SERIALously - 2: He Went To Wendy's After!

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

In today's episode of SERIALously, we delve into the shocking case of Philip Chism, a high school student who committed a heinous crime that left an entire community stunned. Join us as we explore the disturbing details of the case and unravel the twisted events that led to Chism's downfall. With exclusive interviews and expert analysis, this case will leave you on the edge of your seat as we uncover the dark secrets behind one of the most infamous crimes in recent history.  Follow Annie: https://www.instagram.com/_annieelise Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@annieelise Today's sponsors: Better Help Give online therapy a try at www.BetterHelp.com/ae  get on your way to being your best ZocDoc Go to Zocdoc.com/ANNIEELISE and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Then find and book a top-rated doctor today. Many are available within 24 hours.

buckle up and crank up that volume this is serialously with annie elise hello everybody my name is annie elise your true crime bff and welcome to an all-new episode of serialously now let me break down what serialously is all about gosh that is a mouthful that is a mouthful i probably should have thought of that before we solidified the name but i'm you know what i can say it now pretty regularly and comfortably so i'm confident after a while you guys will be able to as well but let me break it down over here we basically are still talking all things true crime just like over on tend to life but i wanted to do something where it's a little bit more engaging, where it feels like it's just two friends having a conversation about some of

these cases, where we can get a little bit candid, spicy, spill some tea, kind of call out the red flags, and really call out some of these criminals who I just like. It's unbelievable where their brain has apparently gone. They think they're smart enough to commit a crime but clearly they are not so we're just going to do it in more of a casual conversation type way so if you're watching this on YouTube totally fine absolutely but happy to report it's also on all podcast platforms there we go so you don't have to just watch it you can actually listen to it whether you're on your drive to work your commute to the grocery store you're stuck in traffic whatever you want to do it is on all podcast platforms new episodes released every single monday they are going to be released on the podcast version before the video version so the new pot it'll be available

on podcast on mondays and then it'll become available on video on Tuesdays. So there you go. Now you have the gist. Now you get it. But let me talk to you about what we're talking about today, guys, because OMG, the case I've got for you is a bananas crazy one. I'm talking like super ultra crazy. The case we're talking about today is pretty sickening and tragic, which I mean, hi, let's be honest, they all are. But this one is really interesting because, to me, cases like this serve as proof that there really should be no age or threshold for youth crimes as far as separating them from adult crimes when it comes to serious criminal offenses involving death, serious injury, cold-blooded murder, things like that.

And it makes you wonder if criminal courts should, in fact, cold-blooded murder, things like that. And it makes you wonder if criminal courts should in fact give these second chances to these younger offenders, or if the crime itself just exposes that they really are a damaged and sick individual, and they happen to just get caught earlier in life, so it's better to have them off the streets and away from the public, almost like it would happen at some point eventually. Some youth offenders are these budding criminals who we know, who we think will likely strike again, but others, people say, aren't naturally born bad and that there is opportunity for reform or rehabilitation. So when, it's a fine line, when do you decide, is that an option and is that the reality, or are they just cold-blooded killers who got caught early?

It really is that. And cases like these actually kind of make you wonder, and it serves as an example of is it exposing this individual who's incapable of change, or is it truly somebody who could be changed because their brain hasn't fully formed yet? A lot of controversial opinions out there and a lot of mixed opinions. So I'm curious to know what you guys think as we go through this case. So without further ado, let's just jump right in. Just seemed like quiet and like reserved, but he seemed normal other than that. He actually drew them a map to the body. We're hearing troubling new details in the case of a Danvers

teen accused of murdering his teacher. Shock and killing of the high school math teacher. A 14-year-old student. He said that there was some trigger word that got him angry. She was just a young caring girl that had the whole world ahead of her. Breaking news in the case of the teen accused of killing his teacher. He realized once he got into this that he was in so much trouble, I got to get rid of this woman. once he got into this that he was in so much trouble. I got to get rid of this woman. So in 2014, 14-year-old Philip Chisholm had just moved to Danvers. Danvers is a very small town in northeastern Massachusetts, and he moved there from Tennessee with his mom and two younger sisters. Philip's parents were divorced, which his mom Diana had said was extremely difficult, and after the divorce, she didn't really have anywhere to go. She had no other options but to

