Ex-NBC Producer Dies, Apparently After Fall From Building
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An Emmy award-winning former “NBC Nightly News” producer, Eric Wishnie, died after falling from the roof of his home early yesterday morning at Sixth Avenue and West 10th Street in Manhattan, police officials said.
Wishnie, 44, was discovered by a male passer-by at 2:51 a.m. lying in the street in front of the fourstory brick townhouse where he lived in Greenwich Village, and was taken to St. Vincent Hospital. He died at the hospital.
He worked at NBC for 19 years, serving stints as a senior producer for “NBC Nightly News” with Tom Brokaw and later with Brian Williams.
His wife, Dawn Fratangelo, works as an NBC correspondent. They were married in 1997 after winning an Emmy together for their coverage of floods in the Midwest in 1993.
Wishnie left NBC in September 2006. His mother-in-law, Erma Secor, said that Wishnie had lost his job there.
She also said that her daughter had recently separated from Wishnie, moving out of their twostory apartment on the top floors of the townhouse.
“He’s just going through a lot,” Ms. Secor said. “He just didn’t care about anything. He’s such a nice guy, but you don’t know what happens to people. They just lose it.” Neighbors of Wishnie said he was usually cheery, but lately had kept to himself and seemed “a little down.”
The passer-by who found Wishnie told a 911 dispatcher he believed Wishnie had been hit by a car, leading police to spend part of the day yesterday searching for a vehicle.
Police later found another witness who said he believed Wishnie had fallen from the roof. The witness, who also called 911, said he was riding in a taxicab northbound on Sixth Avenue when he heard a loud “boom,” and looked out the window to see Wishnie lying in the street. The witness said he had not seen any other cars in the area.
Police said they were waiting for the medical examiner to determine the cause of death.
“At this time there’s no reason to suspect foul play,” an NYPD spokesman, Assistant Chief Michael Collins, said.
The president of NBC News, Steve Capus, said NBC News employees were “devastated by this loss.”
“Eric Wishnie was an enormously talented former senior producer at NBC News, who had a hand in some of the most monumental and memorable news stories of our time,” Mr. Capus said in a statement.
