14-Year-Old Student Charged With Murdering Math Teacher
In the second violent school crime this week, a 14-year-old boy was arrested and charged with murdering a 24-year-old math teacher, whose body was found in the woods behind their Boston-area school early Wednesday morning.
The teacher, Colleen Ritzer, was reported missing late last night after she failed to return home from her job at Danvers High School, located about 20 miles from Boston. As police searched the school for Ritzer, they found blood in a second floor bathroom and discovered her body in nearby woods.
“She was a very, very, respected, loved teacher. It’s a terrible tragedy for the entire Danvers community,” Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said at a press conference Wednesday morning.
"She always wanted to teach math," a neighbor, Mary Duffy, told the Boston Herald. "She was a quiet, pleasant girl with many friends."
Ritzer was active on Twitter, where she would assign homework, interact with students and show support for Boston sports teams.
Philip Chism, a freshman at Danvers High, was arrested shortly after midnight when police found him walking along a highway. He'd been reported missing Tuesday night after he failed to show at his soccer team's dinner. According to several students who spoke to the Boston Globe, Chism was leading scorer on the school's JV soccer team.
@stacos better pic of Missing Child Philip Chism Missing 14 YO Male pic.twitter.com/YpvJdHwn6f
— Danvers Police Dept (@DanversPolice) October 23, 2013
Blodget, the district attorney, did not release any information about the relationship between Ritzer and Chism or how Ritzer was killed.
All seven public schools in Danvers were closed for the day. "We are all terrified. It’s very scary,” said Caitlin McBride, a junior at Danvers High, told the Boston Globe. “No one will ever look at this school the same way anymore."