Sword and Scale - Episode 88

Episode Date: April 24, 2017

When a 14 year old boy named Philip Chism goes missing in the middle of a school day, his mother thinks the worst and calls 911. Little does she know, that her son isn't the only missing person from Danvers High School that day. A 24-year-old math teacher is missing also. She is Phillip's teacher which raises some immediate questions, but after finally solving a mishap with the school's 140-camera security system, police are able to come up with a theory as to what happened that day. Another big clue, of course, is the body in the woods. Colleen E. Ritzer was a 24-year-old math teacher at Danvers High School. She had a warm smile and love of teaching. Some of her friends would later say that she was "born to do this job." However, no one could have imaged the darkness that would shroud the school on that particular day, and when all is said and done we are all left with the nagging question of "why?"See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sort and scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences listener discretion is advised The leptism had a box card The leptism wanted to use that box card Welcome to Season 4, Episode 88 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst This is part two of a two-part story, so if this is your first time listening, go back and listen episode 87 first before we spoil it for you. Last time on Sword and Scale, we dove into a mystery. A 14-year-old boy goes missing after school, and at the same time, a math teacher from the same high school is reported missing as well.

Hours later, a body is discovered in the woods. But what on earth could possibly turn a young high school student, who everyone says is polite and well-mannered, talented, friendly, and athletic, to suddenly, without provocation, become a monster. We're going to try and dissect that answer today, and to do so, we're joined by Boston Globe reporter Maria Kramer. Stay with us. Ladies and gentlemen, the terrible, horrible event of October 20, 2013 didn't unfold in a screen capture. They didn't unfold in a still image. They happened in real time, in real

life at Danvers High School, in the middle of what should have been a normal day in the middle of the afternoon. And to make no mistake, they didn't happen to Philip Chisholm. He did these terrible things to callingeen 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 stripped, battered, brutalized, and violated, framed by the fallen fence, the defendant's school bag discarded nearby with his ID, like some kind of terrible signature. That is the only still image in this case that tells you what was happening in the mind

of Philip Chisholm on October 22nd, 2013. This is Sarah Giacuenta. Good morning, ma'am. Can you please state your first and last names for the jury? Sarah Giacuenta? She's the wife of Andrew Giacuenta, who found Colleen's body. She was also a math teacher whose classroom was across the hall from Colleen's. And were there a number of math new math teachers that year in September of 2012?

Yes, there were four of us. And who were those four? Colleen Ritzer, Todd Butterworth, Christopher Carlson and myself. She and Colleen started working together at Danvers High School and became good friends. And how often during the school day would you see Colleen? Quite a few times, four or five, maybe more. Under what circumstances would you see miss Ruther during the day? Just check-ins usually at the beginning of the school day to say hello.

We would have lunch together. Sometimes in between classes, if we had a moment, usually during a free block, if we had one together, we would spend it together. The day Colleen was murdered, they had come to work wearing the same outfit. It was dressed like your friend day for Spirit Week, Black Pants, and a Purple shirt. And what were you wearing? Black pants and a purple-ish shirt. Okay. Dr. Anna McDonald, a forensic pathologist for Wake Forest University, would later testify

how Colleen's clothes were found. In this particular case did you take note of what clothing Ms. Ritzor was wearing when she arrived at the medical examiner's office? I did. That's part of an external examination. Okay. It would be fair to say she was partially closed when she arrived at the medical examiner's office. I did, that's part of an external examination. Okay. It would be fair to say she was partially closed when she arrived. That's correct. Was there anything that no of how those two shirts, the purpose butter and the white tank

top were arranged on this, or when she arrived at the Army's office? They were both pulled above her breasts. Something had gone wrong that day. Just minutes after Sarah and Colleen had spoken in the hallway. When does the regular school day end, meaning the actual classes that students were required to attend? 155. When you arrived at Colleen's classroom, what happened?

There were two students in there, and we started to talk, and I asked if we could go across the hall to another room where there weren't any students so that we could continue to talk. Inside Colleen's classroom there were two students, the girl and a boy. In fact, did you linger in the hall for any amount of time? Yes. At some point did you ask her whether she needed to get back to her classroom? Yes. And specifically what if anything did she tell you about the girl in her classroom? She said that the girl was just back to her classroom. Yes. And specifically, what if anything did she tell you about the girl in her classroom? She said that the girl was just drawing on her board. And did she make any specific statement

about why the boy in her classroom was there? She said, I don't know why he is here. One of the various cameras picks up the two teachers talking in the hallway, not realizing what's about to come Mr. Yakwantab was Miss Ritzert demeanor the whole time you were talking to her that afternoon essentially as it is in that video Yes, did you hear from her at all over the course of that afternoon? No at some point did you hear from someone regarding her? Yes, who was that? her mom as a result of hearing from

Peg Ritzert what if anything did you do? I told her I would go to the high school and see if Colleen's car was still there. At some point where you shown some video of a male going into the girls' room. Yes. Who did you recognize that person as? Philip Shism. Did you recognize him as the person you had seen in Colleen's classroom that afternoon? Yes. The 140 cameras in the school documented the whole incident. It filmed Colleen talking to her friend and colleague Sarah for a few minutes in the hallway. talking to her friend and colleague Sarah for a few minutes in the hallway.

