A Teacher Stayed After School To Help A New Student, Then The 14-Year-Old Brutally Murdered Her In One Of Massachusetts’ Most Shocking Crimes

It’s been thirteen years since 14-year-old Philip Chism went from a quiet high school freshman to a murderer in one of the most brutal school killings in Massachusetts history. In the aftermath of the October 22, 2013 murder, the actions of the teen who’d only just moved to the state and started at Danvers High School that fall were as inexplicable as they were evil.

Chism had arrived at Danvers High School early that Tuesday morning, prepared to commit the perfect murder. According to investigators, Chism packed a ski mask, gloves, box cutter, and three sets of clothing in his backpack, a clear indication of intent and premeditation. The teen remained quiet and composed throughout the school day. After class, Ritzer, 24, told Chism to stay behind and offer some extra help. She had no idea what waited for her that afternoon.

A fellow student told investigators she’d seen the two of them talking about China in the classroom after Ritzer’s class ended. When Chism and Ritzer emerged from the classroom, the student said, she heard Ritzer mention Tennessee, where Chism and his family had recently moved from and the teen’s expression changed. He began talking to himself and “got really upset,” the witness told investigators. The student would later describe Chism as appearing “spaced out,” “freaking out and having an episode.” Chism then followed Ritzer, who headed to a bathroom, where a security camera captured her walking down the hallway to a second-floor girls’ bathroom. A few moments later, Chism pulled up his red hood and put on gloves before following her into the bathroom.

Over the next seventeen minutes, Chism savagely attacked his teacher from behind. He slit her throat with a box cutter, stabbed her sixteen times in the neck, and raped her. During the attack, a female student peeked into the bathroom after the door opened slightly. The witness later told investigators that she saw someone standing at the end of the hallway with their back towards her and a pile of clothing on the floor. The student thought that someone had “accidentally opened the door and was changing” and left without alerting anyone. She had walked away from a murder scene.

Chism remained inside the bathroom long enough to clean himself up and change his clothes. Security footage shows him leaving the bathroom moments later, calm and purposeful, dressed in a different shirt. He walked to the school parking lot, returned inside two minutes later, changed again, and reentered the bathroom pushing a large green recycling bin. At 3:22 p.m., Chism left the bathroom wearing a white T-shirt and a black mask, dragging the recycling bin and Ritzer’s body down the hallway and into an elevator. He wheeled it outside and toward the tree line behind the school.ASSSXXXfound evidence that he had sexually assaulted Ritzer again with a tree branch and that he left her body uncovered except for a pair of socks, her underwear, and a loose-fitting hooded sweatshirt, which was piled with leaves. Police also found a folded piece of paper with three words written on it in block letters near Ritzer’s body stating “I hate you all.” The green recycling bin was next to her body, along with the bloodstained gloves and pieces of Ritzer’s clothing.

That evening, Chism’s mother reported him missing, and Danvers police began a search for him. Cell phone records helped officers determine that Chism was at a local movie theater and He’d used Ritzer’s credit card to purchase a ticket earlier in the day. Officers found Chism walking on a highway just before midnight the next morning. The teen’s hands were stained with dried blood. Inside his backpack were Ritzer’s credit cards, driver’s license, and a pair of her underwear, along with the box cutter he used to kill her, which still had her blood on the blade. Chism told investigators that the blood was Ritzer’s and that “she was in the woods.” “The girl” and the “woods” would be the only clues that investigators got from Chism as they questioned him about Ritzer’s murder.

It wasn’t until 3 a.m. that officers found the scene of the crime, a shallow clearing a short distance from the cross-country path where Ritzer’s body lay under a blanket of leaves. Her throat had been slit, her clothing was torn, and a branch was stuck in her body. The image of her battered body, investigators later described, was one of the most disturbing they’d ever seen. Investigators collected evidence from the school and surrounding woods, including fingerprints, blood patterns, and the surveillance timeline, to construct an airtight case. A grand jury indicted Chism on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated rape, and armed robbery. In court filings, prosecutors cited the murder weapon packed from home, the gloves and mask, the multiple outfit changes, and Chism’s calm, calculating behavior after the murder as evidence of his premeditation.

Jurors saw surveillance footage in court, frame by frame, and watched as Ritzer walked to her death and Chism moved methodically after her. The medical examiner testified that Ritzer might have been alive during Chism’s second sexual assault of her in the woods, which may have been when she was mutilated with a tree branch. Chism’s defense argued that he suffered from mental illness, and Chism’s parents claimed a family history of psychiatric problems, but the court found that the teen was competent to stand trial and knew what he was doing. In February 2016, the jury found Chism guilty of all charges, and he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years.

The violence didn’t stop even once Chism was incarcerated. In June 2014, while in a youth detention center awaiting trial, Chism followed a female staff member into a bathroom and pinned her to the wall. He then attempted to strangle her and stabbed her with a pencil. The staff member survived, and the attack was disturbingly similar to the Ritzer murder. In 2024, Chism pleaded guilty to attempted murder and kidnapping for that attack and was sentenced to 17–20 more years, to be served concurrently with his life sentence.

In 2025, thirteen years after killing Ritzer, Chism requested a new trial, arguing that the judge should have allowed evidence from brain scans that showed signs of mental illness. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court threw out Chism’s appeal and upheld his original conviction. Colleen Ritzer’s family said the ruling “allows us to finally grieve.” “While true justice can never be served, we are grateful that this decision brings some peace,” the statement read.