Danvers High teacher was not only murdered but was brutally raped with a tree branch

Danvers, Mass., 14-year-old accused of raping — and murdering — high school teacher Colleen Ritzer:

One of the stories I’ve been woefully behind on is the murder of 24-year-old Colleen Ritzer, a teacher at Danvers High School in Danvers, Massachusetts. If being murdered by one of your 14-year-old students and having your body dumped in the woods naked from the waist down wasn’t bad enough now it’s been revealed that Philip Chism not only allegedly killed her by slashing her throat with a box cutter but he supposedly robbed and raped her as well.

Chism’s grand jury indictment revealed that he is believed to have robbed Ms. Ritzer of credit cards, her iPhone and her underwear. Chism is believed to have violated her with an object. The object in question is said to have been a tree branch. He is also said to have left a note by her body that said “I hate you all” which still remains unexplained.

Some seem to think that it was Ms. Ritzer’s mentioning the state of Tennessee to Chism, which made him visibly upset, as possibly the motive in her murder. Chism has moved to Mass. from Tennessee while his parents were going through a divorce.

Chism is facing the murder charge as an adult but the rape and robbery charges as a juvenile. More than likely those charges will be upgraded to adult status as well.

Chism has pleaded not guilty. I haven’t heard of what the defense will be but I would bet it will be the old standard of “He’s not an adult and doesn’t have a fully functioning brain” bullcrap. I don’t believe the brains of 14-year-olds are that easily pushed towards violence. If they were we would be seeing a lot more crimes like this than we do.

As it should be Chism is being held without bail.