move from Tennessee to Massachusetts. Diana's aunt lived in an apartment in Danvers and told Diana that she and the kids could, of course, come and live with her. So Philip and his family moved to Danvers. They attended church in that small town. He made a few small friends in his youth group, and in the fall of 2013, Phillip started school at Danvers High School. He was a very good soccer player, played on the JV team for Danvers High School, but other than his soccer teammates, he wasn't really well known in the school. He didn't really have a whole lot of friends, and I think that's pretty typical for new kids. I mean, being the new kid really does suck, always, and so he didn't have many friends except his soccer buddies and that's kind of who he clung to now really quickly let me just paint the picture of this town because a very fun fact

or spooky fact I should say is Danvers was originally known as Salem Village as in the 1692 Salem witch trials it was also the site of Danvers State Hospital, which is one of the state's 19th century psychiatric hospitals. So there is still Salem, Massachusetts, but back in the day it was known as Salem Town. So while the witch trials were of course widespread and everybody knew them as the Salem Witch Trials, it was really throughout Massachusetts Bay Colony. But all of the shit that really went down, like the spooky scary shit, was in Salem Village, which is also known as Danvers. Salem Village was really the eye of the storm, but rather than discuss and kind of unearth its dark past, Danvers chooses to really guard

its history from the Halloween tourists who roll into town, who just kind of want the thrill of it all, which I get it, but also kind of like, hi, sorry, Danvers, it's really the first thing that actually shows up when you Google the town, so it's not like you can hide from it necessarily. So a lot of people have associated with that. And I know Salem has kind of taken one for the team because people always say Salem witch trials, but it's actually Danvers. Danvers. Danvers

was not so innocent and honestly this case is so disturbing that I've actually heard and seen comparisons of wondering people wondering if the devil is still on the loose in Salem village from the Salem witch trials and everything that went down and if that's why this horrific tragedy occurred which as we continue you'll get what I'm saying. So let's just keep going. So on October 22nd, 2013, around 6.30 p.m., Diana, Phillip's mom, contacted the Danvers Police Department. She contacted them to report that her son, Phillip, had not come home from school after soccer practice. She said that she went to the school and the athletic facility, and he was not anywhere to be seen. He was not there, but his teammates

said that Phillip had mysteriously vanished and actually completely missed practice at 4 p.m. The last time they saw him, they say he was running away from the soccer field in the complete opposite direction. So, after calling the police, Diana went down to the station and filed a missing person's report. While there, she gave the police Philip's phone number, hoping that they'd be able to ping him, to track him, to figure out where he had gone and what his location was. And luckily, they did, in fact, get a hit. The most recent ping location was earlier that afternoon at 4.28 p.m. It pinged near a movie theater called the Hollywood Hits Theaters in small town Danver. So Danver police go to this movie theater to conduct a canvas search,

where they learned that Philip did in fact buy a movie ticket, watched the movie, and then left. But after that, they weren't able to find any phone pings. They couldn't trace his whereabouts after that, they didn't know his location, and none of this made any sense to Diana, his mom, because it was so unlike Philip to just not come home, to skip soccer practice, which he loved playing soccer. That's where all of his buddies were. Then not to contact her, let her know where he was, where he was going. So Diana was feeling like something was really wrong, and she was getting really unsettled

by all of this. So that night, Danvers police used all sorts of social media avenues, Facebook, Twitter, you know, all of these things to get the word out about this 14-year-old kid who was missing from Danvers. The last they had heard from the teammates was that he was running the opposite direction on the soccer field, his phone wasn't pinging, it was unlike him, he went to the movies, which was super weird, on a school day, nothing was making sense. So they wanted the movies, which was super weird, on a school day. Nothing was making sense. So they wanted to get the word out about Philip's disappearance,

also give out his description, and alert the surrounding cities and the surrounding towns. Now, this is where the story gets crazy. And I am talking crazy. Once the news spread, Danvers High School principal Sue Ambrosevich sent out a mass email to all of the school staff around 9 p.m., letting everybody know that Phillip was missing. And after this mass email went out, the principal received a phone call from a woman named Sarah. She was a math teacher Sarah told the principal that she received a call from another math teacher named Colleen's parents Tom and Peggy and Tom and Peggy told Sarah that their daughter Colleen also a math teacher follow me here guys follow me here guys that she didn't come home from school that day and they believed that she too was missing so you have these worried parents tom and peggy and they are