Then she goes inside her classroom and minutes later, at 2.54pm, she comes back out of her classroom and walks down the hallway towards the women's bathroom. Seconds later, Philip Chisholm walks out into the hallway, then ducks back into the classroom. He reappears a second later with his hoodie on and follows Colleen. Then he gets to the bathroom door and he waits as he dons a pair of gloves. Philip Chisholm walking down the hall just a minute before Colleen Richard's class interacting with his classmates, acting like a normal teenage boy, and Philipsism after spending some time in his locker, going to Colleen Richard's classroom,

wearing a red sweatshirt, and carrying one of those drawstring bags. They didn't contain his soccer clothes, because his plan after school was not soccer. In these videos ladies and gentlemen, that we've seen many times of calling the bathroom. The look to his own coming is the hall looking both ways, making his way down the hall as he crosses the stairwell, he slows his pace.

So he won't catch up with Colleen before she's in the bathroom, completely vulnerable, completely unaware, dawning those gloves. You'll see when you watch the video on a smaller screen, that even now he hesitates in the doorway of the bathroom as if listening for something, to make sure she's completely unaware. It's inconceivable to think of how this crime could have occurred in a school in the middle of the day

But it's not like it went without a hitch In fact, Philip Chisholm was practically caught red-handed Approximately 11 minutes then went by where there was no footage of those bathrooms. Is that crap? Yes Less than a minute has in fact a matter of, goes by before the video between that young woman entering and her exiting. Is that correct? That's correct. The young woman's name is Danielle Bedar,

and she walks in on what she thinks is consensual sex between students. And we know Philipsism didn't get to finish when he started in the bathroom, because we know he was interrupted by Danielle Bidard. Danielle Bidard, who at the 11-minute mark walks in, sees what I would suggest he were Philip Chidam's naked butt and walks out. Followed almost immediately by Philip Chidam.

Philip then exits the bathroom and goes downstairs. That is when he is spotted in the bushes, hiding something. So he gets the recycling barrel. Because that's the one way to get calm units out of that school and to attack it, and into the woods to finish what he started. Philip Chism is seen using the elevators, which are usually off limits to students. Who is allowed to use the elevators typically during the day? Typically they're going to need any teachers that need to use them. Any students that may be injured, crutches or any type of injuries that may need to use them,

that can't use the stairs. If there were any type of deliveries for the school and they had large packages, let's say, they would typically use the elevators. But students are not able-bodied students are not typically supposed to be using the elevator track. That's correct. He needed the elevators because he was transporting a large recycle bin, one large

enough to fit a human body. And he makes his way purposely back to the girls' room and he spends another six minutes in the girls' room getting Colleen into that barrel. There are drag marks of blood on her legs. It's been nine minutes since Danielle Boudard entered the bathroom until the chiseled enters with the barrel. Only nine minutes, not an hour and a half. 9 minutes that she'd lie in there bleeding from her injuries. And now the barrel is clearly heavier. Philip Chisholm alternates between using his ski mask and not using it.

The defense will later point to this as a radic behavior that proves mental illness. But the prosecution has another theory. He's a teenager, and it's Danvers High School in the prosecution has another theory. He's a teenager. And it's Danvers High School in the middle of the day. No one's first thought is, I bet he's wearing a ski mask and carrying a recycling barrel because he's murdered a teacher and he's moving her out of the school.

You look at funny, weird things a teenager's wearing and you think, is that the latest style? You don't think I bet he murdered a teacher. He had the advantage of time and place. As he moved calling directly out of the school building, down the sidewalk, past a man who's too busy with his phone to even up, and makes his way back behind the field house where Emily

Roach will see him. Emily Roach who didn't think anything of it because she thought it was a custodian moving fall waste. And he tries to access the woods in that farmer remote location. That's where the tractor practices ladies and gentlemen. That's where the cross country team was running but he thinks better of it he can't get the barrel up there so we eventually turns around and comes back and he enters the woods across from the school you saw the aerial photographs ladies and gentlemen what the foliage was like in October of 2013 and I would suggest you he was pretty protected in those woods

