Ted Koppel's son, 40, found dead in NYC apartment

[June 01, 2010]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The 40-year-old son of former ABC anchor Ted Koppel has been found dead in an Upper Manhattan apartment, police said Tuesday.

Andrew Koppel was declared dead at around 1:30 a.m. Monday in the Washington Heights apartment, Detective John Sweeney said. A medical examiner would determine the cause of death.

Koppel worked for the law department at the city Housing Authority, the agency said Tuesday. They would make no other comment.

The Queens resident was one of Ted Koppel's four children.

Ted Koppel was the longtime anchor of ABC's news show "Nightline." A call to his publicist was not immediately returned Tuesday.

Koppel had been drinking for hours with a man he met at a bar, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

"He had a straw hat on, and I had one on, and he said, 'Nice hat, man,'" the drinking partner, Russell Wimberly, told the newspaper. "We got to talking, and he started buying me drinks."

Wimberly said Koppel drank whiskey, and neither man had anything to eat all day.

Wimberly said he and Koppel eventually wound up at the apartment, which belonged to Wimberly's friend. He and the friend, Belinda Caban, told Koppel to sleep it off and later found that he had gotten sick and appeared not to be breathing, the Post said. The two said they called 911.

[Associated Press]

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