calling a fellow friend and math teacher of their daughter colleen and they're like hey sarah colleen didn't come home from school today wondering if there were any after-school activities have you seen her have you heard from her we're getting worried so then as sarah's at home she's like no i haven't seen her but i'll let you know if i hear anything she gets this email from the principal saying hey there's a student missing she's like whoa no, I haven't seen her, but I'll let you know if I hear anything. She gets this email from the principal saying, hey, there's a student missing. She's like, whoa, so what are the light? What's the likelihood that two people from our school are missing? And so she calls the principal to say like, hey, weird you're saying that about Philip, because I also got this call from Colleen's parents and Colleen's missing as well. So where were Philip and Colleen? I mean, what are the odds that a student and a teacher

were completely missing from school that day? Did something nefarious happen? Was there maybe a love tryst going on via Lifetime movie? Nobody knew what was happening. And I don't know the likelihood of two people actually going missing from the same high school at the exact same time and it not being connected, but I'm guessing pretty, pretty low. Be honest. How many times have you been stewing about a health problem you have, resorting to texting your group chat to get

your friends' opinions and pray that they tell you it's nothing to worry about, only to not listen to them and then hit up Google and go down the entire rabbit hole of WebMD, TikTok, and social media, only to self-diagnose yourself 15 minutes later with 12 new diseases that you are positive you now have? Just me? No. Yeah, I know you've done it too. Well, lucky for all of us, today's sponsor is going to help all of us because there are thousands of medical professionals on ZocDoc to help. They listen like a friend and give you the expert care you need. No more rabbit holes. And let me just say, when someone is just exceptionally good at what they do,

you know you're in good hands. I personally would not want a hot air balloon pilot performing surgery on me, so why would I want social media diagnosing me? It makes no sense, right? Make it make sense. On ZocDoc, finding the doctor that's right for you is seamless. The quality care you need is just a few taps away in the ZocDoc app. ZocDoc is the only free app that lets you find and book doctors who are patient reviewed, take your insurance, are available when you need them, and treat almost every condition under the sun. Surprise twists might work for podcasts like this one,

but not for medical care. Go to ZocDoc.com slash Annie Elise and download the ZocDoc app for free, then find and book a top-rated doctor today. Many are available within just 24 hours. That's Z-O-C-D-O-C dot com slash Annieie elise once again that is zocdoc.com slash annie elise so let's talk a little bit about who colleen is colleen's a 24 year old girl who was a very popular ninth grade algebra teacher and she worked at the high school in danvers this was her second year of teaching and according to her family as early as three years old, Colleen realized her love for helping others. And she realized this and had this epiphany as she was watching her own preschool teacher open up her students' minds to the world of learning. So this apparently just innately planted a seed within Colleen that eventually blossomed into a love for teaching.

As a teacher, Colleen realized very quickly the impact that a teacher could have on her students, and she was not only gifted as a math teacher, but also was a huge source of inspiration to others, living by the words that every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day. Students were greeted every single day by Colleen with her beautiful and welcoming smile followed by an inspirational quote or a picture of the day at the beginning of each class trying to get everybody in the right frame of mind just very happy to start the day she loved her role as a teacher and being able to be a source of inspiration for these young impressionable students but

outside of that for her personal, she just loved her family and friends, and she really valued that. She valued being a sister, a cousin, a best friend, a daughter, everything like that. So then when Colleen didn't arrive back home by 3 30 or 4 p.m., it of course threw up a huge red flag to her family. This was not like her at all. So her mom and her sister were very, very concerned, and they thought that maybe she had plans that she didn't tell them about. But as the night went on, their concerns grew and grew and grew. So that's when they called Sarah, the other math teacher, and also one of Colleen's friends, to see if she had heard anything. Colleen's now missing, and Phillip is obviously still missing. So let's go back to Phillip. Just a few hours after he was reported as missing, around 12.30 a.m., Topsfield police were called about a pedestrian walking alongside the highway,

