Ana Orsini, the 28-year-old Arizona news anchor who died last week, died of a brain aneurysm, her colleague, KOLD-TV anchor Tyler Butler, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, Dec. 17.

“It’s so horrible, so sudden,” Butler wrote when sharing Orsini’s cause of death.

“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,” he continued.

In KOLD’s tribute, Orsini was remembered as someone “with bottomless empathy who always stood up for ‘the little guy.’ ” The anchor had a reputation for mentoring younger coworkers.

Orsini was passionate about rescuing animals and that she was a big listener of true crime podcasts, according to the network. She was a “peanut-butter-M&M-loving” and “platform-Ugg-wearing” anchor who was always a “ray of sunshine, even at 4:00 in the morning.”

Ana Orsini. Ana Orsini/Facebook

The journalist’s death was announced by her colleagues at the CBS affiliate in Tucson during a broadcast on Monday, Dec. 16. “Sad news to share with you, our beloved friend and co-anchor Ana Orsini passed away unexpectedly last week,” Butler told viewers.

“Ana has been here at 13 News since June of 2023, and we are devastated by this loss,” co-anchor Carsyn Currier added while holding back tears.

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According to Orsini’s bio, she began her journalism career in 2018 at a news station in Lubbock, Texas, after graduating from Texas A&M University in College Station. She then headed to Medford, Ore., where she spent three years as a morning/midday anchor and covered everything from “major wildfires to helping shelter pets find their forever homes.”

Ana Orsini. Ana Orsini/Facebook

Those who knew Orsini are mourning her death, including co-anchors Butler and Currie

“She was truly one of a kind,” Butler wrote in a Facebook post on Monday, Dec. 16. “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.”

On Instagram, Currier remembered Orsini as a friend who “made it that much easier” to wake up in the middle of the night to work the early morning shift.

“Ana was not only beautiful, talented and hilarious, but she was unlike anyone I’ve ever met,” Currier wrote alongside a carousel of photos of the two anchors. “To know Ana was to LOVE her. She made everyone around her feel so special, heard and understood.”

“She was a proud daughter, sister and the best dog mom to her baby boy, Harley,” Currier wrote. “Rest in peace, sister. I promise to keep living fully for YOU.”

“There are special people who come into our lives that will have an everlasting impact and Ana Orsini was one of them,” anchor Dan Marries wrote in his tribute to Orsini. “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.”

Marries 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.”