Mother of murdered Danvers teacher recalls bright young girl who loved pink, excelled at math
Every night before 24-year-old Colleen Ritzer went to sleep, she wrote something happy about her day on a slip of paper and tucked it into a jar.
Colleen Ritzer was a creature of habit. She rose at the same time every morning, saying good morning to her still-slumbering parents as she headed off to teach math at Danvers High School, the place where she would eventually meet her death.
Every night before the 24-year-old went to sleep in her Andover bedroom, she wrote something happy about her day on a slip of paper and tucked it into a jar.
Ritzer’s mother, Peggie Ritzer, told jurors about her oldest daughter Tuesday morning during the murder trial of Philip Chism, the former student accused of killing her.
Peggie Ritzer puts her head in her hands during the first day of the murder trial.
Chism was 14 when he allegedly followed Ritzer into the girl’s bathroom at Danvers High after school, slashed her throat 16 times and raped her. His attorney admitted in opening statements that the now 16-year-old Chism did everything he’s accused of in a psychotic break that had been building for years.
The trial was put on hold temporarily Tuesday morning after Chism refused to leave his holding cell to enter the courtroom. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, murder and robbery.
Every afternoon, Colleen would pop into her mom’s office and ask how her day was. But really, she just wanted to talk about her day, Peggie Ritzer said with a laugh.
“She wanted to be a teacher from the time she was in preschool,’’ Peggy Ritzer said. “As she got older, she excelled in math, so she wanted to teach math.’’
Peggie Ritzer wore a bright pink top on the stand, which was her daughter’s favorite color. She showed jurors a Christmas photo of Colleen modeling a big black bag that she would later use to carry school supplies back and forth from her job.
That bag was found stained with blood, wedged between two boulders near the school on Oct. 22, 2013. Her pink calculator was still inside.
That night, Colleen didn’t come home. Her family was frantic. They called Colleen’s colleagues, and three of her friends showed up at the school to search classrooms.
They found her car parked at the school, but the young teacher was nowhere to be found.
Todd Butterworth, a fellow math teacher, helped search for his friend.
“We didn’t even know what we were looking for,’’ he testified. “We connected there was a student missing and Colleen was missing but we didn’t know what that meant.’’
Chism’s mother had gone to Danvers police around 6:30 that evening when her son didn’t come home. The Ritzers filed a missing persons report about Colleen.
Chism was found hours later, walking along busy Route 1 in Topsfield. He was found with the murder weapon – a box cutter, covered in blood. Officers testified Monday that he told officers “it was the girl’s’’ blood.
Around the same time, police officers were searching near the school, officers testified. A police dog lighted upon some items: a lunch bag, a bloody sneaker, a recycling bin coated in blood.
The next morning, Peggie Ritzer found out her daughter was dead.
The trial is expected to last through December.
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