walking in the wrong direction. The police found this person, and the responding officer, Neil Hovey, realized that the individual walking was that missing teenager from Danvers, Philip Chisholm. Great news, right? This little kid, this 14-year-old kid was missing. It's now only been a few hours. He hasn't been abducted. He isn't lying dead on the side of the road. He's here. He's alive. He's walking, although on the opposite direction, but great news, right? Not right. Not right. Not right at all. So when officers first saw Philip, they noticed that he had a ski mask pulled down around his neck, which initially didn't seem all that weird because it was late October in Massachusetts and it was freezing outside. But he told Officer Hovey that

he was coming from Tennessee, and he said that he was going nowhere. That is a direct quote. He also said he didn't have an address and that in his backpack he had a bunch of survival gear which I just want to say this is a big red flag. This 14 year old kid is saying that he's walking from Tennessee and going nowhere. Are you serious and saying he's got survival gear with him and he's walking the opposite direction on a highway? I mean, all sorts of red flags and the story that he gave the officer. Like, is that the best you could come up with? It couldn't be like, oh, I was coming home back from my friend's house and I got lost.

My phone's dead. It's I'm coming from Tennessee. I'm going nowhere. I have survivalist gear with me. Like, OK, this isn't The Walking Dead. So anyways, the officer also saw this as a red flag and i'm just kind of curious like i don't know what philip thought this officer's response was going to be if he thought he was going to say like oh okay son you're coming from tennessee and going nowhere go ahead continue walking continue going on the path to nowhere stay safe out there you're walking the wrong direction, but stay safe. Like, it makes absolutely no sense. So this officer did a very quick pat down on Philip just for safety reasons, and he discovered that there was a rock in one of his pockets and also a credit card.

The credit card had a woman's name on it, Colleen Ritzer. But the name didn't mean anything to the officer at the time because no reports had been put out about Colleen is missing, and nobody had connected those dots yet. Philip said that he got the credit cards at a stop and shop convenience store but this officer saw this underage kid situation that wasn't really feeling right so he put him in the back of the police cruiser so that he could warm up and then he took him to the police station so they could figure out what the heck was going on. While they were at the police station, the officers at the station made a very disturbing discovery when they asked Philip about the

backpack that he was carrying with him with that survivalist gear. An officer asked him, is there anything in here that can hurt me? And Philip responded, yes. Inside the backpack, he found a blood-stained box cutter. So he asked, where did the blood come from that's on this? And he said, the girl. And then the officer asked, where's the girl? And Philip said, in the woods. Okay, this isn't going well. So then the officer asks, if we can find her, can we help her?

And Philip, in a very chilling way, says, no. And that wasn't all that they found in the backpack. They also found bluish-greenish women's underwear. Not good. Not good. After Colleen's parents, the principal, and a few others had gone to the school earlier that evening to look for Colleen, another teacher had come to help. This was another math teacher. It's like this band of bandits with math teachers here, and his name's Todd Buttersworth. Colleen apparently often babysat his one-year-old daughter,

and while searching for Colleen, Todd found a school bag wedged in between boulders at the edge of the woods near the school. At first, he thought that the bag maybe had rust on it or some sort of substance like that, but instead it was actually blood. So Todd decided to go a little further into the woods, but immediately stopped in his tracks when he stumbled upon a pair of white bloody gloves, and he then immediately notified the police, basically raising his hand and saying, you know, I found something. Officer Stephanie Wennenberger was the first cop on the scene to help in this search for Colleen. While inside the school, she searched in the bathrooms next to Colleen's classroom,

but noticed that it was very recently cleaned and also smelled like disinfectant. However, around the waist level of the wall was a reddish handprint with streaks, which that's kind of crazy because if a janitorial staff had come into the school and had cleaned the bathroom so much so that you smell bleach how didn't anybody get notified that there could have been a crime scene there and that there was like look hi a bloody like hand streak with blood going down it and it's unknown exactly how much blood was in the bathroom initially and why that wouldn't have set off alarm bells during the cleanup unless it wasn't the janitorial staff who did the cleanup

