SUNDAY 8:15PM UPDATE A number of people have asked me a question I hadn’t yet posed: why GoFundMe? And two accts? The Burrouses live in a home valued at least at $750,000. Burrous would have had a high six figure salary at least, and an AFTRA pension. I’ve reached out to the creators of both accounts, and hope to receive answers.
EARLIER Not one, but two GoFundMe accounts have been started for deceased KTLA anchorman Chris Burrous. He was found dead Friday in a Days Inn motel outside Los Angeles, the victim of a probably overdose on drugs. He was 43. No one except this column has asked why this popular, handsome, married man, father of a 9 year old, was doing drugs at a suburban motel.
Now two GoFundMe accounts exist. One, with a goal of $50,000, was created by Burrous’s wife’s sister named Rosemarie Do Silverstein. A total of $13,854. She writes: “This fund has been set up by Mai’s sister. All funds will be used to help Mai take care of Isabella in the coming days, weeks, and months.”
The other account, from Gigi Graciette, a competing newscaster in Los Angeles. She says it’s one of the two official accounts. This one aims for $75,000. So far $55,203 has come in. She writes: “As they mourn and deal with this sudden loss, the last thing they need to worry about right now is how to pay for a funeral, Mai finding a job, bills and other immediate expenses.”
Meantime, an autopsy has been performed and results are pending. No news account from Los Angeles has included the name of the man who called in Burrous’s collapse at the hotel, whether or not he had a drug history.
