Three days after aerial journalist Eliana Moreno was killed in the Chatsworth helicopter crash, her brother has broken the family’s silence and used the moment to clear up confusion spreading online about fundraisers claiming to benefit her family.
Johan Moreno posted a tribute to his sister on X, sharing a photo of her working inside a news helicopter. “RIP sis, I will love you to the end of time,” he wrote. “My family and I just went through the worst day of our lives. We appreciate all the support and love.”
He then addressed something that had apparently started circulating since the crash: unofficial donation pages set up in Eliana’s name. “That being said, at this time, our family and her fiancé are not collecting monetary donations,” Johan wrote. “Our family does not endorse any online donation pages. Thank you for your well wishes and understanding.”
The statement effectively confirms what had not been officially clarified until now: no GoFundMe or similar fundraiser tied to Eliana Moreno carries the family’s endorsement, and any page claiming otherwise should be treated with suspicion.
Johan’s post also offered the first public acknowledgment of Eliana’s fiancé, later identified by multiple outlets as Robert Barrientos. The two had been engaged for about a year, since Eliana announced the engagement in a social media post on October 28, 2025. Barrientos keeps a private Instagram account with fewer than 800 followers, and according to Johan’s statement, he too is not accepting donations on the family’s behalf.
Eliana Moreno, 38, spent eight years at NBC4, becoming a familiar aerial voice for both the station and its Spanish-language sister station, Telemundo 52. She was riding in NewsChopper4 alongside pilot George Marciniw on Tuesday evening, covering a fatal Metro bus crash in Chatsworth, when the aircraft lost altitude and went down between two commercial buildings. A third person on the ground, later identified as 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, also died in the crash.
Moreno was born and raised in Orange County and built her career across several Southern California newsrooms before joining Angel City Air, the company that operated NewsChopper4, in 2010. She began flying regularly alongside Marciniw in 2023, delivering live aerial coverage in both English and Spanish during breaking news, from wildfires to freeway pursuits.
Colleagues have described her as a steady, composed presence during chaotic live coverage, someone viewers came to recognize and trust in moments when a story was still unfolding in real time. In the days since the crash, tributes have poured in from viewers and fellow journalists across Southern California, many echoing the same sentiment Johan expressed in his own post, grief mixed with gratitude for the outpouring of support.
For now, the family’s message is simple and direct: they are grieving privately, they have not authorized any fundraiser, and any page suggesting otherwise does not speak for them or for Eliana’s fiancé.