It's been 25 minutes since he left the bathroom the first time once again Dr. Anna McDonald so her body was intact and it seemed to be covered with organic debris So leaves pine needles dirt she had an abrasion or a skin scrape under the right side of her jaw. She had a contusion or a bruise above her left breast, and she also had a contusion or a bruise on the right upper side of her abdomen. And with respect to her extremities, her arms and legs, did you know anything? Yes, so there were two contusions or bruises as well, around her right elbow. There was one right here, sort of on the medial side

of her elbow, and then there was a blue contusion also on the back of her elbow. Moving to the head and face, did you take note of anything on external examination of the head and face? So the head and face had abundant patequia. Patekia are small little pinpoint hemorrhages that are seen on the surface of the skin and in mucosal membranes. So I could see abundant patekia on her face and around her eyes. What do they actually look like to you as you're looking at calling this her face? So they look essentially like

little pinpoint red dots or hemorrhages underneath the skin. And what is the significance to you as a forensic pathologist of Pateeqiai and those locations around the eyes and mouth? It's a red flag to a forensic pathologist to look for evidence of a sphiksia. Colleen's death was brutal. There's obviously a lot of important structures going up and down your neck. Those include arteries taking blood to your brain, veins that drain blood from your head. So we have a bunch of vessels within that area. And when you apply pressure to the neck, the veins collapse first and it kind of creates a high pressure system whereby blood

essentially ruptures out of very small capillaries or small blood vessels around the face in the eyes and in the mouth. And is that what creates those pinpoint areas you can see? That is correct, yes. In terms of doing a further examination for evidence of asphyxia, did you do that ultimately with respect to misrids or what else do you look for? In cases of asphyxia or where you suspect asphyxia, a dedicated neck dissection is always performed. You can imagine if pressure is being put on your neck, you might get abrasions, skin

scrapes, contusions, or bruises around the neck area. You may also get hemorrhage into the muscles of your neck because there's a lot of muscles that are protecting your neck and allowing us to move our head around. So you're looking for hemorrhages into those muscles as well. Internally, even further, imagine if more pressure is applied, you could actually break the cartilages in your neck as well, the thyroid cartilage and the hyoid bone, all of which were looked for in this specific case. The manner of death was homicide.

Determining the cause of death was a bit more challenging. Were there any challenges to looking for those particular findings in this particular case given other injuries? Yes, what was that? The neck was obscured by a variety of sharp force injuries, so it was difficult to identify hemorrhage of the muscles as related to pressure on the neck or was it related to the sharp force injuries? Did you find any broken or

torn or broken cartilage in the neck that you associated with as fixation? No, I did not. Now you referenced that there was a significant shark force injury to the neck, is that correct? Yes. Did you ultimately document how many shark force injuries you could count on the neck area? I did. And how many was that? So to the neck area there were 12 stab wounds and four incised wounds, and what's the distinction? So when documenting sharp-force injuries, you look at how long they are on the skin surface and how deep they are among other characteristics. And so stab wounds are shorter on the surface of the skin than they are deep, so something that

could be produced by a knife. Insized wounds are essentially an incision, so it is longer on the surface of the skin than they are deep, so something that could be produced by a knife. In sized wounds are essentially an incision, so it is longer on the skin surface than it is deep. 16 wounds to the neck, in a school restroom in the middle of the afternoon. So there was an approximately one by three quarter inch laceration or a skin tear at the vaginal entroitus, which is essentially the opening of the vagina. For some reason, perhaps because of the horrific nature of the injuries, some news outlets that reported Colleen's murder chose not to focus or even mention that she was also sexually assaulted brutally.

It's been 25 minutes since he left the bathroom the first time and he will spend 25 minutes in the woods with Colleen 25 minutes where he isn't interrupted 25 minutes to finish what he started 25 minutes to rape her with that tree branch and let's be clear. It's not a stick It's a branch and the entire tip of it is stained with calling but there's blood and he used that branch to tear at her vaginal tissue. And did you in fact conduct a further examination of that portion of vaginal tissue under a microscope? Yes.

And what if anything, did you observe a significance to you? So what I saw was the mucosa or the surface of the vagina. And then beneath the surface is this connective tissue and I saw some hemorrhage within that connective tissue. And what's the significance to you of seeing the hemorrhage in the tissue? The significance is that there's intact red blood cells. It essentially provides evidence for what I already knew looking at the genitalia on external examination that this injury was sustained around the time of death.

They're a little before, a little little after or during the dying process. How did you characterize the timing of the injury to the vagina? So it is considered a perimordom injury. I can't tell if it happened right before death, right after death or during a dying process, but it happened somewhere in that interval. The dying process would a horrible thing to imagine, much less experience.

The number of wounds and bruises Colleen and Doard was staggering. Dr. Other than the injuries you've already described, the abrasion on the chin, the contusions on the chest and belly, and elbow, the sharp force injuries to the neck and the evidence of a sixia, did you make any other significant findings with respect to your examination and autopsy of Colleen Ritzer? No, I did not. make any other significant findings with respect to your examination and autopsy of Colleen Ritzart? No, I did not.

And in fact, other than those injuries, did she appear to be a healthy female of the reported age of 24? Yes, she did. Dr. Ed's the conclusion of your autopsy as well as the other examinations you did. Did you reach a reasonable opinion to a reasonable degree of medical certainty as to the cause of her death? I did. What was that opinion?

