Creep Violates Her In School Bathroom Before Sl@shing Her Throat and Nobody Notices

Creep Violates Her In School Bathroom Before Sl@shing Her Throat and Nobody Notices

Colleen Elizabeth Ritzer was born on May 13th, 1989, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. She was the oldest of three siblings born to parents Thomas and Peggy Ritzer. According to a family story, she cried when her brother Dan was born because she wanted a little sister. Of course, that was only temporary, as she soon adored her little brother. A few years later, she finally got a little sister named Laura. Growing up, Colleen was a nurturing and protective big sister. She loved spending time with her siblings and her family. She grew up in Andover and graduated high school in 2007.

When her grandmother passed away from heart disease, she wanted to honor her memory, so in 2010 she assembled a team of family members to participate in an American Heart Association walk in Vermont. She named the team “Footsteps for Bev” after her grandmother Beverly. Starting when she was just three years old and in preschool, Colleen knew she wanted to be a teacher. She continued her education at Assumption College, where she studied math and teaching. As a student teacher her senior year, she realized she could explain complicated math concepts in a way students could understand, so she was even more sure that she had found her calling in life. She earned her bachelor’s degree in 2011.

After college, she taught math at Hale Middle School in Stow and moved on to Danvers High School a year later. While teaching, she completed coursework towards a graduate degree from Salem College. Colleen’s students loved her. According to one of her students, she was the sort of teacher that made them want to go to math class. Her colleagues said she was caring, joyful, and truly passionate about her job.

When she wasn’t teaching or coming up with a new way to teach polynomials or combinations, she liked going on vacation and taking cruises. She also loved shopping, especially at Target, and she loved her friends. She had a large circle of friends, some she’d known since elementary school and high school. Colleen’s favorite color was pink. She had brown hair and blue eyes. She was known for her big, bright smile. The only thing bigger and brighter than her smile was her heart. Her family said it was just too big for words to describe. She always thought of other people first, and her friends said knowing Colleen made their lives better. Her family said she was a blessing; she touched the lives of everyone who met her.

Colleen loved inspirational quotes and often shared them with her friends on social media. A memorable one that she liked to post read: “No matter what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind.”

In June of 2013, Colleen had just finished her first year teaching at Danvers High School. She posted on her social media: “Happy summer vacation! Thanks for a great year. I had so much fun with you. You will always stand out to me because you were my first group at DHS.” She used social media to communicate with her students, so her posts were a mix of personal messages and professional messages. In July, she posted pictures from a trip to St. Maarten. By early August, she said she missed her students. At the end of the month, she was anticipating the start of the school year, posting that it would begin in one week. On September 3rd, she posted: “Hope everyone has a great first day tomorrow! Come visit me in my new room, A209.”

Around the same time, Philip Chism, his mother Diana, and his two younger sisters left Clarksville, Tennessee. They relocated to Danvers and moved into an apartment in the basement of his aunt’s house. This was their eighth move in six years. Stacy Chism, Philip’s father, did not move with them. The couple’s marriage had been in trouble for years, and they officially separated in 2001. Diana accused Stacy of being unfaithful and abusive, and said he was an alcoholic. However, they reconciled several times over the next 10 years. They did file for divorce in 2011, but they didn’t finalize it. In their divorce paperwork, Stacy accused Diana of verbally abusing Philip. He claimed Diana was extremely depressed and sometimes unable to leave the couch. They filed again in 2013, and by September they were in the middle of what Diana described as a stressful divorce.

Fourteen-year-old Philip enrolled as a freshman at Danvers High School. He had previously played soccer in Tennessee and tried out for the Danvers JV team. Philip was a good player and made fast friends with his teammates. He started meeting one friend nearly twice a week for extra practice sessions.

September 26th was Danvers’ Meet the Teacher Night. Colleen posted online inviting students and encouraging them to bring their parents. She was always looking for new and unique ways to inspire her students and make math class fun. She put stickers on their quizzes and always kept her enthusiasm up. She often said “Yay!” before starting a lesson. A few days after Meet the Teacher Night, she found another unique idea: she linked a picture of a pumpkin with a symbol of pi carved inside of it. Her message above the picture said, “I need to do this.” She continued to post homework assignments and motivational messages. She was excited to watch Full House and Boy Meets World reruns. On October 6th, she baked an apple crisp for the very first time. In mid-October, she wished her students good luck on the upcoming PSATs.

