FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A son brutally beat his mother and father with a blunt object Friday night, then fled, Miami-Dade police said.
He has been identified by an anonymous law enforcement source as Travis Grafe, the 40-year-old son of Rachel Knaus Grafe, one of the owners of Knaus Berry Farm, CBS Miami reported.
Grafe was arrested Saturday morning on charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery on a person 65 or older, and attempted robbery, according to jail records.
Around 8:20 p.m. Friday, Miami-Dade police responded to the 15700 block of SW 248 Street in the Redlands, where Knaus Berry Farm is located, in reference to a “violent domestic dispute,” according to Detective Chris Thomas, a spokesperson for the police department. A son had attacked his mother and father with a blunt object inside of their home, then fled. Thomas did not identify the parties involved.
Grafe demanded money from his parents and beat them with a flashlight, CBS Miami reported.
The couple were airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where the mother is in critical condition, Thomas said. The son fled the scene, and Miami-Dade police arrested him at a nearby residence.
Knaus Berry Farm, a local favorite known for its cinnamon rolls and strawberry picking, has operated for nearly 70 years, beginning as a roadside strawberry stand in 1956. Rachel Grafe and her husband, Herbert, run the farm with her sister, Susan Blocher, and Susan’s husband Thomas.
“Everybody loved that place,” said Rebeca Rhyne, a former resident of Kendall. She would take her kids there at least 4 or 5 times a year as a family tradition.
She described the people who worked there as “so wholesome and nice, all of them.”
They would wait in line for at least two hours for sticky buns and strawberry milkshakes, she said. Sometimes, by the time they got to the counter, the sticky buns would have sold out. So her kids would get “burnt ends” instead, the leftover bits of sticky buns baked into a pie with extra syrup.
“They’re the nicest people, they’d always try to help you and let you taste their strawberries,” Rhyne said.
Holly Howlett has been going to Knaus Berry Farm her whole life, at least 50 years, she said, predating the farm’s surge in popularity over the last decade. She attended elementary school across the street.
Her friends would always count on her to bring the cinnamon rolls when they went camping together, she said. But she also loved their key lime slushies, black bottom cake with “puddles of cream cheese,” and rosemary bread.
She almost tried to go Saturday morning, then realized it wasn’t on her way. A few hours later, she heard the news.
“It’s definitely been a staple of my childhood and my children’s childhood,” she said, adding, “I’m just so in shock right now, I can’t think.”
Grafe was booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. His bond is posted at $25,000.
