Crime Alert, hourly update. Breaking Crime News Now.

I'm Jennifer Gould. A U.S. Postal Service worker and Air Force veteran met a horrific, agonizing end.

His body discovered mangled and crushed inside a colossal mail sorting machine after he lay undetected for up to eight hours at a Detroit area distribution

center. Nicholas Nick Acker 36, a maintenance mechanic from Trenton, Michigan, was found dead,

tangled in the gears of a massive parcel sorting machine at the Detroit Network Distribution Center in Allen Park.

Authorities believe the nine-year Air Force veteran died between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., leaving his loved

ones in a dreadful limbo until the grim discovery was made later. The shock deepened when USPS released a cold clinical statement after the incident.

They did send condolences, but they also wrote, quote,

The NDC is fully operational at this time, end quote.

Acker's fiancé, Stephanie Josh, blasted the response.

She spoke to local four news in Detroit.

The male still moving, gross.

A man gone, a veteran, a husband, a human being,

and all you can think of is saying is males keeps moving, inhumane.

The catastrophic truth was uncovered, thanks to Josh's desperate persistence.

She grew frantic when Acker failed to return home from his overnight shift.

After he stopped responding to texts and calls, Josh drove to the facility demanding

answers from staff who initially stalled.

Her relentless calls for help finally brought emergency crews, fire trucks, police, and an ambulance to the scene.

Josh was forced to endure a harrowing three-hour wait outside before rescuers pried open the towering machinery confirming her worst fears

and revealing Ackers mangled remains entangled inside. The death was swiftly ruled an accident by

Allen Park Police triggering an investigation into glaring safety lapses and whether mandatory lockout,

...