Colleen was living in her parents’ home in Andover, in the house that she grew up in. Her brother was away at college, but her younger sister still lived at home. Laura was a senior at Andover High School, about a half an hour away from Danvers where Colleen taught. Every day, Colleen followed a predictable routine. She would get home by 3:30 p.m. and have a chat with her mother. She’d then move to the couch in the living room to finish her lesson plans for the next day. Later, she’d have dinner with her parents and her sister. In the mornings, she’d pack her lunch bag and then drive to school.

October 22nd was a typical morning. It was “Dressed Like Your Friend Twin Day” at Danvers High School. Staff and students were encouraged to show their school spirit by dressing according to the day’s theme to look like twins. Colleen and math teacher Sarah DiAquinta had decided to both wear purple shirts and black pants. Sarah’s classroom was close by, and the two women were colleagues as well as friends.

Colleen got to school before 7:00 a.m. Surveillance footage showed her entering the school carrying her lunch and a black tote bag. Philip Chism also got to school before 7:00 that morning. Surveillance footage showed him wearing a red sweatshirt and a black and yellow backpack. He also carried two additional bags—one red and one silver. Later, the contents of his bags would be revealed. In those bags, he packed multiple changes of clothes, including a ski mask and gloves. Also packed was a box cutter.

Now, it seemed like an ordinary day at Danvers High School. In second-period robotics class, his friend Gilberto said Philip seemed normal. Maybe he was a little more quiet than other days, but overall he seemed fine. Philip’s history teacher also didn’t notice anything unusual with him. They had a quiz on Louis XIV and Machiavelli, and Philip did well on it.

His last class of the day was algebra, where Colleen was his teacher. R.A., another student in the class, sat close to Philip. She claimed she heard his interactions that day. Colleen walked around the room to check their work. Philip was drawing. Colleen complimented his drawing and said, “I didn’t know you could draw.” R.A. said the class had an upcoming test about equations. Colleen asked Philip if he needed help studying for the test and asked him if he wanted to stay later if he wanted help. R.A. said Philip didn’t answer, but he nodded.

Class ended at 1:55 p.m. The school had what they called a “bubble period” between 1:55 and 2:30 p.m. During this extra time, students could study or meet with the teacher to get extra help. The rest of the class left, but Philip stayed in Colleen’s classroom during the bubble period. There they were joined by a student named Autumn. Colleen was Autumn’s favorite teacher, and she had stopped by just to chat. Seeing Colleen busy with Philip, Autumn drew on the chalkboard to pass the time.

Autumn heard the two talking. She said Philip mentioned he was from Tennessee, and Colleen asked how Danvers compared to his old hometown of Clarksville. Autumn said Philip seemed annoyed by Colleen’s question, and that Colleen quickly changed the subject. Philip lowered his voice. Autumn could not hear the rest of the conversation, but said Philip’s responses seemed short and he looked unhappy.

Around 2:30 p.m., Sarah stopped by to talk to Colleen. The two spoke in the hallway, and Sarah asked her if she needed to get back to her students, and Colleen said she didn’t. Autumn didn’t need help, and she wasn’t sure why Philip had stayed late. Now, this could have meant that R.A. had misheard the earlier conversation, but it also could have meant that Philip wasn’t using the time productively. The two discussed a meeting Sarah had just attended, as well as the best shampoo to help fend off lice—apparently, it had been found recently on a student. Sarah had been having car trouble, and Colleen, always looking out for others, asked her if she needed a ride home, and Sarah said she did not. Sarah left, and Colleen returned to her classroom. She sat down at her desk and told Autumn and Philip she would be leaving soon.

Philip sat down at a desk near Colleen, but Autumn gathered her things to leave. Colleen walked to the door with Autumn. Before leaving, Autumn told Colleen she thought she was a good person and a great teacher. Once Autumn left, Colleen and Philip were alone in her room. In fact, the entire wing was almost completely empty. Almost 200 surveillance cameras were monitoring the school and its grounds, but no one was watching any of them at this time.

At around 2:54 p.m., soon after Autumn left, Colleen walked to the women’s bathroom on the second floor. A few seconds later, Philip stuck his head out the classroom door. He had changed his sweatshirt. He looked down the hall in the direction Colleen went and touched his left pocket. He went back in the classroom for a few seconds, put up his hood, and came back out. As he walked to the bathroom, he put on a pair of white gloves.

