In February 2009, Travis the chimpanzee was enjoying a nice cup of tea with his recently-widowed owner, Sandra Herold of Connecticut. The night before, Sandra and Travis had eaten dinner together and taken a bath, just like they always had. Travis was a good pet, after all…
Though he had known Charla for years, he didn’t recognize the new hair style she was currently sporting. Upon seeing this “stranger” holding onto his favorite toy, the chimp leaped into attack mode. Travis immediately lunged at her, jumping on her and biting at her face and hands. There was nothing she could do, she was helpless beneath the strength of the raging primate…
It was then that 70-year-old, Sandra Herold, attempted the unthinkable. She picked up a shovel and tried to pull the uncontrollable primate off her friend. When that didn’t work, she did the only other thing she could, she grabbed a butcher knife from inside the house and stabbed it into his back. Travis stopped for a moment and looked up at her reproachfully, neither woman nor chimp could fathom what she’d done. The knife wound only made Travis angrier.
With no other alternative, and being fully aware of the consequences, Sandra Herold had no choice; she had to call 911. The emergency operators could hear Travis’ mad screams echoing on the other end of the phone, along with Charla’s terrified screams for help. Sandra pleaded for “no police” but at the same time couldn’t ignore the situation happening in her own backyard. “He’s eating her!” she said in a horrified voice. “He’s eating her!”….
The EMS team had no idea what to expect when they got to the house. They waited for police in their van. Meanwhile, Travis had apparently finished with Charla and had walked up to the police car when it arrived. He smashed a side view mirror and tried the back doors. When he came around and opened the driver’s side door, Officer Frank Chiafari shot him several times. The wounded ape back into the house and police found him dead after, lying next to his cage.
The emergency crew couldn’t believe what they were seeing when they found Nash in the backyard. She had lost both her hands, her nose, eyes, lips, and even received significant injuries to her brain tissue. Four teams of surgeons were called in to deal with the horrendous injuries and most had to undergo counseling afterwards because of the extreme nature of the wounds. Charla went through seven hours of surgery, but the results were not promising…
