Danvers Convicted Murderer Pleads Guilty To 2014 Assault

DANVERS, MA — Philip Chism, who is serving a 40 years-to-life prison sentence for the rape and murder of Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer in 2013 when he was 14 years old, was back in juvenile court as a 25-year-old on Friday as he pleaded guilty to a 2014 charge of attacking a female Department of Youth Services employee in a bathroom.

Chism was being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Dorchester when prosecutors said he eluded staff and followed the 29-year-old woman into a staff bathroom where he choked her and attacked her with a pencil.

In a victim impact statement read into testimony in Boston Juvenile Court on Friday, the victim said she thought she was going to die during the "horrific and terrifying" event and that it is a nightmare that is still affecting her life more than a decade later.

"His face sometimes still haunts me, that lack of any emotion just ready to kill," her statement said, according to media reports.

Chism was convicted of killing Ritzer in 2016.

The Danvers High School library was renamed the Colleen E. Ritzer Library this past fall around the 10th anniversary of her death to honor her legacy of kindness and make her spirit part of the permanent fabric of the school.

Danvers High math teacher Julie Glynn, a colleague of Ritzer, presented the proposal to the School Committee following a survey of school faculty and with the blessing of the Ritzer family.

"When a library is named in someone's memory it strengthens the sense of community by reminding everyone of the values and virtue that person embodies," Glynn told the School Committee in proposing the dedication. "It also ensures that their memory lives on. Not just for those who knew her but for future generations to come."

The Andover native's impact on Danvers Public Schools has continued in the decade since her death with the annual Day of Kindness across the district on Oct. 22. Her memory has also inspired the annual Step Up for Colleen 5K in Andover, which has attracted thousands of participants.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)