At 3:06 p.m., a female student entered the bathroom. She saw a pile of clothes and someone’s naked backside. Thinking that she walked in on someone changing, she quickly left. A minute later, Philip left the bathroom carrying Colleen’s black pants. His right hand was bloody, and he had been in the bathroom for about 11 minutes. Colleen never appeared on camera again.

Over the next 15 minutes, he moved to several areas inside and outside of the school building. He seemed to be trying to disguise himself and get rid of evidence, but almost all of his movements were captured on the school’s cameras. Several students and parents saw him acting strangely, but no one official noticed his behavior; no one stopped him.

After leaving the bathroom, he went downstairs and outside. He hid behind some bushes and changed clothes in the parking lot. He stashed his bloody clothes in Colleen’s pants behind the bushes there. He entered the building through a different door and returned to Colleen’s classroom. He grabbed her lunch bag and tote bag, as well as his backpack. He took the bags downstairs to an alcove that held several large recycling bins.

He went back to the second floor and seemed to be headed to the bathroom, but abruptly changed directions. His soccer friend Ramsey had come looking for him; they were supposed to meet on the soccer field. Philip told Ramsey he had lost something; he said he’d join him on the field in just a moment. He had to tell him several times, but Ramsey eventually went back to the field there to wait for him.

Philip put on the ski mask from his bag. He then went down to the first floor and loaded a large green recycling bin into the elevator. He got off at the second floor and dragged the bin into the bathroom. At 3:22 p.m., he was recorded leaving the bathroom, still wearing the ski mask. He then dragged the bin into the elevator, down to the first floor, and then out of the building. Colleen was inside of that bin; she may have even been alive at the time. Outside, he rolled the bin past several people and out towards the woods behind the school. He struggled to push the bin and got stuck for a few minutes, and again, nobody stopped him.

Philip spent about 25 minutes in the woods beyond the view of the cameras. When he returned to view, he was barefoot and his pants were bloody. He went to his locker and changed into a pair of shorts. He went back into the women’s bathroom and then back out to the woods for 12 more minutes, perhaps taking another piece of evidence outside. When he entered the school for the last time, he spoke to a friend about going to a youth group meeting a little later. He had a snack. He left the building around 4:30 p.m.

Philip walked about 3 miles to a shopping area on Endicott Street in Danvers. On his walk, he smashed his cell phone along with Colleen’s so no one could use GPS to locate him. He used one of Colleen’s credit cards to buy food at a Wendy’s near the mall. He shoplifted a knife from a store there and was captured on their surveillance cameras drinking a soda. He used her credit card again to purchase a movie ticket; he bought a ticket to see Gravity. The theater’s manager said he watched a Woody Allen movie instead.

Sometime between 4:30 and 9:00 p.m., the school’s custodial staff made a huge mistake. The manager of the cleaning crew discovered massive amounts of blood in the second-floor women’s bathroom. He said the small room looked like the inside of a slaughterhouse. He tried to report the situation to the school custodian. The manager, who spoke mostly Spanish, told the custodian that the room was covered in blood, but the custodian thought he was saying “blue,” thinking some sort of blue soap or cleaner had spilled. He told the cleaning crew to spray it clean with a hose. It took 45 minutes, but the crew cleaned up most of the blood. The manager found one of Colleen’s diamond stud earrings lodged into the floor cleaning machine. Some smears of blood did remain, but much of the evidence was lost.

Police also lost time. It would be many more hours before they even realized a crime was committed. When Philip didn’t return home from school, his mother Diana reported him missing. The Danvers Police Department sent out an alert on social media. They also made a reverse 911 call letting residents know that a child was missing. Philip’s soccer buddies and their coach organized and went out looking for him.

When Colleen wasn’t home at 3:30 p.m., her parents were worried; it wasn’t like her. If she was going to be late, she would have called. The family started looking for her. They soon contacted her friends and colleagues from work, but they found no sign of her. But they kept looking.

At 9:00 p.m., the principal sent out a mass email to all staff members reporting Philip missing. As soon as she saw it, Sarah called to let the principal know that Colleen was missing too. She told the principal that Philip had been in Colleen’s classroom at the end of the day.

At around 10:30 p.m., Officer Steven Baldassare arrived at the high school. He was a member of the Danvers Police Department assigned to the school as their student resource officer. At this point, he knew Philip was missing, but he did not know about Colleen. He went to his office to look at footage from the cameras, hoping to find some information about what happened to Philip. When he tried to access the video, his computer would not boot up. The surveillance system was new and quite sophisticated, but the software used to monitor all those cameras had not yet been updated. So Officer Baldassare rebooted the system, and this was somewhat of a lengthy process.

