Andrew Koppel, son of Ted Koppel, dead after drinking binge with stranger

Former ABC TV newsman Ted Koppel's son was found dead early Monday (May 31) morning after a daylong drinking binge in New York City.

Andrew Koppel, 40, was declared dead around 1:30 a.m. in a Washington Heights apartment. He was found unconscious and not breathing in a bedroom, according to the New York Post.

Koppel reportedly met 32-year-old waiter Russell Wimberly at a Hell's Kitchen bar around noon on Sunday.

The two bar hopped together and drank all day long. Wimberly said Koppel drank straight whiskey and sipped from a pint bottle of Jameson as they walked.

"There was a lot of alcohol. He didn't take anything else [drugs] around me, and neither of us ate all day," Wimberly said. "We talked about our kids.... He said he had a kid and loved [her] a lot."

Around 11 p.m., Wimberly brought him to the Washington Heights apartment. Belinda Caban, who lives at the apartment, said Koppel "was just really messed up when he came in. He was very drunk."

Caban and Wimberly took him to the bedroom and laid him down. After a couple hours they discovered he had urinated and defecated in the bed and didn't appear to be breathing, and they called 911.

The medical examiner has not yet determined the cause of death, and no one has been charged.

Koppel lived with his girlfriend and baby daughter. He was the third of Ted Koppel's four children with his wife, Grace Anne.

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