New student Philip Chism, teen killer of beloved teacher Colleen Ritzer, has been charged as an adult and held without bail in her brutal after-school slaying.
Authorities are actively investigating the possibility that the young man may have had a crush on his teacher, and fatally attacked her in revenge when she spurned his advances.
According to police, Chism, who is just 14-years-old but stands well over 6-feet tall, was captured on video following an unsuspecting Ritzer into a second-floor bathroom at Danvers high school in Massachusetts, where he brutally assaulted and murdered the popular young math instructor.
He then wheeled her bloody body out of the building in a trash receptacle, dumped it in the adjacent woods, and went to see a Woody Allen movie.
The towering youth, who'd just moved to Massachusetts from Tennessee this spring, was apprehended on the side of a highway not long thereafter.
On Wednesday Philip Chism appeared handcuffed but unemotional during his court arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty.
Today, the Danvers school system is closed again while that stricken community mourns the tragic and senseless death of one of its most inspiring young faculty members.
Police continue to investigate her vicious murder and the 'oddly quiet' juvenile killer's motive, if any.
ORIGINAL STORY POSTED ON 10/24/13 -