While waiting for the system to come back up, he joined several other officers outside near the cross-country trail. The officers had found a green recycling bin with what appeared to be blood inside. They also found Colleen’s bag, along with shoes and clothing outside. Officer Baldassare spoke to the other officers and found out one had seen some smears of blood in the women’s bathroom on the second floor. None of them knew that the bathroom had already been cleaned. When the principal found Colleen’s car still in the parking lot at school, her parents became even more worried. At 11:20 p.m., they officially reported Colleen missing.

Officer Baldassare went to his office at around 11:45 p.m. This time, he was able to access the footage, but it was a long and arduous process. He sifted through the video for a couple of hours.

In the early morning hours of October 23rd, Topsfield police officers Neil Hovey and Joseph DeBernardo found Philip walking on a narrow overpass next to a busy road. They initially stopped him because they were worried for his safety. He was wearing a blue hoodie, shorts, tall black socks, and sneakers. He still had the ski mask around his neck and was carrying a red bag. It was cold that evening—in the mid-40s—and the shorts did not seem warm enough to be outside.

They asked him some simple questions, like where he had come from and where he was headed. He answered that he was coming from Tennessee and said he was going nowhere. He said he didn’t have an address and that he’d been walking for days. He said he didn’t have any identification on him. He wouldn’t even look the officers in the eye when he talked to them.

The officer patted down the area near his pockets. He felt what he thought was an identification card in one pocket and a hard object in his other pocket. Not wanting to escalate the situation, the officers moved him out of the roadway into a safer area near their squad cars. They asked him to empty the contents of his pockets onto the hood of the car. He removed Colleen’s driver’s license, credit card, and an insurance card from one pocket, and a rock from his other pocket. When asked, he told the officers he found the cards first, saying he found them at a gas station and then saying he found them in her car. They did not know that Colleen was missing.

Officers asked for his name, and he told them that he was Philip. They recognized he was a missing child, and as they described it, immediately went into “parent mode.” They let the police in Danvers know they had him and took him into protective custody. He was uncuffed in the squad car and was given blankets and a bench to sit on at the police station. Topsfield only had two officers on duty that night and didn’t have anyone to drive Philip to Danvers; he would have to wait at the station for someone to come pick him up.

He wasn’t arrested, but as part of their procedures, Officer Hovey performed an inventory on the contents of his bag. Philip had told him it contained dangerous survival gear, so he put on gloves and went through it cautiously. Inside, he found a woman’s purse. Inside the purse, he found a pair of women’s underwear and a box cutter covered in what appeared to be blood; the blade on the cutter was extended. He also found the hunting knife that Philip had shoplifted earlier.

When he asked Philip who the blood belonged to, he said, “It’s the girl’s.” Officer Hovey left the room to contact the Danvers police while Officer DeBernardo remained in the room. He asked Philip where the girl was, to which Philip replied she was in the woods. When asked if they could still help the girl, Philip said no.

He read Philip his Miranda rights, but without an interested adult present, Philip was too young to sign off on them alone. The Danvers police contacted Philip’s mother and brought her into the station; she arrived at 1:30 a.m. Meanwhile, they sent an officer to arrest Philip and bring him back to the Danvers police station.

However, Colleen was still missing, and Officer Baldassare was still reviewing surveillance footage. During his review, he located images of Philip and Colleen. By 2:30 a.m., he was able to piece together a timeline showing the events that unfolded that afternoon. He passed the information on to Danvers police, who already had Philip in custody.

Since Philip was only 14 years old, the police needed his mother, Diana, to act as an interested adult and make sure Philip understood his Miranda rights. However, they did not explain that to her when they brought them together in the interview room. Philip was visibly annoyed by his mother; he told her he didn’t know why she was there. When she told him she loved him, he said he didn’t care. He was openly rude to her and asked her to leave the room; eventually, she left.

When she was gone, Philip wanted to talk to the officers. He just didn’t want to talk in front of his mother. He told them he knew about all of the meridians and pressure points on the human body. These concepts are a part of Chinese medicine, but his understanding seemed to be more informed by comic books and graphic novels. In particular, he said he hit a meridian in the neck. He said the way it works is it’s kind of like a dragon’s kiss: the blood all rushes up, and so when I hit it, it’s a lot—it’s more than a lot of blood.

