By SUZANNE ROOK, Senior Writer
Posted: Tuesday, July 1, 2008 10:42 pm

It was an ordinary Sunday for the Malechas.

After the family attended late Mass, Ken and his 22-year-old son, Jake, were going to check out a new tractor for the family farm.

A little after 9 that morning, Ken noticed Jake’s massive black lab, Sage, needed to be let out for her morning walk, so he padded down the stairs to rouse his slumbering son.

But Jake was dead.

Jake Malecha was a typical kid.

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An active, happy child, he loved the outdoors; relished working his grandparents’ farm just outside of town.

He drove his first tractor at 10 and enjoyed taking off on his four-wheeler.

He played football and baseball and learned better by doing than by sitting in a classroom, say parents, Ken and Judi Malecha. He cared little for English class, believing the lessons would never come in handy.

At 17, father and son spent weeks trekking through Cuba, said Ken, his face erupting into a smile as he recalled the adventure.

Before his 19th birthday, Jake bought his first house, a fixer-upper he renovated and sold for profit.

His troubles began in high school, his mother believes, when he stopped taking medicine for attention deficit disorder. He lost focus, she said, and his grades slipped. It was then, his parents suspect, that he started drinking and smoking pot.

They were concerned, said Judi, but not alarmed.

“It wasn’t unusual teenage behavior,” they told themselves.

After high school, Jake went to Iowa State, then to the Minnesota State University-Mankato. Neither school suited him. But he couldn’t stay in Northfield either, he told his parents.

While Jake was figuring out what to do his life, his parents went about their routines: work, friends and life with two children: Jake, and his younger sister, Abby.

Soon Jake found what he believed to be his calling: studying to become a John Deere technician. His classes, at North Dakota State College of Science, would take two years. For three of the 10 semesters students work at their local sponsoring dealership, getting hands-on experience.

At last, Jake was happy in school, his classes were interesting and he made better grades than he had in years.

Ken and Judi believed their son had turned a corner.

In an instant

Spring 2007: With relatives coming to visit, Judi knew Jake’s room would need tidying.

With her son living at home, but working, she took charge of the sheet-changing.

As she turned his bare mattress, she couldn’t believe what she saw on the box spring — a lighter, a spoon, an amber prescription bottle with several pills inside, and a couple of syringes.




In an instant, Judi knew. Her son was shooting heroin.

First she called Ken. Then they called Jake.

“You need to come home,” they told him.

In Saturday’s issue, the Malechas confront Jake about his drug use and Jake cleans up.

— Suzanne Rook can be reached at srook@northfieldnews.com or 645-1113.