Legendary newsman Ted Koppel’s son died from an overdose of a staggering combination of booze, heroin, cocaine and Valium, the Medical Examiner’s Office revealed today.
Andrew “Drew” Koppel, 40, was found dead on Memorial Day in a seedy upper Manhattan apartment where he had been taken by an acquaintance after a 12-hour binge of drinking whiskey in Hell’s Kitchen.
The ME’s office ruled that Koppel was killed by “acute intoxication due to the combined effects of ethanol [alcohol], heroin, cocaine, diazepam [the generic name for the sedative Valium] and levamisole,” a substance often used to dilute cocaine prior to sale.
Koppel was lawyer who had a 2-year-old daughter, Alice, with his long-time partner, photographer Ilona Lieberman, who is pregnant with their second child.
Friends said Koppel — those dad Ted was for years the host of ABC News’ show “Nightline” — also had “many substance-abuse issues” dating back decades.
A waiter named Russell Wimberly, 32, told reporters that he met Koppel on May 30 in a Hell’s Kitchen saloon and began drinking with him throughout the day, wandering from watering hole to watering hole.
Wimberly said as they walked to various bars, Koppel — who previously worked for the city Housing Authority and Legal Aid — drank from a bottle of whiskey he was carrying.
Wimberly later brought the extremely intoxicated Koppel to the Washington Heights apartment of a friend of Wimberly’s, Belinda Caban, where they put Koppel into a room to sleep it off.
Several hours later, Caban and Wimberly checked on Koppel and called 911 after they saw that he had soiled himself and was not breathing.
Koppel was pronounced dead at the scene.
Caban later told reporters, “I think he did take [drugs] because he was too out of it.”
Koppel’s partner Lieberman issued a statement several days after his death, calling it “a devastating tragedy.”
“We will always remember Andrews as a generous, loving, compassionate father, partner and friend,” Lieberman said. “Our family grieves enormously.”