Still not realizing the bathroom had been cleaned up, police thought he was lying about the amount of blood because they had only found a minimal amount of blood; they thought Colleen might still be alive. They brought in a search dog and the fire department’s thermal imaging unit. They even called in the Massachusetts State Police Air Wing to aid in the search; they were looking for the heat signature given off by a living body, but they did not find one.

Based on information provided by Philip during his interview, police began searching down a path near the recycle bin. They noticed disturbed leaves, but the area was very dark. One of the officers brought a powerful flashlight to illuminate the area. At around 3:00 a.m., one of the searchers saw something sticking out of a pile of leaves: it was a toenail painted with pink nail polish. It was Colleen.

A paramedic uncovered the rest of Colleen’s body. Her eyes and her airway were filled with dirt and debris. Her heart was not beating. He pronounced her dead at the scene. Colleen was found 20 yards from the green recycling bin that had carried her body. She had been staged on her back, and she had deep gashes in her neck. Her shirt and undershirt had been pushed up, and her bra had been pushed down. Her legs were spread. Philip had also violated her body; a tree branch had to be removed from between her legs. More evidence was scattered around her body: the gloves he wore, a pair of black socks in his black backpack, and a handwritten note that said, “I hate you all.”

Police were still interviewing Philip at the police station. Later, because prosecutors couldn’t prove he understood his Miranda rights, his confession was deemed inadmissible as evidence. The physical evidence—the box cutter and the bloody clothes and shoes—was allowed because of inevitable discovery; police would have found it eventually through the course of a normal investigation.

In June of 2014, while awaiting trial, Philip assaulted another woman while he was being held at a Department of Youth Services facility in Dorchester. He was supposed to be under constant guard, but he slipped away from his caregivers. Armed with only a pencil, he crouched down and followed a female worker into a locker room. Inside, he choked her and bashed her against the concrete wall. She screamed, and other workers helped pull him away and saved her. She suffered injuries to her back, face, jaw, and neck. After this incident, he was moved to a more secure juvenile detention center in Worcester, where he spent much of his time in isolation. When he went outside to the yard, he had to wear leg irons or shackles to limit his movement.

Philip was tried as an adult. His trial was scheduled to start in mid-October of 2015, but he refused to enter the courtroom. He claimed he was hearing voices and banged his head against the floor. Judge David Lowy ordered a mental health evaluation. Philip was sent to Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital, where he was kept in an adult locked unit. Philip was later found competent, and his trial resumed on November 16th.

His attorneys admitted he murdered Colleen. They argued that he wasn’t responsible for his actions because of mental disease and defect, because his maternal aunt and grandmother have been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. A key component of that disease was the ability to engage in goal-directed behavior. However, their surveillance video showed Philip engaged in focused, purposeful, and goal-directed activity. It also showed that he had planned to commit the crime. His efforts to hide the body and other evidence showed he knew what he was doing was wrong. Philip’s actions had nothing to do with mental illness, according to the court, and everything to do with him being a monster.

With most of the blood spatter and other evidence washed away, the autopsy of Colleen’s body had to tell the story of what happened inside of the bathroom during those 11 minutes. Medical examiner Dr. Ann McDonald conducted the autopsy. Based on the evidence, she thought Philip had quickly overpowered Colleen. She found many tiny pinpoint bruises called petechiae on Colleen’s face, in and around her eyes and her mouth. This type of bruising meant that many small blood vessels had burst; Colleen had been asphyxiated.

Philip removed her pants and her underwear, and he took the underwear as a trophy. Fluid with male cells was found inside her, indicating that he had violated her during the attack. The DNA found in the cells was consistent with Philip’s DNA. He had also stabbed and slashed her throat multiple times with the box cutter. Colleen had at least 16 wounds to her neck; some areas had been cut over and over, making it impossible to determine the exact number of injuries. Three of the wounds cut into her internal jugular vein. The largest wound, a gaping V-shape, had been made by repeatedly applying the blade. He had cut through her carotid artery and several veins. It also cut through her trachea and nicked a vertebra at the back of her neck. Cutting through cartilage and into bone would have required much more force than the cuts to skin and muscle. Many of those wounds on their own could have easily been fatal.

