United States teen raped and killed maths teacher in school toilet

His lawyers admitted Chism killed Ritzer, but have asked the jury to find him not guilty by reason of insanity.

A 14-year-old boy was being held on a murder charge Wednesday after the body of a female teacher (Colleen Ritzer) was found in woods near the high school in Danvers, Massachusetts.

The verdict came at the very end of the day, after nearly nine hours of deliberation, which began Monday afternoon.

Philip Chism, 16, followed teacher Collean Ritzer into a school toilet where he strangled her, stabbed her 16 times and raped her two years ago.

Collen Ritzer’s family endured weeks at Salem District Court of listening to the gruesome details of how the young teacher was brutally raped and killed by one of her students.

“This guilty verdict, while the beginning of justice for Colleen is certainly no cause for celebration as there can never be true justice for the crime committed”, Tom Ritzer said.

Prosecutors also showed Chism’s planning – bringing a ski mask, gloves, and box cutter to school on the day of the attack, his putting on gloves as he stalked Ritzer into the school bathroom where he attacked her, and his careful disposal of the body as evidence he knew what he was doing.

Chism’s attorneys tried to claim that he had severe mental illness and was not responsible for the crime. The 16-year-old was tried as an adult for the gruesome murder he was charged with at 14.

The prosecution argued Chism is manipulative and lying, and not legally insane. They said Chism was seen following Ritzer to the restroom and pacing back and forth outside the door. Ritzer’s body was later found in the woods behind the school, police said.

District attorney Kate MacDougall said: “The only person who was powerless in the bathroom and in those woods was Colleen Ritzer”.

The defense had a psychiatrist testify that Chism was mentally ill.

Chism had been in a youth detention facility in Boston in June 2014 when prosecutors said he followed a worker into a locker room and choked and beat her before other workers intervened.

After some time, Ritzer left the classroom and – in a video shown to the jurors – she could be seen going to the bathroom down the hallway. The student said Chism became visibly upset and Ritzer eventually changed the subject.

Defence attorney Denise Regan said at trial that Chism suffers from a psychotic disorder that triggers hallucinations, depression and anxiety.