So her cause of death was sharp force injuries of the neck and a sphixia by strangulation. With so many cuts and scrapes and other genetic evidence, surely this is a cut and dry case, isn't it? Well, except for one thing. My name is Vinicio Oclides, I'm a telchiros. This is Vinicio. It works for a cleaning company called SNJ Services that's hired by the high school. They got there around 4.45 in the afternoon. Hours after classes were done and students had

gone home. That's one of the seven workers on the custodial staff. Alerts Venicio that there's something he should see. the second floor women's bathroom and when you opened up the door to that bathroom can you describe to the jurors what you saw when you see a real a part of the year could you describe the world of the city of sangre blood where did you see the blood the view of the sangre the door to the final of the park from the entry through the door until the ¿Dónde vio usted la sangre? De la puerta de entrada hasta el final de la pareja. ¿Dónde la entrada?

Through the door, hasta el end, to the wall. ¿Y dónde fue la sangre? ¿Dónde fue la sangre? ¿Dónde fue la sangre? ¿Dónde fue la sangre? Estaba la sangre en el suelo de la entrada de la parte de atrás? Correcto ¿Y ¿de qué se encuentra la otra vez cuando tú lo entero en la cabeza o en la otra parte de la otra?

¿No te gusta esa sangre en algún otro lugar aparte de suelo? As you can hear, Venicio needs an interpreter. He doesn't speak English. When Venetio went to the management office to alert them that something was wrong in the second floor women's bathroom, something was lost in translation. Because he and his staff were told to clean it. By doing so, a race much of the evidence of a murder. Luckily though, DNA is not that easy to get rid of. ... Did you compare the major profile you obtained from the swab of the red brown stain on the left palm of philipchism and the swab of the red brown stain with flow from the bathroom to the DNA profiles of calling ritzer and philipchism?

I did. And what were your results with respect to the comparison to Colleen Ritzer's DNA profile? The major female profile that I obtained from both those items matched Colleen Ritzer. And what is the statistical frequency of that particular DNA profile that matched that of Colleen Ritzer? So the frequency of the profile obtained from the major, female profiles obtained from

those items were 1 in 49.04 sectillion for the African American population, 1 in 20.53 sectillion of the Asian population, 1 in 22.51 quintillion of the Caucasian population, and one in 248 quintillion of the Hispanic population. A quintillion is a one followed by 18 zeros. I know that's hard to understand. Large numbers are beyond human comprehension. The universe is just too big for us to wrap our tiny little brains around. Think of it this way. The moon is 238,900 miles away. If you were in your car traveling at 60 miles an hour, it would take you 166 days for about 5.5 months to get there. Now, let's say you're traveling somewhere a quintillion miles away.

At 60 miles an hour, it would take you 1,902,587,519 years to get there. You would be dead less than .0000005% of the way there. Are you starting to understand exactly how big these numbers actually are? The likelihood that the brown stain found on philipchism was that of Colleen Ritzer's blood was one in 22.51 quintillion. That's the number we just explained 22 times. In, ma'am, do you know how many people were believed to be on the planet at this point, approximately? Approximately 6.5 billion? And fair to say that billions are less than 6,000,000 quintillions, is that correct? Yes, that's correct.

It would take three Earths of people before you were likely to find someone with the same DNA profile. Polyvritsr was not strangled to death in the bathroom because Philip Chism had a box cutter. Philip Chism wanted to use that box cutter. It's the only reason to bring it into the bathroom. It's the only reason to bring it into the bathroom. It's the only reason to use it as he ultimately did. Philip Chisholm, asphyxiated Colleen Ritzer, to incapacitate her. So that other than whatever contusions she may or may not have gotten in the initial struggle, she was incapacitated

almost immediately. She was helpless. And we know that Philip Tism raped Kroenritz around the bough. There are two sperm cells inside of her. And they are not a match to Philip Tism. They are consistent with his DNA profile at eight locations. The numbers are in the hundreds, not the quintillions that you heard for other evidence. But ladies and gentlemen, once again, this evidence isn't a still a match. It doesn't exist in a vacuum,

because only one man was in that bathroom with Colleen Ritzer, and only one man carried her pants out, and only one man would sexually violate her in the woods, and only one man is caught with his pants down. So, Philip Tism raped Colleen Ritzer in the bathroom. And only one man is caught with his pants down. So, Philip Tism raked calling Ritzert in the bathroom. It's clear that calling was bleeding in the bathroom, bleeding a lot.

Just those injuries on either side of the gaping neckloom would have caused injuries, did cause injuries to our internal and external jugular, would have blood more slowly, but blood, surely leaking into her body and ultimately out of her body, and she lay on the ground in the bathroom. So what does a 14 year old boy do

after raping and killing his math teacher? Why not catch a flick? My name is Vita Parsons. And then part of how are you ongoing? I am employed by AMC theaters. I am the general manager of the Liberty Tree Mall Danvers location. Now, Ma'am, on after October 22, 2013, were you asked to pull footage from your review footage

and pull footage from your theater for the police? Yes. And did you pull footage that depicts what appears to be Philip Kism in your movie theater the afternoon or evening of October 22nd? Yes. He saw gravity with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Good flick. Although some media outlets reported that he saw Woody Allen's blue jasmine instead, I don't think he would have wanted to see that movie. Hell, I don't want to see that movie. Oh, and he also went to Wendy's. Who doesn't love a frosty? My name is Maria Kramer. I'm a reporter at the Boston Globe and I cover crime and I cover courts. We wanted to talk to someone who was there reporting from the trial.