but let's keep going so this officer once notified of the school bag that the math teacher todd had found began searching in the woods next to where the bag was found where she found paper shreds of clothing two blue and white under armor gloves in blood, and other evidence kind of scattered about. Now, this was extremely alarming, and officers now realized the gravity of the situation. Officer Ellington and his cadaver dog, Falco, were called in to help investigate further. Falco pulled Officer Ellington into the woods and then drew him to an area where he saw a gray, blood-soaked sneaker. Falco pulled Officer Ellington into the woods and then drew him to an area where he saw a gray, blood-soaked sneaker. Falco also found a pair of soccer cleats and ladies' shoes underneath leaves. There was clothing strewn about in the area, some hanging on branches,

some on the ground, and some were bloody. Then Falco went even higher up the hill and dove into a gully where there was a large green recycling bin lying on its side, like one of those big ones that you put out on Mondays for trash. So officers blocked off a 6 by 10 square foot area of the woods, which contained blood, leaves, sticks, and it almost looked like a gravesite, like it was a square that was cut out of the ground right there. And as police searched further, one of the officers at the scene pointed out a human toe with pink toenail polish on it, poking out from underneath the leaves. The officers continued to process what was now obviously an official crime scene, and they began to uncover a body under those leaves, which was identified as Colleen. Colleen was found lying on her back,

covered in leaves in a way that was so obvious that whoever did this intended to conceal her body. Her throat was slit, and the slash wounds on her neck were so deep that her vertebrae was chipped. Her shirt was lifted above her breasts, and her bra was pulled down below, leaving them exposed. She was also naked from the waist down. There were red and brown bloodstains on her face and her torso, and her legs were spread apart and slightly bent in a sexually staged manner. Now, it's gonna get a little grotesque here for a second, guys, so I want to warn you. There was also a three foot long and one inch in diameter tree branch

that was inserted inside her vagina. Apparently, there was also next to her body a handwritten note that said, I hate you all. This scene was so disturbing that members of law enforcement later teared up any time they had to recount what they witnessed and what that scene looked like. Just absolutely horrifying. Later, the medical examiner collected male fluid that was inside Colleen and found that she was stabbed at least 16 times in the neck. 16 times. Her official cause of death was asphyxiation and stabbing. Also found near her body were a pair of black pants, a pair of jeans, a red sweatshirt, black socks, and men's boxer briefs that were stained with red and brown. They also found another backpack with red and brown stains on it, along with a student ID.

Can you guess who that student ID belonged to? Philip Chisholm. Now, one of the things that make this story even more crazy, as if it's not crazy enough, because we haven't gotten to motive, we haven't gotten to details or any of that, but here's what makes it so crazy. 90% of this crime is caught on camera. 90%. 90%. So either completely unbeknownst to Philip or he just didn't care, the school had recently installed 140 surveillance cameras throughout their entire campus. So everything was about to blow up in Philip's face. This episode of Serialistly is brought to you by BetterHelp. I have been very open about my

struggle with PPD after the birth of my son, Theo. When I first discovered that something wasn't quite right, I felt a lot of guilt and also a lot of anxiety. For me, I knew I needed to address how I was feeling head-on, and therapy is all about deepening your self-awareness and understanding, because sometimes we really don't know why we react the way we do or why we are feeling a certain way until we talk through things. BetterHelp connects you with a licensed therapist who can take you on that journey of self-discovery from the comfort of wherever you are.

It's helpful to not only talk with somebody in a judgment-free space, but it's great for learning positive coping skills and empowering you to be the best version of yourself. Therapy also isn't just for those who've experienced major trauma or feel like they need severe healing. I continue to go to therapy because it is so helpful. Even just using it as a maintenance tool when things are going great in my life. It helps keep things sharp and stay positive. What I love about BetterHelp is it is entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just

fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist. And if you aren't vibing with your therapist for any reason, that is totally okay and you can switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Discover your potential with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash AE today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.com. Danvers police reviewed the security footage from the high school CCTVs the very next day and the police created a minute-by-minute account of everything that happened that afternoon and what they found was so unbelievably damning. Let's start at the beginning of that afternoon. And before we get into that, let me just give you a little backstory here. Colleen was in a group of teachers called the

freshman team, and this team kept an eye on that year's freshman class to see how they were adjusting to high school just overall. Then after class, there was a period where teachers would make themselves available to students who needed extra help. And that's exactly what Colleen was doing on this afternoon, on October 22nd. And there were only two students that stayed after school in Colleen's classroom, Philip and a female student. Now I'm going to play this video for you. If you're listening to the podcast version, you can pop over to YouTube if you want to watch the surveillance footage, but I'm going to describe to you what's happening here. YouTube if you want to watch the surveillance footage, but I'm going to describe to you what's happening here. Colleen is seen leaving her classroom, then entering a faculty bathroom. Then you see Philip peeking out of the classroom, maybe thinking that he's not going to follow her.

