NEWAYGO COUNTY -- An unemployed construction worker, Jason Mielke often found discarded items that he could strip down and sell for scrap, in hopes of adding extra income for his growing household.

So when he found a muzzleloader rifle in the Dumpster outside his girlfriend's apartment, he recalled conversations with his father about deer hunting with one.

The 28-year-old brought the gun to the home of his father, Ted Mielke, in Big Prairie Township, where they worked together cleaning on Tuesday.

But what happened next was tragic, said Rhonda Mielke, Jason's stepmother.

"The barrel was in a vice grip and they were working on getting a piece removed. They were heating it up with a torch and it made a sizzling noise and backfired in my husband's face," Rhonda Mielke said.

The father yelled at Jason, who turned as the muzzleloader fired.

"He walked right in front of the barrel. My husband is torn up. He held him and kept telling Jason it would be all right, and Jason said it hurt. He lost his oldest son and his best friend," said the stepmother.

The death also devastated Mielke's young family. He and his girlfriend, Brandie Gordon, 22, have a 2-year-old son, Justin, and 7-month-old twin girls, Jaycee and Josie. Mielke also was a father to Brandie's daughter, Lydia.

The joy Mielke found in his family came after what his stepmother called a "hard-knocks life," which included time in foster care, trouble in school and a stint in jail. As a teen, he loved the outdoors, but was hampered by hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder, she said.

"When he got out of jail, his father picked him up, got him a job in construction working outside and they had been inseparable for the last 10 years," Rhonda Mielke said.

"With the birth of his son two years ago, he just turned his life around. He was happy," she said.

Her 10-year-old son is deaf and Jason Mielke was learning sign language to communicate with him. "For a kid with attention deficit to take the time to do that was just wonderful. He was wonderful," she said.

After his death, some of his organs were donated, family members said.

His family and friends are planning a celebration of his life at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Sherman Township Hall.

A memorial trust has been set up for his children at Independence Bank.

Jason Mielke also is survived by his brother, Joshua, and sister Vanessa of Grand Rapids, a sister Misty from Florida and his mother, Shirley, of California.

E-mail Theresa McClellan: tmcclellan@grpress.com

