Pet chimp rips off woman's face and hands after being 'part of the family'
In 2009, Travis the chimpanzee carried out a horrific attack on Charla Nash. This is the story of the woman left disfigured for life by the primate.
Travis the chimpanzee enjoyed a unique life, living almost like a human.
But tragedy struck in 2009, when the primate mauled a woman in a fit of rage, tearing off her hands and face.
Back on a February weekend, Sandra Herold, who owned Travis, and friend Charla Nash went out for the day.
Upon returning to their home in Connecticut on February 16, Herold came home to a highly agitated Travis.
Nash arrived at the Herold home at around 3.40pm, unaware of the violence set to ensue.
Travis was in the front yard, where Nash attempted to lure him back into the house with his favourite toy, a Tickle-Me-Elmo doll.
But Travis then knuckle-ran over to Nash, stood on his two legs and threw her into the side of her car, then to the ground.
He continued to tear at the woman as she lay on the ground bleeding, while Herold began frantically beating Travis over the head with a shovel.
Fearful for her friend's life, she ran into her house, grabbed a butcher knife and stabbed him in the back.
Travis stood up, looked his owner directly in the face and then continued his assault on Nash.
In a fit of panic, Herold dialled 911 and screamed down the phone: “He’s killing my friend! He ripped her apart! Hurry up! Hurry up! Please!
“He — he ripped her face off … He’s eating her!”
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When police arrived, they found Travis stalking the area, covered in blood.
The officer fired several rounds into him, and Travis, bleeding, fled into the house.
A trail of blood followed his path through the kitchen and bedroom, into his room where he died grasping his bedpost.
Miraculously, Nash survived the nightmare assault, but was left disfigured for life.
Multiple hours of surgery was undertaken as Travis’ assault had broken nearly all the bones in her face, torn away her eyelids, nose, jaw, lips and most of her scalp and rendered her blind, as well as fully removed one of her hands and most of the other.
Her injuries were so severe that the Stamford hospital offered the staff that treated her counselling sessions, and after her surgery was completed, Nash was flown to Ohio for an experimental facial transplant.
Doctors then performed America’s first double hand and face transplant. While the hands failed to take, the face transplant was a success.
After surviving the horrific ordeal, Nash appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in November the same year to discuss the attack, her experimental facial surgery and her future.
And in 2016, Nash spoke to MSNNBC’s Today programme after her body began to reject her face transplant, after doctors tried to wean her off anti-rejection drugs.
“I hear the birds singing,” she said at the time. “And now that the sun is coming out, I can feel the sun. And it’s like another good day. Let’s get started.”
Travis The Chimp was born at the Missouri Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Festus on October 21, 1995.
He was taken from his mother, Suzy, when he was three days old and sold to Jerome and Sandra Herold for $50,000.
After Jerome lost his battle to cancer, and after the couple’s only child was killed in a car accident, Sandra began pampering the chimp like it was her child.
Travis began having fits of erratic behavior just before Jerome died and, in October 2003, he escaped their car and ran loose for a period of time after someone threw trash at him through the window.
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