The ultimate cause of death was listed as a combination of asphyxiation and sharp force trauma. Dr. McDonald believed it was most likely the asphyxiation that happened first; once the throat was too damaged, it would have been impossible to cut off the air with enough force to cause the bruising she noted. She also believed Colleen was alive during the sexual assault. This was important for prosecutors to prove because it was only a felony if it happened to a live victim. Philip was not found guilty of violating Colleen’s body with a tree branch—not because he didn’t do it, but because the jurors believed that she was dead by the time that he did.

On December 15th, 2015, Philip Chism was found guilty of first-degree homicide, aggravated sexual assault, and robbery. The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that a juvenile convicted of homicide had to be given a meaningful chance at parole. Judge David Lowy was bound by their decision. For the senseless killing of a beautiful young woman with her whole life ahead of her, Philip was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years. He was given concurrent 40-year sentences for the other two charges; the additional charge meant he must serve at least 40 years in prison.

Colleen’s parents, Thomas and Peggy Ritzer, were disappointed with the sentence; they thought he should serve a life sentence with no possibility of parole. Philip was held at the same secure juvenile detention center in Worcester for the next two years. When he turned 18, he was moved to the supermax prison, Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster, where all of the worst offenders in Massachusetts go.

In 2016, Colleen’s parents filed a civil suit against the town of Danvers and other parties, alleging improper monitoring of the security system at the school. They also claimed the cleaning company failed to report a crime and destroyed evidence. They kept pushing for answers until 2022, when the suit against the last party was finally resolved. They were not allowed to reveal the terms of the settlement, but their goal had been to make the town safer.

In Massachusetts, all first-degree homicide convictions are entitled to an appeal. Philip’s lawyers did not formally file his appeal until 2021, and his appeal proceeded through the legal system. In July of 2014, Philip was indicted on charges related to his attack on a worker at the juvenile detention center. The full list of charges were attempted homicide, assault to commit homicide, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (which were the pencil and the cinder block wall), and kidnapping.

Over a thousand people, many wearing pink, attended Colleen’s funeral at St. Augustine Church in Andover. The church was decorated with pink flowers. Her cousin Gina McDaniel spoke, saying Colleen’s gift was that of inspiration: “In such a short period of time, one person has made a world of difference. She is the daughter that every parent hopes their children will become once they grow up.” Colleen was laid to rest in Spring Grove Cemetery, also in Andover. The entire state of Massachusetts mourned the loss of Colleen; even the Boston Red Sox paid tribute to the slain teacher.

The entire Ritzer family was understandably devastated. Colleen had wanted to have a daughter and name her Beverly after her grandmother. Her mother, Peggy, mourned this dream. She said, “I will never see Colleen in a wedding dress. I’ll never see her be a mother.” Her father, Thomas, felt like he let his daughter down because he couldn’t protect her. He said, “My dad’s job is to fix things. I would do anything if I could fix this for Colleen.”

Shortly before her death, Colleen had posted one of the positive quotes she was so fond of. This one said: “Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.”

Despite their broken hearts, her family and friends started looking for something good in every day to honor Colleen. They also decided to start making something good happen every day. They turned their grief into action. Her dad and a group of his friends started growing and selling Colleen pink daisies. Later, they added pink Christmas cactuses. The cactuses are available online starting in mid-November, and the daisies are available for sale in April at a local greenhouse.

Similar to the “Footsteps for Bev” team Colleen created to honor her grandmother, a family friend created the “Step Up for Colleen” 5K Walk and Run. Participants—many in pink T-shirts or running shorts—get together every year to raise money and remember her life. They held the 10th annual event, and future ones continue to be scheduled. The money they raise helps fund the Colleen E. Ritzer Memorial Scholarship. Seniors at Andover and Danvers High Schools who want to pursue a career in teaching can apply. The program has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars to numerous deserving students.

This past October, 10 years after her death, Danvers High School renamed the library in her honor. The whole school district still participates in an annual Day of Kindness on October 22nd every year. Colleen’s best friend since kindergarten, Jen Berger, started this tradition in 2014. She asked everyone to commit random acts of kindness to spread the positivity that Colleen was known for. Instead of focusing on the fact she was gone, Jen wanted to focus on the life Colleen had lived. In a short documentary created by a former student, Jen described a walk in the woods she had taken with Colleen just days before her death. The trees had started to turn; they passed one with vibrant orange leaves. Colleen stopped and went back. She wanted to take a break and really look at the tree. She wanted to really capture the memory. Jen recalled Colleen’s love of quotes, smiling as she mentioned something Dr. Seuss said: “Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory”, she then added “and I’m glad I have a lot of memories”.