In a post on X,<\/a> Johan Moreno shared how Eliana began working at 16 as a hostess at Coco\u2019s Restaurant. She would bring home a pie every day because, as he put it, \u201cEliana famously loved free food.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cWe got so sick of eating pies,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
She later worked as a receptionist at the family\u2019s dentist office and saved enough money to buy her first car, a used 1999 Oldsmobile Alero she found in an Auto Trader book.<\/p>\n
That car would eventually carry Eliana and her brother to Morongo Casino, where KCBS was holding a \u201cSports reporter for a day\u201d contest, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went with her that day and the car was starting to overheat by the time we reached the casino,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThere were over 1,000 people in line, and she won!\u201d<\/p>\n
Her brother said the experience reflected the way Eliana built her career \u2014 taking every opportunity she could and working her way up from the beginning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a world where there is so much nepotism, especially in the world of news and media, Eliana truly worked her way from the very bottom,\u201d he wrote. \u201cShe took every opportunity she could no matter how small it was. Nothing was ever beneath her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her early reporting also kept her close to home in Orange County, where she covered Irvine, Garden Grove and Orange local news reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was always excited about reporting about our home: Orange County,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Even after graduating from Chapman University, Eliana returned to Santa Ana College to participate in its news program. It was there, her brother said, that she met a veteran aerial journalist who gave a young reporter an opportunity and brought her on as an intern.<\/p>\n
He ended his message by thanking those who have reached out to the family in the days since the crash.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy family appreciates all the well wishes and prayers we have received as we go through this tragic time in our lives,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe love you all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eliana and her pilot, George Marciniw, were killed last Tuesday while on the job. They were above the scene of a fatal Metro bus crash when their helicopter plunged to the ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The brother of NBC4 helicopter reporter Eliana Moreno, who died in a crash last week, shared a heartfelt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[27732,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-470217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-chatsworth","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}