Charla Nash was mauled by her friend’s chimpanzee in 2009 and ended up undergoing a face transplant
A woman who barely survived a brutal attack after her face was torn apart by her friend’s pet chimpanzee has opened up about the terrifying sounds she heard during that nightmare.
Charla Nash often visited her friend Sandra Herold’s home in Connecticut, where she spent time with Sandra’s chimpanzee, Travis. Over the years, she had grown quite familiar with him.
Travis wasn’t just any pet—he was well-known in the neighborhood and often considered a local icon. While he had been friendly with Nash for a long time, people had started noticing changes in his behavior. He was becoming more unpredictable.
Then came the tragic day—February 16, 2009. That’s when everything changed forever, as Travis lashed out and made Nash his first and only victim.
On that day, Nash was simply dropping by her friend’s house, just like she always did. There was nothing unusual about the visit, except she had changed her hairstyle not long before.
Travis snatched Herold’s car keys and went outside. Nash, hoping to lure him back in, used one of his favorite toys to try and get his attention and coax him back inside.
Travis did seem to recognize the toy she used. But it’s believed that Nash’s new hair confused or unsettled him. That confusion turned violent, and he attacked her right there in the yard.
Herold came upon the horrifying scene and immediately called 911 in a panic. During the call, you could hear Travis screaming in the background as he continued to viciously attack Nash.
Charla Nash was a friend of Sandra Herold and her pet chimp, Travis
60 Minutes Australia
The damage he did to her was beyond devastating. Nash’s facial bones were shattered, and Travis ripped off her eyelids, jaw, lips, nose, and most of her scalp. The attack left her blind.
One of her hands was also torn from her body during the horrifying assault.
While Travis was violently tearing apart her face, Nash could still hear what was happening around her. She later shared those haunting details in an interview with 60 Minutes Australia.
Nash said: “The thing I heard the most was, it kept screaming; Screaming, screaming and screaming.”
As the chaos unfolded, Herold desperately tried to save her friend. She first hit the chimp with a shovel, and when that didn’t work, she stabbed him in the back with a large kitchen knife. But it wasn’t enough to stop him.
Travis refused to stop. Nothing Herold did could tear him away from Nash. He had begun to eat her.
It wasn’t long before police arrived on the scene. Travis, covered in blood, approached one of the patrol cars and opened an unlocked door.
That’s when Officer Frank Chiafari reacted quickly and fired several shots at Travis, forcing him to retreat back into his cage. That’s where he collapsed and died shortly after.
Nash underwent hours of surgery to replace her face
60 Minutes Australia
Although she was barely hanging on, Nash didn’t die that day. She was rushed into emergency surgery, where doctors spent hours trying to reattach her jaw.
Later, she was flown to Ohio, where she underwent an experimental face transplant in hopes of restoring some of what had been lost.
As for what made Travis turn so violently, toxicology tests revealed he had been given Xanax earlier that day. His owner later suggested that the medication might have played a role in triggering his aggression.
The attack on Charla Nash sparked widespread outrage and brought a renewed focus to the dangers of keeping wild animals, like chimpanzees, as household pets. The brutal incident became a wake-up call for many.