Original subtitles

to punish the defendant for this unspeakable murder more than the law

Sentencing a human being to prison comes with a solemn obligation to craft a

sentence no more or less than justice requires.

This inexact process is central to the maintenance of our social compact and

part of the core of the concept of ordered liberty.

This court will impose the mandatory life sentence for the murder of Colleen

Ritzer and set a parole...

Danvers,

Massachusetts. Home to around 27 ,000 people.

Originally known as Salem Village, Danvers has quite a history and is

with various landmarks and tourist hotspots.

It's probably most well known for its association with the 1692 Salem Witch

Trials before the town was renamed Danvers years later.

This particular case begins in Danvers High School in 2013.

24 -year -old Colleen Elizabeth Ritzer had been at Danvers High School for

a year and taught 9th grade algebra.

She was born to Tom and Peggy Ritzer and had two younger siblings.

They all described her as positive and optimistic, with a big heart and a

genuine passion for helping people.

Family was everything to Colleen and people said she cherished every moment

spent with them.

Colleen knew from a young age that teaching was what she had to do.

Her passion for teaching and learning was infectious, and she often started

classes with inspirational quotes or pictures.

She was very active on social media, posting puzzles and games to help her

students learn, and people said she would always find time to help anyone

struggling with their studies.

Many of her students said they didn't even like mathematics until they had

Colleen as a teacher, but her unique style, positive outlook and willingness

help anyone finding things tough meant she quickly proved very popular with

students.

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013.

As the school day drew to a close and the building started to empty, Colleen

finishing up some bits in her room.

She left her classroom, A209, and briefly spoke to another teacher in the

hallway before heading to the second floor bathroom just before 3pm.

At 6 .30pm that day, a frantic parent filed a missing persons report.

Diana Chisholm's 14 -year -old son was missing and he attended Danvers High

School.

Philip Chisholm was a quiet and reserved teen who had recently moved from

Tennessee with his mother after his parents' divorce.

He excelled in sports but kept to himself where everything else was

and he socialised with few of the other children at his new school.

Mike Chase, the coach from Danvers High School, had also received word that

Philip hadn't turned up to practice and had missed the team meal too.

Three hours later at 9pm, Danvers High School Principal Sue sent a mass email

all school faculty and staff, informing them that their 14 -year -old student

was missing.

Shortly after this email was sent, another math teacher called Sarah phoned

Colleen Ritzer's parents had just contacted her to ask if she had seen

daughter, as Colleen appeared to be missing too.

Colleen lived with her parents and they were expecting her home hours ago.

Colleen's father Tom had already gone looking for his daughter at the school,

but ended up driving home without seeing her.

He noted her car was still in its parking spot, but couldn't find her

school.

Tom said he was so proud of her, and all he wanted to do was tell her how

exciting it was to see her new classroom.

The more time ticked by, the more everyone was starting to worry for both

missing teacher and students.

Danvers High School had been shut for ages.

and there would be no reason for either of them to still be there.

The teacher Sarah also informed Sue that Philip had actually been in Colleen's

last class that day, and it seemed too coincidental that they were now both

missing at the same time.

Sue and a few other teachers went to the school to look for the pair, but they

couldn't see them anywhere.

Colleen's classroom seemed to be just as she'd left it, but they noted all her

belongings were missing.

and her car was still in its spot.

At 11 .20pm, with still no word from their daughter, the anxious Ritzers

officially reported Colleen as missing to the Danvers police.

Detectives quickly had her cell phone provider ping the location of her phone,

and her phone's last known location was around 24 minutes away on foot from

Danvers High School.

They also pinged Philip's phone.

His phone, however, was traced to a nearby cinema, Hollywood Hits Theatre.

But when the police arrived, he was no longer there.

Searches were now underway in and around the school and, to everyone's concern,

Colleen's purse was soon found in the surrounding area.

It was empty and her cards and ID were gone.

A search of the school found red -brown stains on the second -floor bathroom.

At 12 .30am on what was now October 23rd, police were notified that a

was walking alone in the southbound lane on Route 1 North at Salem Lane in

Topsfield.

Topsfield police soon realised it was the missing Philip Chisholm.

The 14 -year -old was patted down and police found a knife on him.

Following this, they took him to Topsfield Police Station where his

searched. It was here that officers found a bloodied box cutter, Killeen's

credit cards and driver's licence.

They also found underwear, which would later be confirmed to be Colleen's too.

Philip told officers he innocently found all the items lying around at a stop

and shop and just decided to pick them up.

He then said he stole them from a car.

So where did the blood on the box cutter come from, officers asked.

The girl, he finally said.

He calmly told police that the woman was in the woods and was beyond help.

Philip was then taken to Danvers Police Station where he later met with his

mother. It was noted that his demeanour then quickly changed and he asked to

talk to officers without his mother present.