I asked Boston Globe reporter Maria Kramer to tell me more about this boy, Philip Chisholm. Unfortunately, his mother and his father never spoke to the media. And so in terms of what was really going on in Philip Chisholm's world, there's never been a very clear picture of that. But what we know from friends who grew up with him in Clark, South Tennessee, by all accounts, if it was not somebody who was prone to violence, who would go on to do something like this. He was known as sweet polite kid,

loved to skateboard, was good at soccer, like sports, had a girlfriend, they had this very sort of sweet little romance going and he really loved living in Clark's cell tennis team. But it appears that beneath the surface, not everything was going very well. The relationship between children's parents was fraught with problems.

We found court documents that described a pretty unhealthy household and one of the documents that we saw described in his father's access to his children as restricted because of the physical abuse, the sexual abuse, the pattern of emotional abuse. The details of that, I don't know, they didn't come up in court, they weren't really very well laid out But it certainly hints at some serious trouble in this household But whatever baggage Philip carried with him I wasn't obvious to people who knew him at Tennessee Philip Chisholm would later tell police that a trigger word had gotten him angry a

trigger word which Colleen had said in class What was it Tennessee a state. He said, after she insulted me, that's when I became the teacher. So he moved to Tennessee when he was 14 years old. He was very unhappy about it. By all accounts, he did not want to go. He begged his mother to stay.

He was really hoping she'd have a change of heart and when he moved to damper is the boy that people described as having a lot of friends and then we're he would have that kid he didn't have as many friends he still excel but sports there was a bit quieter about them there he definitely did not come out of a shell and it's fair to say that that move was devastating to film

but even in danvers he did have some friends and friends that described him as being cheerful and respectful and a great soccer player and it seems like at some point his mood changed. Yeah, so it's unclear what happened. That's one of the big mysteries of the film to the case. What went wrong here? Because anybody who knew him either in Tennessee or in Denver described what you just described a quiet boy a polite boy and an

athletic boy somebody who likes sports and excelled at them who was a you know leading score on the soccer team and this was somebody who you know by all accounts was perfectly normal there was no reason to fear so what's So what motivates a 14 year old boy to become so violent? Well, that's the big question. One of the things that came up at the trial was his mental state. And this was the subject of much debate during the trial. They were doctors who examined the leftism

after the murder of Colleen Ritzer. And they said that he was in a psychotic state. But essentially, he killed her because there were voices in his head telling him to and that he was helpless to fight them. And he claimed that he'd been hearing these voices since he was a little boy and he only aspired, even to by some account. Of course, prosecutors very aggressively challenged this notion that he could have been get the front egg.

If philipsism didn't start hearing voices when he's 10, then there is no evidence that philipchism began experiencing psychosis at 10. And if philipchism wasn't hearing voices, and the only basis I would suggest to you on that opinion was philipchism, and philipchism isn't mentally ill. Early onset schizophrenia. What did Dr. DeVier tell you and let's be very clear ladies and gentlemen? Dr. DeVier has never met philipchism. Dr. DeVier has never evaluated

philipchism. Dr. DeVier has no opinion about philipchism. Dr. Devere has no opinion about philipchism. And Dr. Devere told you the frequency of early on test gets a front yet is one in 10,000 less than 1%. The thing about mental illness is that not everyone's suffering from mental illness is violent. Not everyone's suffering even from psych psychosis, becomes a murderer. Mental illness can often be used as an excuse for those who commit the ultimate act of violence. And sometimes, in cases like this, the defendant isn't mentally ill at all. And they said that it's also very possible that a chiseled was malignant, in another warrant exaggerating or even making up symptoms of a mental illness to try to excuse what

he did. Day two of Philip Chism's murder trial. And this happens. He's unable to discuss the path of potential of the wave in his past with chemical or wound. He's shaking, he's twitching, he's mumbling. And he said he is about to explode, and he doesn't want to hurt anyone.

