Suicide at Waukegan post office
By Judy MasterSon jmasterson@stmedianetwork.com June 29, 2011 2:29PM
Yellow tape and a sign block the entrance of the Post Office on Genesee Street in downtown Waukegan. A post office employee allegedly committed suicide in the building. | Thomas Delany Jr.~ Sun-Times Media
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Updated: June 30, 2011 2:24AM
WAUKEGAN — An employee of the U.S. Postal Service in Waukegan died in a gruesome act of suicide that began at a downtown Waukegan post office Tuesday night.
Waukegan police responded to a 911 call from the post office at 326 N. Genesee St. at 7:40 p.m. Tuesday, arriving just after Stephen Specht, 44, of Mundelein, apparently drank poison and cut his own throat.
An autopsy showed that Specht died from “complications of ingestion of multiple unknown cleaning agents,” Lake County Coroner Artis Yancey said Wednesday.
Yancey, who said he was awaiting final toxicology reports, said whatever Specht drank “appeared to have liquefied his organs.”
Specht, a 22-year veteran of the postal service who worked in maintenance at the Waukegan office, also suffered multiple self-inflicted cuts to his upper body and throat, but those cuts weren’t fatal, Yancey said.
The Lake County Major Crimes Task Force was called in to investigate, apparently because Specht died after police tried to restrain him. Yancey said the autopsy revealed signs of physical restraint, “but nothing significant.”
He said Specht had harmed himself before police arrived. “I assume the ingestion of the chemical agent[s] was probably extremely painful and he was probably in a state of delirium,” he said. “It was hard for the police to restrain him to get him the help he needed.”
Task Force Assistant Cmdr. George Filenko, who is Round Lake Park’s police chief, declined to comment.
The U.S. Post Office on Genesee was closed for retail business Wednesday, and counselors were brought in to meet with employees. Mail was delivered.
“We’re really saddened by what happened,” said Sean Hargadon, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, Great Lakes Region. “It really hurts when you lose somebody. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family.
“Our employees are absolutely amazing,” Hargadon said. “Despite everything, they’re going to deliver the mail.”
A woman who answered the phone at Specht’s residence Wednesday said it “was much too early to talk.”
“We miss him very much,” she said.
About 65 employees work out of the Genesee Street post office, which is home to 45 carrier routes, Hargadon said. The office processes 60,000 pieces of mail a day.
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