Insights into the disturbing case of Philip Chism after the second conviction

Content warning: The following article contains disturbing descriptions of violence and sexual assault.

The killer of his high school math teacher was convicted earlier this year of an attack that bore striking similarities – and although his second victim survived, she spoke of coming face to face with a “monster”.

The Philip Chism case has troubled many people in Massachusetts for more than a decade after his 24-year-old math teacher, Colleen Ritzer, was killed in October 2013.

Chism, who was 14 at the time of the murder, was found guilty of murdering and raping Ritzer in the girls' bathroom at his school. After attacking Ritzer, he stuffed her body into a recycling bin and rolled it into the woods next to the school. After taking her body to the woods, he sexually assaulted her a second time.

Judge David Lowy, who sentenced Chism to life in prison in 2016, called the student's gruesome murder “brutal and senseless” and said “the ripples of this tragedy will never subside,” PEOPLE reported at the time.

More than a decade after the murder, Chism's criminal behavior made headlines in April when he was convicted of attempted murder of a correctional officer. The attack occurred just months after he was taken into custody for Ritzer's killing.

This is what happened:

The murder

After school ended on Oct. 22, 2013, at Danvers High School, ABC News reported at the time that Chism followed Ritzer, a 24-year-old math teacher, into the girls' bathroom and attacked her. Chism, then 14, strangled Ritzer before stabbing her 16 times and raping her. He later stuffed her body into a recycling bin, which he rolled into the woods near his school, according to WBUR.

The outlet reported that after taking Ritzer's body to the woods, Chism raped the teacher again with a tree branch, stole her underwear and credit cards, and then covered her body with leaves.

PEOPLE reported at the time that medical examiner Dr. Anna McDonald, who performed the autopsy, said Ritzer may have still been alive at the time of Chism's second attack in the woods. “She was at least dying,” McDonald told the jury.

Defense claimed Chism was mentally ill, victim's mother said he was “pure evil”

During the trial, Chism's defense attorneys questioned his grandfather, Eduardo Barbieri, who told the jury that the teenager came from a family with a history of mental illness.

Barbieri said his ex-wife, Chism's grandmother, had many mental health problems and one of his daughters had been treated at a psychiatric hospital. The defense team also questioned one of Chism's classmates, who told the jury the teenager suddenly became “very quiet” and “completely changed” in the days before Ritzer's murder.

However, a judge declined to hear the opinion of a psychiatrist. Prosecutors insisted that Chism was able to distinguish right from wrong at the time of the murder.

“He is pure evil and can never be rehabilitated,” the victim's mother, Peggy Ritzer, told the court during the trial. The Salem News.

In the end, Chism was found guilty of raping and murdering his math teacher and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years behind bars, PEOPLE previously reported.

An eerily similar attack

According to NBC Boston, Chism pleaded guilty in early 2024 to a very similar attack that he committed less than a year after his arrest.

Chism, now 25, pleaded guilty to charges including attempted murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and kidnapping after a Massachusetts Department of Youth Services worker accused him of attacking her in June 2014 in a similar manner to how he attacked Ritzer the previous October. The 29-year-old worker said Chism followed her into a bathroom and pinned her against a wall while attempting to strangle her and attack her with a pencil, according to NBC Boston.

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“I remember not being able to leave my bedroom for hours because I was afraid he would be waiting for me, ready to kill me,” the victim wrote in a statement read in court. “There are real monsters in the world. Philip Chism is a monster, a murderer.”

NBC Boston, CBS News and MassLive.com reported that Chism was sentenced to an additional 17 to 20 years in prison for the second attack.