Ted Koppel’s son dies after night of drinking

Associated Press

NEW YORK

The 40-year-old son of former ABC News anchor Ted Koppel was found dead in an apartment in upper Manhattan after a day of bar hopping with a man he met at a watering hole, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

Andrew Koppel, of Queens, was declared dead around 1:30 a.m. Monday in the apartment in the Washington Heights neighborhood, Detective John Sweeney said. The cause of death has not been determined, but no evidence so far indicates criminality.

Koppel had been drinking heavily for hours with Russell Wimberly, whom he met at a bar, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Wimberly told the New York Post that Koppel drank whiskey, and that neither man had anything to eat all day. He said they drank into the night.

Koppel was appointed attorney for the city Housing Authority’s civil litigation division in 2001, a post he resigned in 2008, the agency said Tuesday.

Koppel and the drinking buddy eventually wound up at the apartment, which belonged to a friend of Wimberly’s, the official said. Wimberly and Belinda Caban, who lived at the apartment, told Koppel to sleep it off and later found that he had gotten sick and appeared not to be breathing, the official said. The two then called 911.