The Disturbing Case of Colleen Ritzer

[Music] hey you and welcome my name is mike and in this all slash new video we're going to a high school in the town of danvers danvers high school so it's easy to remember danvers has quite quite the history it's in massachusetts and was originally known as salem village yeah that's salem though there still is a salem that's just down the road it's all like one big witch's cauldron this is where the trials actually happened before the town was renamed let's move on it's also home or was home to danvers state hospital that's that's your haunting 101 right there so quite the you know uh spooky history right and around halloween 2013 something would be added to that let's give it a go danvers is home to about 27 000 people it's a hop skip and jump away from downtown boston about 30 minutes by car that's what danvers is really a suburb a place where you know your kids will go to school and the high school they would go to is danvers high school [Laughter] [Music] danvers high school sits close to the edge of danvers by beverly regional airport and it enrolls close to 1 000 students it opened in 1962 its football team is the danvers falcons yeah it's recolor no one will notice and guess what the lead singer of the band boston was also an alumni man seems like their imagination has just been like beaten out of them since the witch trials to be fair it didn't lead to anything good back then the high school motto is ladies and gentlemen always though not in this case it has about 100 teachers and back in 2013 colleen ritzer was one of them so you know speaking of witches and spooky things and horrific things stanford is kind of the perfect place and this story takes us to the perfect time right before halloween colleen ritzer was born in may 1989 in the town of lawrence m.a a town about half an hour from downtown danvers she grew up in andover graduated high school there and then went to assumption college now assumption university high school math was her game and after spending a year teaching at the middle school in stowe she arrived at danvers high school in 2012. she loved her family was very close with them always one at gatherings and parties hockey games if her family was playing or just there she would be too supportive and not just for those related she loved teaching and wanted to be there for her students she always wanted to be a teacher when she grew up ever since she was you know a young and it wasn't for you know the usual reasons right june july and august no she wanted to to inspire to help to teach and support by being creative and finding new ways to reach out to her students she was passionate colleen taught 9th grade algebra and although new this was her second year there she was already beloved at danvers high school her twitter it's all math problems and games for her students and it seems like her bio fit her like a glove math teacher often too excited about the topics i'm teaching tuesday the 22nd of october 2013 started out like any other day they always do the wind was rustling leaves were falling pumpkins were out temperature was getting up to about 21 degrees celsius students were excited about the upcoming festivities and teachers were settled into this semester colleen had classes you know as per normal all that day until about 2 2 30. uh then she was going to stay behind spend some extra time with students a couple of students who needed you know a bit of extra help a leg up on the l algebra at 2 54 p.m colleen went to use the bathroom and that then was that school finished up then about an hour later at four after school finished up that day that's when all the you know uh after school extracurricular activities they all they all kicked off then however as the afternoon turned to evening parents began to worry colleen's parents peggy and tom ritzer couldn't get true to colleen colleen 24 years old still lived with her parents close to danvers and should have been due home from school as the errors went by tom drove over to danvers high school he eyeballed her car in the car park kicked the tires went around you know anybody anybody seen colleen no no and then you know they started calling colleen's friends maybe she was out having a drink or something they called the police and reported her missing [Music] after school as i said extracurricular stuff began and at soccer practice the coach noticed he was missing a player 14 year old philip chisholm the fact that he wasn't there wasn't you know immediately like oh my god where is he it was more like he's not here philip had only been at danvers high school for two months he had arrived at the start of the semester from tennessee so he didn't really have a huge amount of friends and his teammates you know they didn't know him that well however colleen's parents weren't the only ones staring at their phones and at the clock philip's mother diana she had no clue where he was he was supposed to come home after soccer practice and as the errors went by you know he had no friends he was new to town she began to worry where where is he diana was in the middle of a pretty rough divorce from philip's father hence the move from tennessee to massachusetts and philip was going through some difficult times himself uh you know it's not easy if your parents are going through an acrimonious divorce and he didn't want to move he didn't want to be there he never wanted to leave tennessee he didn't like danvers high school he felt bullied and generally bad times all round he wasn't answering his phone and eventually at 6 34 p.m diana called and reported 14 year old felt missing to the police the search was on a couple of hours later the school principal sent out an email to all staff and faculty letting them know that a student was missing around the same time the principal also got a phone call saying a teacher was missing also colleen taught philip matz it was later reported that colleen and philip were seen together in that classroom colleen was giving him extra help the fact that they were you know last seen together and then they both went missing did they go missing you know together the police focused on philip first you know 14 years old he was a minor they traced his phone to a to a cinema in danvers at 4 30 he had gone to see a film there a woody allen film blue jasmine and then he was gone did he run away he said he didn't want to be there so did he stop being there while patrol cars searched the streets of danvers officers started sifting through the footage at the high school to see what happened in the room between colleen and philip they also searched the school and in the girls bathroom closest to the classroom they had been in they found what looked like bloody smears they then started searching the school perimeter and among the dead leaves and barren trees as autumn twilight settled in they found colleen's purse it was empty no wallet no money no cards no nothing but a clue and when they began to imagine would not lead to a happy ending then a couple of hours later right around 3am the witching hour under a pile of leaves colleen ritzer was found she had been murdered colleen she was naked from the waist down she was covered in blood scratches dirt and blood especially to to the neck area beside her body they found a note and the note was was hand written and it said i hate you all a couple of yards away they found a bin and bloody gloves it didn't take long to put two and two together when both were last seen together and now one was missing and one was murdered well he wasn't missing by the time colleen was finally found philip was found walking the sidewalk around two hours before in topsfield a small village maybe maybe 10 minutes away he was wearing his backpack and after searching they found a box cutter bloody women's underwear and colleen's cards so he briefly said he broke into her car and stole them until they asked about the blood on the box cutter and he said it came from the girl when colleen went to the bathroom that day philip followed her and he knew what he was doing as he put his hood up and gloves on and his pocket was a box cutter this this kid he had brought a box cutter gloves mask and a change of clothing to school that morning he walked into the bathroom behind colleen and after they were in there for about 11 minutes a student actually entered but swiftly left after witnessing quote an exposed butt she thought someone was in there changing clothes he then left and changed clothing running around at one point distracting away from the bathroom a classmate that had come looking for him [Music] and at 3 14 p.m he wheeled a bin into the bathroom and as camzy alike wielded out of the school was not stopped questioned at all passed a fellow walk in his good boy and then he went into the woods he