As the meeting at the Danvers police station went on, she learned the boy was under arrest, suspected of hurting someone, and investigators needed help finding a teacher who was reported missing. Diana Chism implored: “Oh my God. Please don’t tell me somebody’s dead.”

SALEM — When Diana Chism sat down with investigators after her missing 14-year-old son, Philip, had been located, she immediately sensed something was wrong and asked whether she needed a lawyer.

The meeting took place during the early hours of Oct. 23, 2013, according to testimony given Friday in Essex Superior Court. Diana Chism had reported her son missing the day before, after he was nowhere to be found when she went to pick him up from soccer practice.


The same day, popular Danvers High School math teacher Colleen Ritzer was also reported missing.

When Diana Chism spoke to police, officers did not say whom they thought her son had hurt.

“My son could have snapped,” she said, according to a recording of the interview. “I mean I don’t know. It’s possible. But he’s never been violent with me.”

Philip Chism at his seat Friday in Essex Superior Court. Patrick Whittemore/Pool

The tape was played during a daylong hearing Friday as defense attorneys for Philip D. Chism, now 15, sought to have some of the evidence collected by police thrown out of his upcoming trial for Ritzer’s killing.

Philip Chism’s lawyers contend the high school freshman was not properly informed of his rights against self-incrimination during his initial interactions with police, and therefore a jury should not be allowed to consider statements he allegedly made or evidence collected during those encounters. The hearing is scheduled to resume next Friday.

Prosecutors allege Philip Chism killed Ritzer in a Danvers High bathroom, put her body into a recycling bin, and dragged it into woods near the school. The 24-year-old Ritzer suffered massive injuries to her neck, prosecutors said. The teen is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated rape.


Diana Chism sat in the rear of the courtroom Friday wearing large sunglasses.

During the taped interview, officers told her they wanted to speak with her son and needed the permission of a “consenting adult.”

“My son, as a juvenile, does have a right to legal representation,” she said.

She said the most trouble her son had been in involved him flicking paper on a school bus, and she had never known him to be physically aggressive or suffer from mental illness.

Still, she told police, there is a history of “mental health issues” among some family members, and Philip was under stress because of his parents’ divorce and the family’s recent move here from Tennessee.

“I do know that he is capable of snapping. I’ve always felt that way,” Diana Chism said.

One police officer asked her to clarify what she meant by “snapped,” adding, “Do you mean get violent, physical?”

“No,” she replied.

“I’m just saying that anybody’s capable of snapping under stressful situations,” Diana Chism said. “I’m telling you — God as my witness — he hasn’t shown me anything that he was about to snap.”

An investigator asked her how her son was doing in math. She said he was doing great in that class, but did not like his Spanish teacher.

During earlier testimony, Topsfield police officer Neal Hovey described how he located Philip Chism walking on Route 1, and was “elated” because he knew the boy was reported missing from Danvers.


But that elation evaporated when Hovey was going through the teen’s backpack and he found a box cutter covered with what appeared to be blood tucked into a white purse or wallet.

“I asked Mr. Chism, I said, ‘Whose blood is this?’ ” Hovey testified. “ ‘And he said, ‘It’s the girl’s.’ ”

At that point, Hovey said, his partner, Officer Joseph DeBernardo, read Philip Chism his rights against self-incrimination.

DeBernardo testified that after reading the boy his rights, he asked, “Where is the girl?”

“ ‘Buried in the woods,’ ” Philip Chism replied, according to DeBernardo.

The officer testified that he asked the teen whether the girl could be helped if she were located.

“No,” Philip Chism replied, according to DeBernardo.

Earlier in his interactions with Topsfield police, Philip Chism removed items from his pockets at the request of Hovey, the officer testified. The items included identification bearing Colleen Ritzer’s name, Hovey said.

During the hearing, Philip Chism sat at the defendant’s table between two of his lawyers. He did not speak.

Ritzer’s parents, Peggie and Tom, were also there. When details of her daughter’s death emerged, Peggie Ritzer sometimes wept or hunched over and hung her head low.

More coverage of the Chism case:

John R. Ellement contributed to this report. Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@ globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldi.