A murderer who killed his high school math teacher was convicted earlier this year of an attack that had striking similarities — and though his second victim survived, she spoke out about coming face to face with a “monster.”
The case of Philip Chism has disturbed many in Massachusetts for more than a decade after the October 2013 killing of his 24-year-old math teacher, Colleen Ritzer.
Chism, who was 14 at the time of the killing, was convicted of murdering and raping Ritzer in the girl’s bathroom of his school. After attacking Ritzer, he stuffed her body into a recycling bin, rolling it out to the woods next to the school. After he’d taken her body to the woods, he sexually assaulted her a second time.
Judge David Lowy, who sentenced Chism to life behind bars in 2016, said the student’s chilling murder was “brutal and senseless” and said “the crashing waves of this tragedy will never wane,” as reported at the time.
More than a decade after the murder, Chism’s criminal behavior was in the news this April when he was convicted of attempted murder in an attack on a correctional officer, which took place mere months after he was taken into custody for Ritzer’s killing.
Here’s what happened:
Philip Chism.
Wendy Maeda/The Boston Globe via Getty
The Murder
After school let out on Oct. 22, 2013, at Danvers High School, ABC News reported at the time that Chism followed Ritzer, a 24-year-old math teacher, into the girl’s bathroom and attacked her. Chism, then 14, strangled Ritzer before stabbing her 16 times and raping her, later stuffing her body into a recycling bin, which he rolled out into the woods near his school, according to WBUR.
The outlet reported that once Chism brought Ritzer’s body into the woods, he then raped the teacher again using a tree branch, stole her underwear and credit cards and then covered her body with leaves.
We reported at the time that Medical Examiner Dr. Anna McDonald, who performed the autopsy, said Ritzer may have still been alive at the time of Chism’s second assault in the woods. “At minimum, she was in the dying process,” McDonald told the jury.
Defense Claimed Chism Was Mentally Ill, Victim’s Mom Said He Was ‘Pure Evil’
Chism’s defense attorneys questioned his grandfather Eduardo Barbieri during the trial, who told the jury that the teenager comes from a family with a history of mental illness.
Barbieri said his ex-wife, Chism’s grandmother, had many mental health episodes and that one of his daughters was treated at a psychiatric hospital. The defense team also questioned one of Chism’s classmates, who told the jury the teenager suddenly became “very quiet” and “changed completely” in the days leading up to Ritzer’s killing.
A judge, however, refused to hear the opinions of a psychiatrist. Meanwhile, the prosecution maintained Chism knew right from wrong at the time of the killing.
“He is pure evil and can never be rehabilitated,” the victim’s mother, Peggy Ritzer, told the court during the trial, according to The Salem News.
In the end, Chism was found guilty of raping and murdering his math teacher and convicted to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years behind bars, previously reported.
Philip Chism. Ken Yuszkus/The Salem News/AP
An Eerily Similar Assault
Earlier in 2024, Chism pleaded guilty to a very similar assault he committed less than a year after he was taken into custody, according to NBC Boston.
Chism, who is now 25, pleaded guilty to charges including attempted murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and kidnapping after a Massachusetts Department of Youth Services worker accused him of attacking her in June 2014 in a similar manner to the way he attacked Ritzer the October prior. The 29-year-old worker said Chism followed her into a bathroom and pinned her against a wall while trying to strangle her and attack her with a pencil, according to NBC Boston.
“I remember being unable to leave my bedroom for hours for fear that he’d be waiting for me, ready to kill me,” the victim wrote in a statement read aloud in court. “True monsters exist in the world. Philip Chism is a monster, a murderer.”
Chism was sentenced to 17-to-20 more years in prison as a result of the second attack, NBC Boston, CBS News, and MassLive.com reported.
