Ted Koppel is grieving over the loss of his only son, who was found dead in a New York City apartment building on Monday.
Andrew Koppel, of Queens, was pronounced dead around 1:30 a.m. Monday inside a Washington Heights apartment building after a day of heavy drinking. He was 40. The official cause of death has not been determined.
According to the New York Post, Andrew met a man named Russell Wimberly, 32, at Smith’s Bar and Restaurant in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. “He had a straw hat on, and I had one on, and he said, ‘Nice hat, man,'” the drinking partner, Wimberly, told the Post. “We got to talking, and he started buying me drinks.”
Wimberly says they barhopped for about 12 hours with Andrew drinking whiskey before retreating to the apartment. Belinda Caban, 53, who lives at the apartment, told the Post: “I didn’t understand anything [Koppel] said. We took him to the bedroom and laid him down to rest.” After a couple of hours, she and Wimberly discovered Andrew had urinated and defecated in the bed and appeared not to be breathing. They called 911.
Andrew, a lawyer, had a history of alcohol-related arrests. He leaves behind a baby daughter and live-in girlfriend.