He was placed under arrest.

While Philip was being interviewed, at around 3am a couple of hours later, a

devastating discovery was made.

Kalimritz's body was found near the school in the wooded area.

She had been stabbed, strangled and raped.

She was naked from the waist down.

and her top had been pulled up and her bra pulled down.

Next to her body was a handwritten note saying, I hate you all.

She was posed in what was referred to by police as a sexually suggestive

position and had been violated with a tree branch which was still inside her.

About 20 yards from her body was a large recycling bin, some bloody gloves and

clothing. But what had happened that led to this?

The school and surrounding area had over 100 security cameras and police began

the painstaking task of analysing all of them.

The footage on them would soon reveal a horrific and disturbing series of

events.

Another student in Colleen's last class that day recalled that after the lesson

had finished, she saw Philip and Colleen talking.

Colleen had spotted Philip drawing during the class and asked him to stay a

little later to help him do some more prep for an upcoming test.

The student said that while Colleen and Philip were chatting, she mentioned

Tennessee in a passing comment, the state that Philip had left a few months

before.

At the mention of this, he became visibly upset and started muttering to

himself.

As soon as Colleen noticed this, she quickly changed the subject, but it

seem to make a difference.

Shortly after the pair finished talking, Colleen left the classroom, heading for

the second floor bathroom.

A minute later, Philip Chisholm started to follow her.

He put his hood up and put on some gloves.

He walked behind her into the bathroom.

He then strangled her, stabbed her 16 times with a box cutter and raped her.

At 3 .06pm a female student entered the same bathroom.

She told investigators she saw the back of a person who appeared to be changing.

The person's rear was exposed and the clothes were piled on the floor.

Not wanting to disturb whoever it was she thought was changing, she quickly

turned and left.

Philip then left the bathroom.

Over the next few minutes he ran in and out of the school building.

eventually returning to the classroom and fetching his and some of Colleen's

belongings.

He puts on a black ski mask before bumping into another student and taking

mask off.

At 3 .14 he pulled a recycling bin into the bathroom and put Colleen inside it.

He put his black ski mask back on and pulled the bin into a lift before

it out towards the student parking lot.

When he got Colleen into the woods using the bin, he sexually assaulted her with

a three -foot -long tree branch before leaving her body on the ground,

clothed, covered in sticks and leaves.

At 3 .30pm, the mother of another student saw Philip running near the

She relayed this information to the principal at about 6pm that day, around

same time Diana had reported him missing.

Philip then returned to the building about half an hour later with blood on

jeans and without his shoes.

He changed his clothes.

Heading back into the second floor bathroom one more time.

and stayed on site for a while longer, skipping his after -school sports

practice.

He then left the building completely.

He went straight to the cinema and purchased a ticket for a 4 .30pm film

showing. He left at around 6pm, and then used Colleen's credit card at the

nearby Wendy's.

Near the cinema, police later found both Philip and Colleen's smashed phones.

indicating that Philip had destroyed Colleen's phone near the school

surroundings, which is why her phone's last known location was there.

The pathologist said there were two causes of death, asphyxiation and the 16

stab wounds to the neck, three of which hit major blood vessels.

They said it was not possible to say which killed her, but the pathologist

that she believed the asphyxiation happened first because the knife wounds

the neck were so severe it would have been too difficult to strangle her after

stabbing her.

Asphyxia by strangulation as well as the sharp force injuries are both lethal in

their own right and separately.

I couldn't be certain, again, we talked about the sequence with which injuries

occur, I couldn't be certain whether the asphyxia occurred and then the decedent

lived through that episode, therefore I combined them as essentially a hybrid

cause of death.

Medical examiners believe Killeen was likely still alive when Philip dragged

body into the woods behind the school.

and subjected her to the horrific sexual assault with the tree branch.

A professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School said cases such as these

were off the charts rare.

I personally have never seen anything like this in the hundreds of cases I've

had and the thousands of cases I've supervised, he said.

We're also working developing news tonight in a shocking high school

this afternoon. A Massachusetts teenager was arraigned on charges that he

robbed, raped, and murdered his high school math teacher.

Eyewitness News anchor Shannon Heggie joins us now live with the developing

details.

Mike, 14 -year -old Philip Chisholm said next to nothing during today's

arraignment except to plead not guilty to murdering 24 -year -old Colleen

Ritzer. We'll take a stretch of this indictment. Guilty or not guilty?

Guilty.

Those were the only words to come out of the mouth of Philip Chisholm at Salem

Superior Court.

The 14 -year -old is charged with murder, aggravated rape, and armed

the October 22nd killing of Danvers High School math teacher Colleen Ritzer. Her

body was discovered in the woods near the school with her throat slit and a

reading, quote, I hate you all.

