DANVERS (CBS) – A teenager has been charged with killing a Danvers High School teacher in a horrific case that led the town to close all public schools for the day.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Lana Jones reports



Danvers Teacher Murdered

Philip Chism, 14, was ordered held without bail at his arraignment in Salem District Court Wednesday afternoon. He’s charged as an adult in the beating death and assault of 24-year-old Colleen Ritzer, a math teacher at the high school.

Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said Ritzer was found dead in the woods behind the school early Wednesday morning, a short time after she had been reported missing.

Blodgett said it was “apparent she was a homicide victim.”

“It was learned from an interview with the suspect and video surveillance footage recovered at the high school, that a juvenile student that attends Danvers High School assaulted and subsequently murdered Colleen Ritzer and disposed of her body near the high school grounds,” court records state.

The chain of events started Tuesday evening when Chism was reported missing by Danvers police. (Continued…)

Later, at 11:20 p.m., Blodgett said police received a report that Ritzer had not returned to her home in Andover and was not answering her cell phone.

Investigators went to the high school and found blood in a second floor bathroom, the D.A. said.

About an hour later, Topsfield police found Chism walking on Route 1.

He was taken to Danvers police and interviewed. Authorities also looked at video surveillance from inside the school and a short time later Ritzer’s body was found in the woods behind the high school.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Doug Cope reports