then returned 25 minutes later [Music] changed once again to all black clothing and returned to the scene of the crime then he left the school from there he went to see a flick i'm sure there were better ones than woody allen after he got grub and wandered about until he was caught not long after midnight when philip entered the bathroom behind colleen he strangled her stabbed her at least 16 times and raped her then he put her in the bin took her out to the woods and sexually assaulted her with a tree branch then posed her in a graphic position she was likely still alive the district attorney would later say and passed from blood loss some time later before she was found a 14 year old high school student has been charged with killing a teacher in the eastern part of the state phillip chism was ordered held without bail at his murder arraignment in adult court in salem today police said the teen killed danvers high school math teacher colleen ritzer whose body was found in the woods behind the school just after midnight last night the 24 year old teacher was reported missing after she didn't come home from work yesterday investigators found blood in a second floor school bathroom and located her body soon after i can say that she was a very very respected loved teacher and 24 years of age as i said it's a terrible tragedy for the entire dance community teenage suspect was reported missing yesterday afternoon when he failed to come home from school police found him walking along a highway early this morning as we said he was ordered held without bail today pending a hearing in november chisholm had recently moved to massachusetts from tennessee he was a top goal scorer in the school's soccer team why this happened well that's something for the trial to answer but a student who's in the room with philip and colleen said that as they were talking away colleen happened to mention tennessee and this just snapped phil but she could tell it made him very upset just mentioning it philip would say the same colleen's simply mentioning tennessee would drive him to kill her blaming colleen for what happened to her but that's obviously a lie he brought all of this stuff to school that day i mean what kind of excuse was he looking for i was like really shocked that it was him like i like wouldn't suspect it at all i was like like people say it's always the quiet ones though so like maybe that's why like it could have been like if you had like troubles at home or something but he was nice so i didn't like suspected that much philip was indicted on charges of robbery aggravated rape and armed robbery he pleaded not guilty please rise philip chisholm wanted number 2013-1446-001 judging on the 22nd day of october 2013 at danvers in the county of essex did assault me calling ritza with the intent to murder her and by such assault and being did kill and murder said calling ritza let's say you start to this indictment guilty i'm not guilty not killed not guilty around 1 000 people attended colleen's funeral philip was tried as an adult in salem in 2015. tried as an adult due to the horrificness of the crime itself like that's real serial killer type shite right not only that hell right when he was in the youth facility a waiting trial he attacked a female guard with a sharpened pencil she was like only just saved by the other guards so there that's yeah that's more shite five fifteen-year-old philip chism attacked a female staffer the assault eerily similar to the deadly attack last fall on danvers high math teacher colleen ritzer at the detention center sources say surveillance video shows chism following a female worker into a staff locker room carrying what appears to be a pencil the woman says chism came at her and began choking her as she screamed for help he started punching her within seconds staff members rushed in to help and restrained chism she was not seriously injured phillip was chism was under a lot of stress when he started at danvers he had lost his entire support system he was away from his best friend he had lost the carter family he had lost his soccer coach he had lost all the support of a close-knit community in clarksville tennessee and he came to danvers where he knew practically no one and how to start as a freshman in high school and deal with all the social economic economic social emotional demands of being a young teen starting high school the real work of this case is to figure out the terrible landscape of a young boy's mind the defense said he was mentally ill he was in the trolls of psychosis and wasn't responsible for his actions he had been triggered by colleen by simply mentioning tennessee a painful reminder and so this child killed her horrifically and ladies and gentlemen let's be clear he didn't have a good plan for getting away with this he's 14 years old we agree with that not a lot of long-term thinking and he had a accomplished already the one thing he really wanted to accomplish in those woods i am not going to stand here and tell you there is nothing wrong with philip chism how could i but i am going to submit that there is overwhelming evidence in this case beyond any reasonable doubt that philip chisholm was not suffering from a mental disease or defect on october 22nd of 2013 that philip chism knew right from wrong and could choose right from wrong he did it repeatedly over the course of that afternoon he just didn't do it when it mattered he had a goal a terrible terrible purpose and he played it out in the woods and he didn't care what came after that this was colleen ritzer this is columbus this is the colleen ritzer who was alone in that bathroom in those woods with phillip chism not a mentally ill child not someone powerless to voices in his head the only person powerless in those bathroom in those woods is colleen ritzer the prosecution said said no there was no mental illness he planned everything out the evidence is there and he knew exactly what he was doing he was an angry person who just wanted to lash out there were never any real warning signs in philip's past his parents their split obviously traumatized him but other than that nothing has ever really been pointed to that you know would cause him to do this a psychologist would determine that any mental illness philip had he was faking it or at the very least faking the extent of it the jury found philip guilty of what is of what is one of the most disturbing crimes i've come across especially from someone so young the defendant was quiet polite athletic and had no prior criminal record then on october 22nd 2013 he carefully and deliberately prepared to kill his math teacher he viciously brutally and senselessly attacked colleen in the girl's bathroom just feet from the classroom where she was in her second year of living her dream of being a teacher when the defendant was finished in the bathroom he put colleen ritzer inside her recycle bin wheeled her to the woods and pulled up her shirt exposing her breasts the year after he spread her legs and inserted a large tree branch inside pauline richard was found dead hours later after a frantic search by law enforcement the jury found to a moral certainty that the defendant killed colleen ritzer and that he was criminally responsible for her murder the court will impose a sentence in this case without emotion passion sympathy or pity no amount of prison time would ever be enough to be commensurate with this crime and no math will ever erase the reality that this crime was committed by a 14 year old boy he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years and also two 40-year terms to run concurrently for the other charges rape and robbery the court will impose the mandatory life sentence for the murder of colleen ritzer and set a parole eligibility date of 25 years the highest level our law allows this court will impose a concurrent sentence of 40 years 40 years in one day for the rape of colleen ritzer and a concurrent sentence of 40 years to 40 years in one day for the armed he won't be getting out this case is horrific definitely up there and the ones you know i've covered at least colleen seemed like such a beautiful spirit i mean you can now go on to her twitter account it's still there and she just wanted to excite and inspire people about uh you know matt's to be fair she had her work cut out for her her memory isn't forgotten though and philip that's that's definitely serial killer in the making type stuff you can only imagine what he would get up to if he was you know able to be out and about when he did that when he was fort a child sheesh what a happy halloween in salem thank you so much for watching i really appreciate you taking the time to watch this whole video sure go on i'll see as always real soon in the next one till then please take care of yourselves like you

