Police affidavit offers chilling details of teacher's slaying

[BainsBane]

CNN) -- Philip Chism, the Massachusetts teenager accused of raping and killing his algebra teacher, became visibly upset when the teacher, Colleen Ritzer, spoke about the teen's home state of Tennessee after class, according to a police affidavit unsealed Friday.

A ninth grade student told investigators that she was in class with Chism and Ritzer after school on the day of the crime, the affidavit said. She said the teacher and Chism were talking about China but, at some point, Ritzer mentioned the student's home state of Tennessee.

Chism became "visibly upset," the student said. When Ritzer noticed that Chism was upset, she changed the subject, said the unidentified student, who described Chism as "talking to himself."

The affidavit, in chilling detail, offers the first hint of a possible motive in last month's gruesome killing of the popular high school teacher. Ritzer, 24, was allegedly raped with an object and had her throat slashed. A handwritten note found next to her body said, "I hate you all."

Rest at: http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/22/justice/massachusetts-danvers-school-killing/index.html?sr=fb112313teacherslaying2a

There really are no words.

[kestrel91316]

1. That's just bizarre. I smell an undiagnosed paranoid schizpohrenic..........

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. We have dozens in our garage. My husband used to pick them up at Ace and

Harbor Freight for his handyman stuff around the house. They come in handy for a lot and are also used by scrapbookers.

Welcome to DU.

[ScreamingMeemie]

6. True. I wonder if it wasn't something he could have grabbed from a maintenance cart or something.

This will just never make sense I think.

[hack89]

9. Reports say he got it from the art classroom. Nt

[kestrel91316]

13. What on earth does that have to do with whether or not he's schizophrenic????

I suspect you haven't the slightest clue what schizophrenia really is.

[uppityperson]

17. I suspect you are wrong.

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. It is bizarre. They diagnose kids usually, or has that changed?

[BainsBane]

7. He had recently moved to that school distrction

So it's quite possible they didn't recognized how disturbed he is.

[bettyellen]

11. and the teen years are when it usually has first onset....

and teens normally are so self- conscious, secretive and difficult, it can be hard to spot.

[MoonRiver]

8. They can come prepared also,

if in their paranoid minds there is something to fear. Fourteen is a little young for onset though.

[bettyellen]

12. fourteen is when the voices started with my brother, but he had smaller problems for years before.

[MoonRiver]

19. Did he have childhood schizophrenia?

Of course it can happen at 14, but it is more unusual for the adult form of schizophrenia. In general, though, earlier the onset, worse the prognosis. Sorry about your brother.

[bettyellen]

25. thanks- I don't think they made a distinction back then - childhood schizophrenic vs adult onset ?

But I remember the first time he tried to kill himself was before he was 15, so they hospitalized him. But although the voices started at that time, he was having big problems with controlling his temper and odd behavior for quite a few years. He was very smart and incredibly creative, but had a lot of trouble getting along with people. He would constantly provoke fights, but I honestly think he never meant to hurt anyone physically, he did whatever he could to provoke a reaction of crying or screaming, so there was a bit of physical abuse too. He did destroy a lot of things, and things escalated through his teen years with my sisters mostly over that. (They were closer in age and 7-11 years older than me) I don't remember him ever having any friends really. He had another suicide attempt around 16 1/2- 17 and spent the rest of his life hospitalized and heavily medicated - this was before meds for schizophrenia- until his third, successful attempt. He started a fire on the ward, and the guards chased him- he ran up to the roof and jumped off.
Back then they had nothing at all for schizophrenia, and it runs heavily in my family. I also have a very close cousin who lived with us during her breakdown, just a few years after him, but her onset was later- about 18- 19 before we saw symptoms. Her family never got good medical help or other resources because her sociopath Mom admittedly enjoyed keeping her around the house, so she has been a hopeless mess for almost 40 years now. Very intelligent and creative too, a wonderfully sensitive girl- last time I saw her she was telling me about these long, involved, conversations she had with her parakeet. It is fucking heart breaking to see these lives go down the toilet over a little brain chemistry. Heart breaking.
Sorry to go on- it is a hard thing to edit.

[MoonRiver]

26. I'm so sorry you and your family went through all this.

Mental illness, more than almost any other illness imo, can totally destroy families. Even though today there are meds that control the delusions, many patients won't take them voluntarily, because the drugs make them feel like zombies. And of course when they are on the meds they seem to be just fine, psychologically speaking. The catch 22 that patients don't get is once off the meds all hell breaks loose again. Anyway, just wanted to give you a for all you and yours have endured.