Then he comes back out, pulls up his hood, and you can see Philip following along and looking like he's putting on gloves, then walking into that same bathroom. Philip was in the bathroom attacking Colleen for 11 minutes. Then you see a female student open up the bathroom door and quickly turn around. She opened the door and apparently just saw a naked butt and kind of got embarrassed that she walked in on somebody using the bathroom. She didn't see Colleen though so after that that must have spooked Philip because Phillip immediately leaves after that. Then you can see Phillip walking down the hallway holding something. He goes into the stairwell, still has his hood up, and he's now on the first floor.

Here you can see his hand is completely red as he's walking through the hallway. Then the next time he's on surveillance, you can see Phillip in the school parking lot. This is where it's believed he was crouching in the bushes and looking around to see if somebody was watching as he starts to change his clothes. Philip is now in a white shirt. He passes a teacher and runs back up to the second floor back to Colleen's classroom. Next, he grabs all of Colleen's belongings and his stuff and walks down the hall. Before he is seen walking down the stairs he now has a red sweatshirt kind of laid over his head to conceal his identity and the next time he comes back up the stairs he is wearing a full black ski mask and he puts on his red

sweatshirt before he runs down the hallway. Now for some reason in between that he took off the mask and I'm not sure why but next you can see him in the hallway running from another student with a soccer ball and the student's kind of like hey what are you doing but Philip keeps running. Next you can see Philip running down the stairs again but this time when he returns he has a green recycle bin and he wheels it up to the second floor and then into the bathroom. From there he takes the red sweatshirt off, puts the mask back on, and wheels Colleen down the elevator and out of the building. Next, he is outside, wheeling the recycling bin toward the woods, kind of struggling with the weight of it because Colleen's inside. And after seven minutes, he's back on camera,

wheeling the recycle bin back, and you can tell now that the bin is way lighter than it was before. When Philip starts to walk closer to the camera you can see that he's no longer wearing shoes as he walks back into the school. By the time he makes it to the stairs and back to the second floor you can see blood on Philip's jeans and can now clearly see that he is barefoot. He goes back down the hall walking very slowly at first and then rushes into a different bathroom where he changes into his soccer clothes but is still not wearing shoes. Then he goes back to the bathroom where he attacked Colleen one more time before heading down the stairs and outside of the school like nothing ever happened. Now there is so much of this that is crazy to me because whether he knew or not that

there were cameras installed in the school, the fact that he so casually is just cruising into the school with a green like huge ass recycling bin, wheeling it onto the second floor, then wheeling it around, like doesn't he think, not even thinking the cameras are taking those into account but doesn't he think like oh shit isn't somebody gonna see me there's other faculty at the school still there might be other students there clearly are other students aren't they gonna say like hey philip yo why are you wheeling that huge recycling bin in here what are you doing like this is definitely not discreet not discreet at all and in my opinion not you know well thought out so it's believed that Colleen actually may have been partially alive while she was being transported in that bin so he comes back to school he cleans up he changes he's dumped her

body now at this point and then he's going on his you know next whatever next mission I should say where he's going to go and start building his alibi maybe who knows so immediately after this horrific murder and assault Philip used Colleen's credit cards and he used them to buy a cheeseburger at Wendy's and then go to that theater and watch a Woody Allen movie before the police found him that night after midnight. This kid was so vicious and calculated that not only did he just kill this beautiful 24 year old teacher who was trying to help him and other students and did god knows what which we'll get to more in the bathroom but then he takes her credit cards is like hey I'm gonna go chief a cheeseburger at Wendy's and go see a movie. And act like, and I'm going to use her card to pay for all of that.