Channel: That Chapter

Views: 716,541

Rating: 4.9482417 out of 5

Keywords: that chapter, colleen ritzer, philip chism

Id: Qd8EH0Q_vKQ

Length: 22min 40sec (1360 seconds)

Published: Fri May 14 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/aledeschia]

I was out of town so I now I have 2 episodes to watch. Get the popcorn ready and let’s give it a gooooo

[u/throw8me8beautiful]

The first episode I couldn't watch all the way through. Such a tragic situation.

[u/publicdefacation]

I wonder if doing research and reading about these crimes effects Mike. Should Mike do other type of videos like mysteries or some other stuff he use to do

[u/Irishinfernohead]

She looked almost exactly like my ex... This video broke my heart. That poor poor woman. It was really hard to watch this video. I think I might need to take a break from watching true crime.

[u/jlcockerton]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ThatChapter/comments/kqs8tk/the_murder_of_colleen_ritzer/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf I CALLED IT!!! :D

[u/Specialist_Sell9320]

Im waiting all of 2021 so far until june to watch mike's videos so that I can have a marathon weekend ! They are strangely fascinating and spook the hell out of me at 🌃 ! ... Very reminiscing of "Unsolved Mysteries" ... Keep chugging them out Mike !

[u/Specialist_Sell9320]

Ps. Mike from Dublin , you should do an interview so we can know you better...