Prosecutors have not yet released a motive for the killing.

Chisholm was ordered held without bail and is due back in court for a pretrial

hearing on January 30th.

Despite the overwhelming amount of evidence, including Philip's partial

admission, he pled not guilty.

In Massachusetts, anyone 14 years old or above who is charged with murder is

automatically tried as an adult.

Philip was tried as an adult on the murder charge and as a youth offender on

charges of armed robbery and aggravated rape.

While he was awaiting trial, Philip attacked a youth services worker.

He followed her into a locker room.

where he choked and beat her before other workers intervened. The worker

suffered injuries to her face, jaw, neck and back, and Chisholm then faced

further charges and a separate trial for attempted murder in this case.

His trial in Colleen Ritzer's case, however, began in 2015.

Philip's lawyers did not dispute Philip killing Colleen, but argued that it

happened during a psychotic episode that had been triggered by Colleen

mentioning the word Tennessee to him.

On this basis, they asked for the jury to find him not guilty by reason of

insanity.

Defence attorney Denise Reagan said that Philip's family also had a history of

mental health issues and that he likely suffered from them too from an early

age. A psychiatrist that testified for the defence also said that Philip

probably has early -onset schizophrenia and that this also accounted for his

actions.

So what is this case about?

This case is about why did this happen?

Why did a 14 -year -old boy, well -behaved,

quiet, one month into high school, do these terrible things?

The answer is he was severely mentally ill. He had been suffering from a

psychotic disorder since the age of 10.

Now, at the end of the day in 2015, did you reach a diagnosis for Philip

Chisholm? I did. And what was that diagnosis?

I made two diagnoses. One was a depressive state, best described in my

major depressive state, and another was a brief or transient psychotic episode.

Now, in forming your diagnosis, what did you rely on?

I relied on my clinical observations, the observations of the clinical team.

I had available to me two psychological reports done early in the fall.

But a doctor who testified for the prosecution argued that Philip was not

psychotic and that his symptoms were inconsistent.

And Dr.

Heaven, what were the results of Philip Chisholm's MMPI for adolescence?

The results suggested that it was likely invalid because his F minus K

scale was excessively elevated and suggested that he was attempting

to fake bad and to demonstrate that he was severely

mentally ill.

He was attempting to demonstrate that he was severely mentally ill. Is that

correct? Correct.

I interviewed Philip Chisholm.

On a number of occasions between July and October 3rd of this year for a total

of approximately 13 hours, I'm first looking for whether or not there is

evidence of a mental disease or defect as it's understood under the law.

I then look to see whether or not if there was a mental disease or defect,

is evidence that the defendant was substantially impaired in their ability

either appreciate the wrongfulness or criminality of their act or to conform

their conduct to the requirements of law.

So I'm essentially marching through the legal standard, trying to put the

information and evidence that I have into this.

kind of logical progression.

And with respect to whether Philip Chisholm was suffering a mental disease

defect on October 22nd of 2013, did you reach an opinion to a reasonable degree

of psychological certainty?

I did. What was that opinion?

My opinion is that on the date of the alleged offense, Mr. Chisholm was not

suffering from a mental disease or defect.

And did you reach an opinion to a reasonable degree of psychological

as to whether he understood the wrongfulness of his conduct and could

his conduct to the requirements of the law.

I did reach an opinion on that.

What was that opinion?

My opinion was that although Mr. Chisholm at the time may have been

indications of distress or emotional disturbance,

that to the extent to which they were present, they did not substantially

his capacity to distinguish the wrongfulness or criminality of his act

identify that, nor did it substantially impair his ability to conform his

conduct to the requirements of law.

They said that it was obvious that Philip had planned the attack in

he already brought a ski mask, gloves and a box cutter to school that day.

and this was not a psychotic break based on the conversation they had had in the

classroom.

Philip's defence lawyers also fought hard for him to be acquitted of the

assault in the woods.

They disagreed with medical examiners, saying that they thought Colleen had

already died by the time the assault with the tree branch happened, meaning

Philip should be acquitted of that part of the crime on that basis alone.

I told you at the beginning of this case, It's not in question who did these

terrible acts.

And the evidence has borne me out.

The defense acknowledges the enormity of this task and thanks you for

your commitment to this.

The evidence is clear that Philip Chisholm has suffered from a psychotic

disorder, most likely early -onset schizophrenia, from the time he was

Now, what's the evidence of that?

Well, first you have the testimony of three experienced psychiatrists. Ladies

and gentlemen, the terrible, horrible event of October 22, 2013 didn't unfold

a screen capture.

They didn't unfold in a still image.

They happened in real time, in real life, in a place, at a time.

at Danvers High School in the middle of what should have been a normal day in

the middle of the afternoon.

And make no mistake, they didn't happen to Philip Chisholm.

