Our Sources:
- Dax Tejera died from choking amid ‘acute alcohol intoxication,’ medical examiner says
- Dax Tejera Dies: Executive Producer Of ABC’s ‘This Week’ Was 37
- Drunk ABC Producer Dax Tejera Choked to Death the Night He Left Kids Alone in Hotel Room
- Dax Tejera & Wife Actually Left Daughters Alone for Hours To Go Out to Dinner Before Death
- What Is Child Endangerment? When Leaving Your Child Alone Becomes A Crime.
- Madeleine McCann disappearance: A timeline
- Child left in hotel room while parents drink in bar, police say
Who is Dax Tejera
- Age 37
- Graduated from Dartmouth and then went to Columbia for a graduate degree in journalism
- Began working at ABC in 2017, before that he worked as a producer at MSNBC and produced the documentary Hate Rising with HBO
- The executive producer of This Week with George Stephanopoulos since 2020
- Wife Veronica
- Two daughters – ages 2 (Sofia) and 5 months (Ella)
And what do we know about his wife?
- 33 years old
- A senior producer with the Washington Post
- They lived together in Maryland
Timeline of events:
- 8 PM on December 23, Dax and Veronica leave their hotel, The Yale Club without their kids
- Dinner at Bobby Van’s Steakhouse on Park Avenue
- According to their server, after delivering their entrees, Dax got up and started walking like he was going to the men’s room, but he made a right instead and went out the front door the server followed him outside he collapsed in the corner right outside the restaurant.
- An ambulance arrived on the scene and Dax was taken to a medical center along with Veronica where he died of what was assumed to be a heart attack.
- Veronica Tejera reportedly asked her friends to check on the girls at the hotel as she rushed her husband to the hospital.
- At around 11 p.m. that evening, New York City police responded to a 911 call regarding “unattended children inside of 50 Vanderbilt Avenue
- In a preliminary investigation, police found “a 2-year-old female and a 5-month-old female were left alone inside of a hotel room for an extended period of time.”
- The following morning she was issued a ticket and summoned to appear in Manhattan Criminal Court on January 12.
- On January 12, she was charged with “acting in a manner injurious to a child”.
- On February 9th, it was revealed that Dax actually died from “asphyxia due to obstruction of airway by food bolus complicating acute alcohol intoxication” according to the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner.
Her statement after the death…
My family and I are devastated by Dax’s sudden passing. He has left behind a heartbroken family, and two daughters he loved with all his heart. Our family has suffered a terrible tragedy. I respectfully ask for privacy while my children and I mourn Dax’s death.
Her statement after being charged…
When Dax collapsed on December 23rd, I accompanied him in an ambulance to the hospital. I asked both a close friend and my parents to rush to my children’s hotel room to attend to them as I monitored them by camera. The hotel would not allow my friend in and instead called the NYPD. We had two cameras trained on my children as they slept, and I monitored them closely in the time I was away from them. While the girls were unharmed, I realize that it was a poor decision.