Well, my concern, quite frankly, Ms. Rieganis, we obviously have been down this road before. I've read through the competency evaluation with some care, and it's clear to me from that evaluation that the defendant was competent and that his conduct at that time based on what I read was rather a refusal as opposed to an inability to consult with counsel and to understand the nature of the charges. And my concern is that the situation is no different

here. Given that he's a 16-year-old, a juvenile, being tried in Superior Court, he's not an adult. This is a very stressful situation and he does have this diagnosis of this serious mental illness. The prosecution wasn't buying it. I would note the timing that this is happening on the eve of what I think was apparent to everyone was the recycling barrel being brought into the courtroom. I'm sure it is stressful. I think it's stressful for any defendant facing a murder charge. The last couple of days the defendant has been made acutely aware of the bulk of the evidence against him and I am very concerned

about the timing of this. Frankly, this has been one of the most concerns the evidence against him. And I am very concerned about the timing of this. Frankly, this has been one of the most concerns. And I would ask certainly that the court get a minimum make observations and inquiry on its own. One of the things a competency report talked about is treating the defendant in a way that is in no way harsh, but that is firm. It makes clear to him that he is not in charge

of this process. And I'm concerned that right now he thinks he is. And it was a difficult morning. Frankly, his statements to Mr. Gada obviously, I'm given great pause by any suggestion he's going to hurt court staff and I don't want to minimize that. I'm sure he can't take it anymore.

I'm sure it's very difficult to see here and listen to that. I frankly don't think there's anything irrational about that. You got to love how no nonsense prosecutor Kate McDougal is. Philip Chisholm has at this point made a veiled threat to the court, saying that he cannot take it anymore. He's about to explode and he doesn't want to hurt anyone. The defense tells the judge that Philip would like to wave his rights to be present in court, but Superior Court Judge David Lowey wants to make sure that Philip Chisholm understands his rights and is certain about that decision. Under the law and under the Constitution it is your right to be present, to be here watching the trial. Do you understand that? Now if you decide you don't want to be here, you have that right too. Do you understand that?

Yes. Sir, when I'm asking you questions and talking to you, it's really important that you understand that. I'm not trying to suggest that you be in the courtroom or not be in the courtroom. I'm just asking you questions to make sure that this is what you want to do. Do you understand that? Okay. When I say I have a right to be present in the courtroom, what you have is a right under

our constitution to what we call confront witnesses who are called in to testify against you. What I really mean by that is you have a right. It's your right being charged with a crime to actually see the witnesses as a testify. And to be able to see your lawyers ask questions of them. Do you understand that, sir? Now, that means that if something happens and you have a thought about an idea and you're not in the courtroom, I expect your lawyers and you will decide to have one of your lawyers there outside, and

if there is something that you believe should be brought to the court's attention, it means to do so. But you're not right there to whisper in your lawyer's ear or thought you have if you're not in the court. Do you understand that, sir? Yes. Do you want to give up that right to be present and be here, to confront, see the witnesses, and see the cross examination? Oh. Do you want to be present?

Yes. You want to be present during the trial. Yes. Okay. All right. With a very reasoned, very lucid, and logical response, Philip Chisholm changes his mind, and the trial continues. This does not seem like someone who's lost touch with reality. It seems like someone who's trying to alter his environment to his liking, the way he did on October 22, 2013.

Much was made of the fact that Cohen with her approached Philip Chisholm and asked to stay up school And that she somehow set something that triggered this rage But what probably was able to show was that he came to school prepared to commit a crime So the idea that he somehow was triggered and on the spot to to to go after her so violently Because of something she said is is undercut by the evidence that shows that he came to school ready to do something terrible. He brought gloves.

He had a box cutter with him. He had a nice, a ski mask, a change of clothes, and video surveillance showed him walking very calmly through the hallways throughout this entire crime. He's changing from his bloody clothes into a pair of shorts that people can't see the blood stains. He doesn't look like he's panicking. This looks like somebody who is thinking clearly and thinking methodically. I know you said that there's testimony or there's reports out there that she asked him to stay after school, but her coworker, another teacher that worked near her testified

on the stand that Colleen said to her that she didn't know why he was hanging around that day. Correct. That's another good point to bring up. That's the other fact that under cuts this notion, I mean, you know, the witness who said this is what she observed, I mean, she testified on the stand and she wasn't a witness for the defense. She was the defense point to the exchange that she saw between Collin with her and Philip.

She's exactly what was said between the two of them. I'm not sure I was ever proven without any doubt. The only thing that is clear is that he was full of terrifying rage. We know that he left in note at the final crime scene. The woods behind the school where he dumped Collin with her body. And he left a note that said, I hate you all. You can refer from that, whatever his mental condition, whatever he's feeling about Colin Richards

or whatever she said to him or didn't say to him, there was something inside him that was exploding. It's shocking to me that he would take the precautions of getting gloves in a ski mask and to change the clothes and all these different things. And then commit this crime in a school full of people with 140 cameras. It's a very, this is what makes this case so bizarre, right? I mean, you know, you can add a lesson, boy, and was he, you know, was he going through

some sexual fantasy? Was he, was there something that he fixated on about calling Ritzer and went through with it on that day Who knows? I mean we just have so little information and all you can do is is try and you know guess based on the information in front of you and so I think for the prosecution it was you know very simple what they needed to do what they needed to do was prove that what they need to do is prove that philoxism was in that bathroom with calling ritzer. He went into that bathroom with the intention of hurting her, of raping her, of murdering her, and he wanted to cover his tracks, whether he was clumsy about it, whether he was really missodical about it in some places, and really clumsy about it in other,

you can argue that the cows come home, but the only thing the prosecution could do was present to the jury the facts as they were clear. And those facts showed without a reasonable doubt that Phillips is a murdered, Colin Ritzer. And it's interesting to me that during that day, it seems like Colin being missing was almost an afterthought. Everybody was focused on the teenager that was missing from Dan Verne's high school. Nobody has connected it to yet.

