She agreed to assist a friend – but what transpired next altered her life forever.
Charla Nash wasn’t famous. She didn’t crave attention. She was simply a compassionate woman trying to lend a hand to a friend in distress. However, one unimaginable moment would thrust her into the limelight — and leave the entire nation in shock.
It all began with a phone call. Her long-time friend, Sandra Herold, was in a panic. Her cherished pet chimpanzee, Travis, had taken Sandra’s car keys and left her home in Stamford, Connecticut, with them.
The 55-year-old Charla, always loyal and reliable, hurried over to assist and attempted to get Travis back inside his enclosure. But what unfolded next would become one of the most terrifying animal attacks in American history.
As Charla approached Travis, the 200-pound chimpanzee suddenly went wild. The sight of her holding an Elmo doll — once one of his favorite toys — triggered a violent, uncontrollable rage in him.
Inside the horrific attack
The assault was savage. Travis ripped off her hands, her nose, her eyelids, and lips.
Sandra, the 70-year-old owner of Travis, tried to intervene by hitting him on the head with a shovel and stabbing him in the back with a butcher knife. She later recounted that Travis looked back at her as if to say, “Mom, what did you do?”
”For me to do something like that, to stab him, felt like stabbing myself,” Sandra later expressed.
When Charla lay motionless on the ground, Sandra dialed 911. Initially, the operator thought the call was a prank — until Sandra screamed: “He’s eating her!”
When the emergency vehicles showed up, they discovered Charla lying face down in the driveway.
Emergency services were instructed to wait until the police arrived. When they did, the chimpanzee was still very active.
Travis charged towards the patrol car, shaking it violently, trying to open the locked passenger door, and even tore off the side-view mirror. Stamford police officer Frank Chiafari remembered the intense fear of that moment.
“It felt like ‘Jurassic Park,’” he mentioned in a documentary about the event. “We were looking at each other as he ripped the door (of the police car) right off.”
Officer Chiafari fired his weapon. Travis then retreated back into the house, where he ultimately succumbed to his injuries.
“It was a horrific, awful scene,” Chiafari recalled.
Raised him like her own child
Travis was not just any pet. Born in Missouri in 1995, he was taken from his biological mother, Suzy, when he was just three days old and sold to Sandra and her husband, Jerome.
They brought him up in their home in Stamford, Connecticut, where he became a local sensation. Travis, named after Sandra’s favorite singer Travis Tritt, starred in TV commercials, enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle, and even helped with chores like watering plants, feeding horses, and brushing his teeth.
He shared a deep connection with Sandra, who treated him as her surrogate son after the tragic loss of her own child and her husband’s fight with cancer.
Travis was remarkably humanized, often seen riding in the tow truck with Sandra, dining at the table, and even sipping wine from a glass. He had an incredible talent for mimicking human actions — he could even drive a car. However, despite these amazing traits, Travis was still a chimpanzee, and like all primates, he had immense strength. A fully grown chimpanzee’s upper-body strength can be up to five times that of an average human.
What caused the reaction?
Even though Travis was familiar with Charla — she had been employed at Sandra’s towing company — he failed to see that she posed no threat that tragic day in February 2009.
On the day of the incident, she was driving a different vehicle and had a new hairstyle, which might have startled and confused him, leading to his aggressive reaction.
Travis was also battling Lyme disease, which in rare instances can be associated with psychotic behavior.
Charla was quickly taken to the hospital in critical condition. The doctors had to put her into a medically induced coma. Within just 72 hours, she underwent more than seven hours of surgery, with four surgical teams working to salvage what they could of her face and hands.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time and have never witnessed anything this severe on a living patient,” stated Capt. Bill Ackley of Stamford Emergency Medical Service, who led the paramedic team that assisted Charla.
The extent of the damage was nearly unimaginable. Charla had lost her eyelids, nose, lips, mid-face bone structure, and nine fingers. Clumps of the chimp’s hair and teeth were embedded in her shattered bones, which the doctors had to extract.
The staff at Stamford Hospital were so affected that grief counseling was provided to those who initially treated her. Sadly, doctors confirmed that both of her eyes had become infected, resulting in her permanent blindness.
“I don’t want to remember”
She was moved to the Cleveland Clinic, where she became eligible for an experimental face transplant. In the meantime, her family set up a trust fund to assist with her “unfathomable” medical costs and to support her young daughter.
On November 11, 2009, Charla courageously showed her face to the world for the first time since the attack — appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Despite everything, her family reported that she was not in physical pain and remained optimistic about her recovery.
“I don’t want to think about it, because I can’t even picture how it felt,” she shared with Oprah. “I want to focus on getting better. I don’t want to wake up to nightmares.”
In 2011, Charla Nash underwent a revolutionary surgery, receiving a complete face transplant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The operation took more than 20 hours. The entire world watched in amazement.
The woman who was once labeled as “unrecognizable” had transformed into a living miracle.
Images of her change before and after the incident still circulate online — haunting reminders of the unimaginable pain she endured… and the unyielding spirit that saw her through it.
“I’ve always believed in my strength,” she stated. “If I felt overwhelmed, I just took a moment, breathed, and then tried again.”
She fought for her rights as a victim.
Rather than retreating, Charla chose to speak out. She courageously appeared on programs like Oprah and The Today Show, not seeking fame, but to educate others. She became a passionate advocate for tougher laws on exotic animals, hoping to prevent anyone else from experiencing her ordeal.
“I want to make it clear to people that these exotic animals are extremely dangerous and should not be kept around,” she expressed to Oprah.
Charla also received backing from various organizations and wildlife specialists who supported her after the attack.
“They are wild creatures, and all wild creatures can be dangerous,” said Colleen McCann, a primatologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and New York’s Bronx Zoo. “They are not pets. This is tragic, but it’s not unexpected.”
Charla fought for her rights as a victim. She attempted to sue the state of Connecticut for $150 million, claiming that the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection ignored previous warnings about the chimp.
There were signs of trouble earlier on. Back in 2003, Travis managed to escape from Sandra’s car and created a mess by stopping traffic at a busy intersection — he was on the run for several hours.
Charla stated that the authorities knew about Travis’s risky behavior but didn’t take any action. Even though her legal claim was eventually rejected, her courage sparked a nationwide discussion about the dangers of having exotic pets.
Sandra’s passing
Charla’s family lawyer filed a lawsuit for $50 million against Sandra Herold. In November 2012, Charla came to an agreement with Sandra’s estate, receiving around $4 million in compensation.
Sandra passed away just 15 months after the horrific chimpanzee attack. She unexpectedly died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm at the age of 72. Her lawyer, Robert Golger, released a touching statement after her death:
“Ms. Herold had endured a series of devastating losses over the past few years, starting with the death of her only daughter in a car accident, followed by her husband, then her cherished chimp, Travis, and the tragic injury of her friend and employee Charla Nash. Ultimately, her heart, which had been shattered so many times before, could bear no more.”
Aftermath
The entire tragedy led to laws like the Captive Primate Safety Act, which aimed to ban the sale of primates across state lines. Although the bill encountered obstacles, it was reintroduced in 2024, indicating that Charla’s quest for change still resonates.
Officer Frank Chiafari, the individual who had to shoot and kill Travis the chimp, faced depression and anxiety after the traumatic event — but at that time, he couldn’t get therapy. His emotional struggle led to a proposed bill in 2010 that aimed to ensure police officers could receive compensation for mental or emotional distress after being compelled to use deadly force on an animal.