He did these terrible things to Colleen Ritzer, and she was only 24

years old.

And the only still image that matters in this case is the image of

Colleen in the woods.

The image that the defendant painted of Colleen, strict, battered,

brutalized and violated.

Life sentences without parole for juveniles have been found to be

unconstitutional in Massachusetts.

And, under separate decisions made by the U .S. Supreme Court and the

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Philip could not be sentenced to life

without the possibility of parole for murder.

When something terrible happens, people will often say it could always be worse.

It is difficult for this court to imagine what could be worse for an

or a family to endure than the brutal and senseless murder of Colleen Ritzer.

Colleen Ritzer lived a life of quiet heroism.

That's what most teachers do.

Henry Adams observed that a teacher affects eternity.

She can never tell where her influence starts.

Colleen Richer's parents, more than most, have learned the reach of their

daughter's influence, but at a cost no parent should have to endure.

While the extent or lack of extent of the defendant's mental health was the

subject of exhaustive testimony at trial, the Commonwealth presented

overwhelming evidence that the defendant had substantial capacity.

to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct and have the substantial

to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. I will punish

defendant for the murder of Colleen Ritzer and I will punish him for the

well as the armed robbery of the underpants she put on in the morning of

death. But I may not utilize the horrific rape and robbery of Colleen

punish the defendant for this unspeakable murder.

more than the law allows.

This 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 to 40 years and one

for the rape of Colleen Ritzer and a concurrent sentence of 40 years to 40

and one day for the armed robbery.

In imposing a sentence for the rape at a date in excess of the parole

eligibility date for the murder, the court is not suggesting

that the rape, as heinous as it was, was more egregious than the murder.

Rather, this court is constitutionally obligated to set a parole date no more

than 25 years for her murder.

While Colleen Rich's rape and murder were inextricably intertwined, this

may not punish the defendant with more prison time for the rape than justice

demands for the purposes of avoiding constitutional limitations imposed by

Massachusetts Declaration of Rights as interpreted by a Supreme Judicial Court

for the murder committed by a juvenile.

Sentence may be imposed.

Ultimately, the jury rejected the insanity defence that Philip Chisholm's

lawyers had put forward and found him guilty.

Because the judge also imposed concurrent sentences of 40 years for

years for armed robbery, this means he will not actually be able to apply for

parole until he is in his 50s.

Philip was, however, acquitted of the second count of rape committed using the

tree branch in the woods.

During the 10 hours of deliberations, This was the only question juries had

had to ask the judge to clarify this.

Defence attorneys argued that Colleen was dead when she was in the woods and

when Chisholm violated her with the branch.

A medical examiner said they couldn't say with certainty that she had died by

this point.

Jurors ultimately believed she was no longer alive at this point and

Massachusetts law requires a live victim to convict someone of rape.

Unlike other states,

Massachusetts doesn't have a law against abuse of a corpse.

Philip Chisholm was placed in a state juvenile detention facility and will

there until he turns 21.

He will then be sent to a state prison.

This high school math teacher will be back in court this morning. The 16 -year

-old is facing attempted murder charges for attacking a youth worker while he

was awaiting trial. Fox 25's Michael Henrich, live outside Juvenile Court in

downtown Boston with more on the story for us. Good morning, Michael.

Good morning. This is the first time we'll see Philip Chisholm since that

verdict in the trial, the murder trial, regarding victim Colleen Ritzer. This

court hearing is happening here at Suffolk County Juvenile Court on that

attempted murder charge that he tried to kill a Department of Youth Services

worker in Dorchester while awaiting trial.

Philip's mother reached out to the Ritzer family and said...

Words can't express the amount of pain and sorrow these past two and a half

years have been.

However, there is no one who has suffered more than the Ritzer family.

My utmost esteem, prayers and humble respect is with them today as they

their journey to heal.

Tom Ritzer said, It makes me sick to know that I walked the same halls as her

killer. It makes me sick to know I drove by her in the woods and drove home.

Peggy said she often has to stay isolated from people because pretending

happy is so difficult.

Colleen Ritzer loved nothing more than inspiring and supporting people,

them and helping them to learn and grow.

The difference Colleen made to so many people's lives was clear by the

outpouring of heartfelt messages following her passing.

Over 1 ,000 people turned out to pay their respects at Colleen's funeral and

hundreds of students and teachers participated in numerous vigils and

community events to celebrate her life.

Her family established the Colleen E. Ritzer Memorial Scholarship in her

which, since October 2013, has awarded over $370 ,000 in college scholarships

82 future teachers.

One of Colleen's friends also started the Kindness for Colleen campaign.

This encourages everyone to perform random acts of kindness on October 22nd

year and share them on social media.

A beautiful and fitting tribute for the kind, positive and compassionate Colleen

Ritzer.