[bettyellen]

28. Thank you, it was horrible for my Mom. She was blamed for it, of course, and it really knocked

whatever joy she had right out the window. The stigma is huge, and her Dad had been locked away and forgotten when she was a child for the same thing. What's worse is we have a few sociopaths in the family as well, like my aunt, and they really do enjoy using weaker people as pawns or toys, just screwing with their heads. She had my Mom feeling at fault for it.

My cousin came close to a real recovery, and my aunt put a full stop to it. She was screwing around with her meds, and pulled her out of both school and work because she knew she would become more independent. I tired to intervene but my cousin has depended on her Mom for over ten years, and accepted that school and work was too much- too dangerous, even though she had been doing really well, and was perfectly safe. Now Aunty is very old and wondering what will become of the daughter she hobbled so badly over thirty years ago, and crying the blues over it. To me, she is a more messed up, and dangerous person than her daughter or my brother ever were.

[MoonRiver]

29. Oh my gosh, you all have been through so much.

I'm hoping, and sensing through your words, that you at least are OK.

[bettyellen]

30. I am pretty much the only one who is well, alive and not an alcoholic.

We had another bad year after my brother died, I shouldn't get into it. All so very long ago. I was close to my brothers for many years, but their drinking and some bad choices must have caught up with them, they do not stay in contact with anyone these days. I keep trying, but they are what hey are. I hope they are well, but the rumor mill says otherwise. I think only my Dad and me escaped the despair and lunacy of the whole thing. I could see when I was a kid that he was going to be a survivor, and that was my lifeline. Sorry to burden you, I just make every effort to be as straightforward open and honest about it, and not join in any feelings of guilt or shame about any of it. I think too frequently people have no idea what it is like- they think there is just like one type of "mental illness" and have never considered the fallout within the family. So, I think it is really important to spread awareness.
Thanks for listening Moon, hugs right back at you!

[MoonRiver]

31. No problem betty allen!

So glad you and you Dad made it through the madness, much of which sounds genetic. Mental illness really is a horrible curse on the entire family.

[Kurska]

14. Can we stop shaming the mentally ill and saying all horrific crimes are done by them?

News flash, a mentally ill person is FAR more likely to be physical abused by a "sane" person than they are to every hurt anyone.

There is absolutely nothing about schizophrenia that makes a person inherently dangerous and schizophrenics's violent crime rate is barley higher than "sane people". And even that tiny bit higher goes away entirely if you control for Socio-economic standing.

Just because someone did something horrific and frightening doesn't make them schizophrenic.

[Blue_Roses]

16. I think when something so horrific like this happens

we as humans have got to have some "reasoning" behind it, because of the senselessness of the crime. So, people start grasping at the most familiar thing they can think of to help them cope. While a complete psychiatric evalution is the only way to know for sure this teen's true mental state, speculation will always be thrown around.

I agree that "labeling" someone before they are properly diagnosed is wrong, however, I don't think it's always just to be mean. I think it's a way of trying to understand.

[Kurska]

20. If it was a logical way of thinking it wouldn't bother me as much

Based on violent crime statistics, this guy is no more likely to be schizophrenic than not schizophrenic.

People who start calling everyone who does something horrible schizophrenic are just perpetuating hurtful and untrue stereotypes about the schizophrenics.

[Blue_Roses]

23. true and it could be the same with

any disability. My kids have AD/HD and I still get that weird look from some who have no idea what it entails other than "problem." (of course there is much more to it)And what's really frustrating is when it's a teacher.

[Kurska]

24. Very much so, our society very heavily stigmatizes any kind of mental healthcare

Especially in children, which is very sad, because I'd be much less concerned about a child who is having their mental needs attended to by professional than other children getting no such help.

People have this "different ergo bad" mentality.

[mythology]

21. I don't think it's about understanding

I think it's about distancing ourselves from the crime by saying we could never do something like that. If the kid is mentally ill, or just evil then we don't have to think about the kid as human or the ways in which it's not absolutely impossible that we could be the same.

[Blue_Roses]

22. good point...

nt

[bettyellen]

27. I think that she guessed schizophrenia because of the "talking to themselves" part, I have to say

my brain went the same place because I grew up with family with severe schizophrenia and that was one of the first clues.
Because of that, we realized they were hearing voices. I have to say, I cringe when I read the stats about violence, because we went through quite a bit in our family- and no one reported anything ever. Granted it was mostly minor, and threatening more than carrying it out- but it was very frequent. We didn't want to make more trouble for him, we got a bit used to it, I imagine that is the case with a lot of families. There can be a tendency to minimize what happens behind our own closed doors.