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Published on Friday, May 21, 2004
in the Florida Today
WEST MELBOURNE -- Gert Kramme hauled out the trash and recycling for Grace Scafati on Friday morning, fed her cat and emptied its litter box. When the postal carrier came by, Kramme took Scafati's mail.
When someone dropped roses off at Scafati's house, Kramme took those, too. Those were some of the final favors that Kramme, 80, would do for her neighbor, who lived across the street for 27 years in Hollywood Estates, a modest but tidy mobile home community of mostly retirees.
"She was a very active and lovely person," said Kramme, who swam with Scafati every morning at the community pool and had a key to her house. "I'm sure going to miss her."
Scafati, 93, was found dead late Thursday afternoon inside her car, where it had been stranded on a remote sandy road in Osceola County for six hours while several state and local agencies searched for her.
A preliminary medical examiner's report Friday showed no sign of trauma or natural disease, but the medical examiner was waiting for toxicology reports to see whether she succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning or dehydration.
The news of Scafati's death has left family and neighbors wondering how a healthy, alert and independent West Melbourne widow who bowled, swam, attended church regularly and played bingo on weekends could have gone so far from her intended destination: a routine doctor's appointment two miles away in Melbourne.
"There are questions we'll never get answered," said Temple Hughes, 69, the oldest of Scafati's four children. "No way we are going to get any definitive answers."
Family members theorize that Scafati may have headed west on U.S. 192 to a former doctor in Kissimmee, realized her error and turned around.
"She got that far and realized she was going to the wrong doctor, then made the fatal turn down that road," said grandson John Hughes, 44. He arrived on the scene when law enforcement agents found the car and identified her body Thursday night.
"She was very special to me and I'm going to miss her greatly," he said. "Law enforcement was outstanding in their effort, and they took it very hard when things turned out the way they did."
Scafati called her daughter around 8:15 a.m. Thursday to say she was going to her regular doctor. Hughes called the doctor's office later that morning to see what time her mother showed up, but they told her Scafati never arrived. About the same time, Temple Hughes got a call from the Florida Highway Patrol that her mother was stuck on a sandy road in Osceola County.
Scafati's car bogged down in the sugary sand of Crabgrass Road, 13 miles south of U.S. 192. Scafati called Allstate's roadside service for assistance, but she couldn't tell them where she was. The roadside service transferred the call to the Florida Highway Patrol, spokeswoman Kim Miller said. Troopers spoke to Scafati for 20 minutes trying to figure out where she was.
"We asked her where she was leaving from, if she remembered signs, landmarks," Miller said. "People from the area got on phone with her to figure out where she was."
The whole time, Miller said, Scafati was very calm. "She was not scared, not injured," Miller said. "She was definitely coherent, articulate. She just wasn't sure where she was."
Cingular Wireless spent the next three hours trying to help narrow down the search area by trying to figure out which tower the signal bounced off last, Miller said. Meanwhile, 25 troopers, deputies from Brevard and Osceola counties, and agents from the Division of Forestry and the Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission combed an area from Holopaw on U.S. 192 south to State Road 60 in Indian River County, and east to Melbourne and Indian Harbour Beach.
Temple Hughes said her mother probably spent those hours calmly waiting. "She probably prayed," Temple Hughes said. "She's very patient and has a strong faith in God and that was it."
At 5:56 p.m., an Osceola Sheriff's Office helicopter crew spotted her car, Miller said. Four patrol cars got stuck in the sand and had to be pulled out, Miller said.
The highway patrol has turned the investigation and all evidence over to the Osceola County Sheriff's Office, including the 20-minute tape of Scafati talking to FHP dispatch, Miller said.
"I wasn't prepared for this," Temple Hughes said. "So many people were working so hard to get to her."
Scafati, a widow for the last 21 years, lived alone and was very independent, Temple Hughes said. "She didn't want anybody to do anything for her," Temple Hughes said.
Scafati was in a bowling league, and in the last year bowled a 500 series. She also attended Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Melbourne several times a week and played bingo on weekends.
Walter and Nita Malone, who lived next door for nine years, said Scafati was very capable of getting around on her own.
"Most every place she went was by herself unless I took her," said Nita Malone, 73.
The Malones, who also had a key to Scafati's house, often saw her outside tending to her flower garden or feeding the birds. They would give her soup, and she'd return the bowl with something in it for them -- usually a JELL-O mold or homemade fruitcake.
"She was a great neighbor," said Walter Malone, 76. "You couldn't ask for anybody better. It's a shame she had to leave us like that."