And of course, a 14-year- your boy missing is much more serious than a twenty four-year-old woman who have become home because she could you know she could be anywhere right to twenty four years of adults free to move about a port in your boy you know your imagination to really start to get away from you but there were people looking for calling that night people were concerned it it wasn't just

uh... a sense of, police are only worried about the lochism. Calling friends became very concerned and people began looking for her that very night trying to figure out where she was. It was only the next day that it was clear there was a connection between the two of them. Such senseless violence, such profound loss. She was energetic and compassionate. You couldn't ask for anything more from a teacher or a friend. She cared about every single student and put in many hours after school every day, always thinking about how she could be better and better help students.

She was truly a beautiful person. Charlotte, what was the last time you spoke to Colleen? A couple weeks ago. We used the surprise to hear. We kept in touch about grad school. Was I, I oh shocked. I still think I'm in shock. I can't believe that anything could happen. Never mind to someone as wonderful and young as her. And especially shocking I would think for a teacher would be the fact that a student is being charged. Yeah. We were teachers together both of our first year so we went

through you know, all the struggles and difficult times and also all the happy rewarding times of being a teacher. And I know even after her first year, first couple of weeks, she knew she wanted to be a teacher for the rest of her life. And I mean, she helped kids whenever she could. I just can't believe this happened to her. Did she ever talk about having issues with any students?

Nope, never. And she was someone who always had a smile on her face. She was extremely approachable. So I don't know how this could ever, she could be the target of something like this. You said she moved to Danvers to be closer to home, to her parents. Do you think she felt safe there? Is that a community that people feel is safe? Oh, to her parents. Do you think she felt safe there? Is that a community that people feel

feel is safe? Oh, without a doubt. Yeah. And lastly Charlotte, tell us what will you remember most about Colleen, the people watching right now? What should they know about her? She was someone, she always talked about how much she loved her family, her parents, her brother and sister. She, I mean, she was just full of joy and happiness and I'll always remember that and I think even just the passion for educating kids is something that I'll carry on in her name. Senseless violence never offers a satisfying answer to the question we all gravitate towards. Why?

Why take an innocent life, leave that empty space behind in so many hearts. That year, the Boston Red Sox played the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2013 World Series. Before Game 1, everyone at Fenway Park paused for a moment of silence to honor Colleen Ritzer. As a parent, I don't even know how to answer really what we do, so how do you answer to another child what do you do? I remember like the little things like on our head test and if you got one section right, you'll give you a little sticker. You know, you're great and then you'd always just be happy, you would never get mad. You never said I'm having issues or you never said I don't know. I always had a smile on this face. I was an assistant in this class.

I was always coming in the morning, crack a joke with him. You know, I always had a smile on this face and gym, play around, always joke around. So, that's how we're on a shock. I remember this case very clearly when I first heard about it. It was so horrific that the details just immediately grabbed you and disturbed you. And I was in the newsroom when the news broke that a young teacher from Danvers High School had been murdered. And we quickly found out her name calling my third.

And like most reporters, we're just, we're curious. We started googling her and find out what we can see about her online. And one of the first things I saw was this picture that she had posted on her Twitter account of a pumpkin. It was around Halloween at the time, a little bit after Halloween at the time. And it was a pumpkin sheet carved with a symbol of pie into it. And I just, I remember feeling such sadness looking at this photo because it just, to me, was such a, it just really represented and born a little picture what this woman was

like, you know, somebody who loved math, somebody with maybe a little picture what the woman was like, somebody who loved math, somebody with big and little dorky, somebody who really wanted her students to love math as much as she did. And immediately I realized, wow, this case is really going to consume this museum. We're really going to have to go hard on this one. I mean, she really loved teaching, didn't she?, you could say that Colleen Wester was born to teach. She was very bright, very drunk teaching from a young age. She went to assumption college and she majored in math there. She graduated magma cum laude.

She always excelled in school and she adored teaching. When she went to Denver High School she quickly became one of the most well-liked teachers. She was young, she was only 24, the students were very drawn to her energy, her obvious love from math. And she didn't just communicate with them the way that your average teacher would. She tried to engage them on Twitter, she tried to, you know, try to be on their level, not in a way where she was trying to be lame or anything, but you know, in a way that she herself could relate to them in a way that she was trying to be lame or anything, but you know, in a way that she herself could relate to, she was almost, you know, she was only a few years older than

them, she could relate to them in a way that other teachers could in. And so, when she put her assignments on Twitter, she posed these corny jokes about math for her students to see. And her students have found her intoxicating, they were just really drawn to this woman who had exuded optimism and really believed that as a teacher she could make a difference in the life of a young person. And she was also drawn to students of special needs. She was drawn to students who seemed like they were struggling with adolescence. She really, like she was not taking the easiest moments, if she wanted to help the people who were struggling the most.

