Click here to subscribe today or Login.
By TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER [email protected]
Friday, December 16, 2005 Page: 1A
Heather Brennan thought her fiance, Travis Nickel, was a perfect match –
until she learned he fed her rats, was engaged to another woman and had a
child from a prior relationship, she alleges in a federal lawsuit.
Her 10-month love affair with Nickel, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard,
ended after he left her in July, two weeks before their wedding, she said.
Broken-hearted and broke, the jilted bride is seeking $125,000 to recoup
cancelled wedding costs and other debts, as well as compensation for the
“humiliation and mental anguish” she endured.
The lawsuit, which Brennan prepared and filed herself in federal court in
Scranton, accuses Nickel of a host of other misdeeds, including giving her the
engagement ring that belonged to a different woman.
Contacted by phone in Kentucky, where he now lives, Nickel, 26, denied most
of Brennan’s allegations. He claims Brennan broke off their relationship after
she learned he had a 6-year-old son who was previously unknown to him. He said
the suit is simply a means to harass him.
Brennan, 21, of George Avenue, insists she has evidence to support her
claims – including the admittedly bizarre allegation that Nickel began mixing
boiled, blended-up rats into her food some time after she moved to Arkansas
with him in November 2004.
In an interview Tuesday, Brennan conceded the allegation is strange. But
she said doctors have told her eating rats can cause an illness similar to
salmonella poisoning. Blood tests show irregularities that support her
contentions she was fed the rodent.
Brennan said she began having severe abdominal pain and other symptoms in
March. Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong, until she moved back to
Pennsylvania and uncovered e-mail conversations Nickel had with someone
through an Internet forum.
Brennan said she found the information while cleaning out the e-mail
account she shared with Nickel. Instructions advised to boil the rat, which
would “help bring out the poisons,” and to cut off its head before blending it
up.
Nickel did all the cooking, she suspects he blended the diced-up rat into
dishes such as tacos and spaghetti that he frequently made. His intent was to
make her ill so he could access money her mother had sent her, she said. She’s
had no problems since she moved back.
Nickel called the allegation “ridiculous.”
“She did go to the doctor because she was sick, but what I got from the
doctor’s office, it was a stomach virus,” Nickel said.
Nickel said he thinks Brennan got the idea because he and some friends were
involved with a radio show that did a takeoff on the popular show “Fear
Factor,” which features contestants who eat unusual things.
“They were doing a `Fear Factor’ Friday and they had a guy eat a rat.
Everyone was corresponding through their chat site. That’s how she got that
idea,” he said.
About the only thing Brennan and Nickel agree on is that the relationship
ended on July 25, after Nickel told her he had just discovered he had a
6-year-old son living in Ohio.
The couple met in September 2004, after a friend of Brennan’s who had been
corresponding with Nickel through a military pen pal program introduced them.
One month after meeting, they were engaged.
“I was 19 and in college. He was extremely nice. He said he had money and
was stable in life. I felt, because he was older he’d be more mature and
responsible.”
Brennan said there were financial troubles early on in the relationship.
Their joint bank account was continually overdrawn. Everything came to a head
when Nickel told her about his son.
Nickel said the child’s mother contacted him unexpectedly, about two weeks
before his wedding to Brennan, to advise him she thought the child was his.
When he told Brennan, he said she became “hysterical” and threw him out of the
apartment.
“She got on the floor in the kitchen and started crying,” Nickel said. “She
proceeded to act crazy. I had to have friends come and calm her down.”
Brennan admits she was upset, but said she was willing to go on with the
wedding, which was scheduled to for a Nanticoke church on Aug. 6. She said
Nickel left their home in Arkansas on July 26, saying he needed to go to Ohio
to take a paternity test.
“He said he was going to see if the child was his. He never came back.”
Left with no money and mounting bills, Brennan returned home with the help
of her parents. That’s when she and her mother began investigating Nickel.
They learned another woman, who was just out of high school, was also
supposedly engaged to Nickel. The woman had contacted Brennan after
discovering Brennan was communicating with Nickel.
“She asked me why I was talking to him, he was her fiance. I said `What do
you mean, he asked me to marry him,” Brennan said.
Brennan said she continued to correspond with the woman and discovered
Nickel had given her an engagement ring that seemed suspiciously similar to
one Brennan was wearing. The woman told her Nickel had taken her ring to be
repaired and had not given it back.
“I e-mailed her a picture of it. She said, `yeah, that’s mine,’ ” Brennan
said.
Brennan said Nickel continued to use her personal information, including
her Social Security number to obtain credit. She learned he tried to purchase
another ring, for yet another woman, in August. The purchase was nixed thanks
to a fraud alert she placed on her credit file.
Nickel denies he was engaged to any other women, or that he improperly used
Brennan’s personal information. He acknowledged there were financial problems,
but said Brennan was as much to blame for them as him.
“What she’s doing is harassing me. It’s starting to ruin my life and she
knows it. Payback is hell.”
Brennan insists she’s just trying to recoup her losses. Her parents paid
for all of the wedding arrangements – she still has her gown, the invitations
and other wedding items. They also loaned her at least $8,000 to cover
expenses when she was in Arkansas.
“I’m 21. How do I pay this all back?”