The grieving brother of NBC reporter Eliana Moreno has warned that scammers are allegedly trying to exploit his sister’s death through unauthorized online fundraisers.
Johan Moreno of Brooklyn issued the sharp warning in a post on X Wednesday night, a day after Eliana Moreno was one of three people killed in an NBC helicopter crash in Los Angeles.
“At this time, our family and her fiancé are not collecting monetary donations,” he wrote. “Any online donation pages are not endorsed by our family. Thank you for your well wishes and understanding.”
Moreno, a writer, also shared a throwback photo of his sister at work inside NewsChopper 4, the Eurocopter AS350 that crashed Tuesday in Chatsworth.
“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.”
Tributes have continued to pour in for Moreno, 38, after officials confirmed she was aboard the helicopter when it went down while covering a fatal bus collision in Chatsworth.
Mourners have left flowers at a makeshift memorial at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, where NewsChopper 4 was based and departed for its flights.
“She was just so wildly good at what she did,” Los Angeles aerial photographer Jake Asner, who created the memorial, told the Los Angeles Daily News.
“She had the scanners on, she was talking to … assignment desks … and controlling the camera. …. She did it like it was a piece of cake.”
Asner said the airport was the fitting location for the memorial because it was a place “she loved.”
RELATED: Russian Spies Orchestrated $40K Murder Plot in Washington, DC
Jonathan Gonzalez, an NBC Los Angeles reporter, said Moreno was “damn good” at what she did, describing her as “one of a kind,” according to NBC News.
Moreno and the copter’s pilot, George Marciniw, were killed while reporting on a bus collision– as was Guatemalan national Edy Gutierrez Mejia, 29, who was on the ground.
The cause of the crash is still being investigated and the National Transportation Safety Board expects to release a preliminary report within 30 days.
Investigators will seek surveillance video from nearby buildings and review the helicopter’s logbooks as part of their probe.
The helicopter’s charred wreckage is also being examined and will be moved to a secure facility for further investigation.
The final report could take as long as 18 months to be published, but Fabian Salazar, the NTSB investigator-in-charge, said the livestream video documenting the copter’s final moments is “probably the most important evidence.”
The video shows the camera zooming out before several alarms sound as the helicopter begins its descent.
Then Moreno was heard asking, “You can’t pull up?”
The video then cuts out – which appears to be the moment the helicopter crashes.