Friends and family and the students she touched will never forget the words and the students she touched will never forget the words now forever immortalized on her Twitter page. No matter what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind. Mr. Chairman, what say you to indictment number 2013, 1446? Charging the defendant, Philip Chisholm, with murder in the first degree, is the defendant guilty or not guilty and guilty guilty of what? On what theory? Guilty, deliberate premeditation, and extreme atrocity with cruelty. Mr. Foreman and ladies and gentlemen of the jury,

Harkin, to your verdict as the court has recorded it, you upon your oaths do say that the defendant, Philip Chisholm, is guilty of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity cruelty on indictment number 2013-1446, charging him with murder in the first degree, so say you, Mr. Forman. Yes. So say you all members of the jury.

Yes. On indictment 2013-1447-002, charging the defendant with armed robbery. Mr. Forman, what say you with the defendant guilty or not guilty? Guilty. Mr. Forman, and ladies and gentlemen of the jury, harkened to your verdict as the court has recorded it. You upon your oath to say that the defendant's filichism is guilty on a diva number 2013,

1447, 002, charging armed robbery. So say you, Mr. Foreman. Yes. So say you all members of the jury. Yes. Mr. Foreman, what say you to indictment number 2013, 1447? 001, tracking the defendant with aggravated rape. Is the defendant guilty or not guilty?

Not guilty. Ladies and gentlemen, the jury harkened to your verdict. As the court has recorded it, you upon your oath to say that the defendant's filipishism is not guilty on indictment number 2013, 1, 4, 4, 7, 0, 0, 1, charging aggravated rape to it in the woods. So say he's not guilty. So say it is to form. So say you all members of the jury. Yes. Philip Chism was found guilty of the murder and armed robbery of Colleen Ritzer when he took her

wallet and credit cards, but he was acquitted of the second rape in the woods. It wasn't a question of DNA evidence and odds in the quintillions. It was this simple spark of reasonable doubt that left jurors wondering if Colleen was already dead when Philip Chisholm raped her with a tree branch. If she's dead, it's not rape. Even if he killed her first. It was never any expression from Philip Chisholm. You can tell from his face how he was feeling when we're the other. There were never any tears. He never bowed his head during any particularly tough testimony. It was one of the things that reporters do when they're in a courtroom

and you have an emotional case like this is you look at the defendant. How is the defendant reactant to the evidence? How is the defendant reacting to the person on the stand? And any time we saw Philip Chisholm, he always looked impassive. Although the sentence was by no means a cakewalk. Chisholm's age at the time meant that compared to someone just a few years older, he instead is likely to, at some point, see the outside of a prison. I can tell you that in crafted the sentence for him, it was a 40-year sentence, the judge

considered Philip Chisholm's age, the possibility of rehabilitation, and the science about adolescent brain development that perhaps there was a chance of redemption somehow, that even with a horrific crime on his record, even with this terrible act, philocism maybe could grow up to become somehow a contributing member of society, and the 40-year sentence, which the family did not want, the family was very much against, the family of polymretzo, very much against what that sentence you could argue is too short for a crime like this, but just like, well, at the same time,

we need to keep this a chance for this boy to have a shot at becoming in some way a reduced man. Let me ask you this. You covered the trial extensively, and I'm sure you've seen a lot of the response to it on social media uh... by the public what did the public think of the sentence

this is why judges are appointed for life in that case this is why judges have a lot of discussion because they don't have to worry about the political win or public perception and they should have to worry about that they should be able to make their decisions based on the law and based on science decisions based on the law and based on science and based on the evidence in front of them. The public, like the family, often will react in a much more emotional way.

And our Constitution will address it to protect against those kinds of emotions. And the family has every right to be in that court, but the family has every right to get on the stand and make a victim in tax statement and talk about how horrible the crime committed against. So a loved one was, a judge, he has to be much more clear when he's looking at the person in front of him when he's considering a sentence for the person in front of him, just like the jury has to be clear

when they're considering the evidence against someone. They can allow the emotions of a case, they can allow the horror of a crime or the wonderful personality of the victim, however great they were to affect their judgment. In honor of her life's work, the family of Colleen Ritzer set up a memorial scholarship in her name to help students with a passion and love of teaching, like Colleen had, to pursue a degree in education. We at Sword & Scale have made a significant donation. We hope you'll do the same.

On May 7th, the 2017 Step Up for Colleen 5K Walk will be held at Andover Central Park. Proceeds go towards the scholarship. You can find out more and sign up at callingritserscallership.com Special thanks to our guest Maria Kramer from the Boston Globe. And until next time, stay safe. Thank you.