memory is something I’ll use as strength and inspiration trying to move forward without you here in the physical world. Ana, you are, and will, be missed so dearly.” In honor of Orsini’s memory and her dedication to animal welfare, her family has requested that those wishing to express condolences make donations to their local animal shelters.