According to authorities, Dax Tejera, an executive producer of This Week on ABC who passed away in December, choked to death while intoxicated.
Dax Tejera: ABC Executive Producer’s Cause Of Death Revealed
According to the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner, Tejera, 37, passed away on December 23 from “asphyxia owing to blockage of the airway by food bolus worsening acute alcohol intoxication.”
The office claims that the death was unintentional.
Tejera passed away in December, according to a memo from ABC News president Kim Godwin that was distributed to workers at the time.
When contacted by PEOPLE on Wednesday, ABC News declined to make any additional comments.
Tejera leaves behind his wife Veronica Tejera, 33, and their two children, Sofia, 2, and Ella, 7 months.
Officers were called to the motel Tejera and Veronica were staying at near Grand Central Terminal the same night Tejera passed down about unattended children.
Veronica and Stephanie Honikel Dax Tejera, along with their two young daughters
According to the Deputy Commissioner Public Information Office of the New York Police Department, Veronica was detained on two counts of “acting in a manner detrimental to a kid.”
Since taking over the program, Tejera has transformed the formerly struggling political broadcast into a Sunday morning sensation.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tejera joined the program soon before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, three years after beginning his career with ABC News as a senior producer in 2017. Before that, he was a producer at MSNBC and an executive producer for Jorge Ramos’ Fusion program.