A 36-year-old U.S. Postal Service mechanic and United States Air Force veteran was found dead by a worker at the Allen Park USPS Detroit Network Distribution Center on Saturday, November 8, after his fiancée of only 10 days, Stephanie Jaszcz, grew concerned when he didn’t return home and made a trip to the postal distribution center to check in on him. Once Jaszcz alerted workers at the facility that he was missing, the body of the man who spent 9 years in the U.S. Air Force was found trapped inside a conveyor machine for several hours at the major mail-processing hub.
Nicholas John Acker, 36, of Trenton, and his fiancée Stephanie Jaszcz had just gotten engaged 10 days before the tragic incident at the distribution center where Acker worked for about a year. When Acker didn’t come home from his midnight shift at the USPS Detroit Network Distribution Center in Allen Park and stopped responding to calls and texts, Ms. Jaszcz became concerned. By the time first responders finally located him, he had been dead for several hours.
Authorities said Acker was discovered stuck inside a large piece of machinery at the sprawling Detroit distribution center — a facility filled with heavy, complex mail-sorting equipment. Firefighters were called to the building on Oakwood Boulevard around 12:25 p.m., but investigators estimate Acker had already been dead for an astounding 6 to 8 hours before their arrival.
When Acker didn’t come home from work, Jaszcz drove to the facility herself. She buzzed the intercom at the gate, desperate for information. “Not to sound crazy, but my fiancé is missing,” she recalled telling an employee. She waited by the gate for an hour before someone told her he hadn’t punched out and employees were looking for him. Then emergency vehicles began rushing into the property. “No one would let me in. No one would talk to me,” she said. Two agonizing hours later, she was told Acker was gone.
“I dropped to my knees crying,” Jaszcz said. “Then the gate opened and I ran inside.”
The couple was on the brink of a new life
Jaszcz and Acker had gotten engaged just 10 days earlier and were already making wedding plans for the spring. She had intended to shop for wedding dresses the following week. “I had my entire life in my hand — the entire thing. And then it was gone,” she said.
She described Acker as gentle, generous, and unfailingly thoughtful. “His sweetness wasn’t something he tried to have — it was who he was,” she said. “He made everyone feel valid and seen.”
A GoFundMe page has since been launched to support her as she faces both overwhelming grief and the sudden loss of their shared household income.
Few answers as investigation continues
So far, investigators have offered little clarity. “All they know is that he was in a machine,” Jaszcz said. “They don’t know how, when, or for how long. The autopsy will take four to six months. We’re living a nightmare.”
Police are treating the incident as accidental but say they are continuing to investigate how Acker ended up inside the machinery and why no one noticed he was missing for so long.
“We want to know what happened and how long he was there,” Jaszcz said. “Why didn’t anyone know where he was?”
USPS response draws criticism from Jaszcz
In a statement, the Postal Service said it was “deeply saddened” by Acker’s death and offered condolences to his family, adding that the Detroit distribution center remained “fully operational.”
To Jaszcz, that line felt cold. “‘The mail’s still moving’? Gross,” she said. “A man is gone — a veteran, a future husband — and that’s what you focus on? It’s inhumane,” she added, “It’s gross!”
Jaszcz said Acker had previously raised concerns about how the facility was managed, and that current employees have expressed similar worries. Requests for further comment from USPS and various agencies have not yet been returned.
The post Young, Newly Engaged Air Force Vet and USPS Mechanic Found Dead Inside Mail Machine—Police Say His Body Was Trapped Inside Machine For Hours appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.