The Air Force veteran who was found dead inside a postal service mail handling machine had been engaged for just 10 days — as his new fiancée demands answers about his mysterious death.
Nicholas Acker, 36, died after he ended up in the machine at the USPS Detroit Network Distribution Center in Allen Park, Michigan on Nov. 8.
Acker is believed to have already been dead for several hours before anyone even realized he was missing, with his fiancée, Stephanie Jaszcz, first raising the alarm that he hadn’t come home.
Days on from the grim tragedy, his grief-stricken family said they still hadn’t been given any information about how he got stuck — or why it took so long to discover his body.
“All they know is that he was in a machine,” Jaszcz told ClickOnDetroit.
“They don’t know how, when or for how long. The autopsy is going to take four to six months,” she added.
“We’re living a nightmare.”
Authorities were only alerted to the ordeal after the panicked fiancée went to the facility when Acker failed to return home.
Workers then realized Ackler had never punched his timecard to end his shift and started scouring the mailing facility.
Police are treating his death as an accident but are continuing to investigate.
“We want to know what happened and how long he was there,” Jaszcz said.
“That’s what we want to know. We want to know how he even ended up there and why doesn’t anybody know where he was at?”
Acker had spent nine years in the Air Force and had been working at the Allen Park facility for about a year as a mechanic.
He had only just proposed to Jaszcz in the days leading up to his death.
They planned to get married in the spring — and the now-grieving fiancée had planned to start wedding dress shopping this month.
“I had my entire life in my hand,” Jaszcz said. “Like, the entire thing. And gone.”
“He was just one of those kinds of people whose sweetness and thoughtfulness weren’t just traits, they were just his way of life,” she continued.
“He was very generous. It wasn’t always just gifts and gestures. It was always his time and his heart. He made everyone feel valid and seen.”
USPS issued a brief statement following Ackler’s death, saying they were “deeply saddened.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. The NDC is fully operational, at this time,” the statement read.
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