Travis, The Beloved Family Chimp Who Left A Woman Without A Face
Public DomainTravis and Charla Nash before the attack.
Up until Feb. 16, 2009, a chimpanzee known as Travis had been like a child to Sandra Herold — even more so after the passing of her daughter in 2000 and her husband in 2005.
But the two sudden losses sent both Sandra and Travis into a years-long depression, and the chimp’s behavior grew increasingly erratic.
Once, in 2003, Travis escaped from Sandra and Jerome Herold’s car and ran loose for several hours after someone threw trash at him through the car’s window.
Unfortunately, Travis’ erratic behavior only continued from there, and his isolation and the codependence he and Sandra formed ultimately led Travis to a breaking point.
After a weekend getaway with her good friend, Charla Nash, Sandra returned to the home occupied only by her and Travis, who was by this point severely overweight and spending most of his time eating or watching television.
While Sandra was tidying up, Travis stole her keys and ran out of the house. In a panic, Sandra called Charla and asked her to come and help lure Travis back inside.
When Charla arrived, she tried to get Travis back into the home by coaxing him with his favorite toy, a Tickle-Me-Elmo doll. But something inside Travis snapped then, and a moment later he was on top of Nash, ripping into her face with his teeth and barraging her with his hands.
Sandra beat Travis with a shovel, but he didn’t relent. She stabbed him with a knife, and he ran inside leading a trail of blood as Sandra called the police.
Police arrived to find Nash beaten to a pulp, the entirety of her face missing alongside most of her fingers. She should have been dead, based on the injuries — but then she reached out for them.
She survived by some miracle, but her life was forever changed. To this day, she is horribly disfigured, blind, and wearing someone else’s face.