Like, what in the hell? So Philip was ultimately charged with two counts of RAPE, armed robbery, and first degree murder. And he was charged as an adult at just 14 years old. Which, let me just say say what a freaking psychopath so now let's get into what on earth could possibly possibly possess a seemingly average teenager to commit a crime so ain't it so heinous so heinous god so heinous at school and to his teacher right before philip ambushed colleen in the restroom, there was another student in that classroom with him at this, you know, after class meeting or whatever you would call it.

And this student witnessed a conversation where Colleen asked Philip how Danvers was different from Tennessee where he had lived previously and asked him how he liked the change. And the student said that she sensed that Phillips was irritated with this line of questioning, but said that Colleen didn't notice at first that he was irritated, but then when she did, she moved on to another topic. Now, Phillips' defense team later argued that Tennessee was the trigger word for him. That's why he decided to assault and murder his teacher, because she said the word Tennessee. If your jaw is on the floor right now being like, uh, hi, that makes no freaking sense, Annie. You are right, and let's talk more about that. So, to me, this video that we saw in the surveillance footage, which I also described

to you here, shows that there's no way that this was a rage killing, all because he was insulted by a question that Colleen asked him and that, you know, Tennessee was so triggering for him that he had no choice but to assault and murder her. Because the fact that he brought gloves, a box cutter, an extra change of clothes, all of that to school, to me, clearly shows premeditation then afterwards he was attempting to evade being caught with the gloves the hoodie all of it and had a ski mask pulled over i mean clearly this was something that had either been planned or he thought he was going to hurt somebody and it just happened to be colleen because maybe his rage started to bubble there's just like so many red flags with this kid he actually is a walking red flag going down the street.

Now, as I mentioned in the beginning of this story, Phillip had just moved from Clarksville, Tennessee in July, about two and a half months before this murder took place. According to neighbors, Phillip was traumatized by this move and had been maintaining hope that his mother would change her mind, even as she drove him and his sister north in the van. even as she drove him and his sister north in the van. The Boston Globe reported that Philip was very well known around his Clarksville neighborhood, had a ton of friends, and could often be found playing soccer or basketball or riding around on his skateboard. And a former girlfriend of Philip's, 14-year-old Hannah Walker, spoke out and told the media that she and Philip became friends in the sixth grade. She said that they became close over a period of a year and that they walked home together regularly every single day, saying that she would steal his hat so that he would come looking for it, and then once they danced in the rain after they got off the school bus, and then she said, this is a direct quote,

guys, I remember it like it was yesterday. I know people are like, you're only in middle school. You're too young for love. But I fell in love with him over a long period of time. He lit me up, honestly. Guys, are you effing kidding me right now? Like, I just can't. There's so much in this, how they danced in the rain after they got off the bus. I'm in love. Like, this isn't the notebook, honey. You're in sixth grade. Not that I don't think you can, like, find your soulmate when you're young, but, like, this just feels, I don't know. I don't like it at all. You're, like, 15 years old. It's time to just, like, move on. Let it go. It's weird. You'll be okay. I promise. Also, like, where was her mom during all of this? Why did her mom let her daughter talk to the Daily Mail out of all news outlets?

You let your daughter talk to the Daily Mail? Like, that should be a crime in itself. You should be arrested for that alone, period. Now, it's sad, I get it, that he had to move away from Tennessee. And I'm not trying to be, like, callous and say I don't have any, like, empathy for him with that. Like, I get it. Being the new kid sucks, especially when you're going into some of those important teenage years. You're being ripped away from all of your friends and you're being put into this new town where you don't know anybody. I get it. That is really

shitty. But is that an excuse to go into a murderous rage from hearing the trigger word Tennessee? No, not in my opinion. I'm not buying it. I believe that there has to be more underneath in all of this. You don't just plan and implement a very violent and sexual murder just because mommy made you move. That's not how it works. There has to be some like deep hatred brewing inside. Now personally, I believe that this was some kind of lust murder, because lust murders are homicides in which the offender stabs, cuts, or pierces or mutilates the sexual regions or organs of a person's body. The sexual mutilation of the victim might include, you know, some sort of displacement of the genitalia, some sharp wounds to it, the removal of breasts in a female victim, all sorts of different things. It also includes activities such as posing or propping up the body to make them appear in a more sexual state. Additionally, it also includes the insertion of objects into

the body cavities, which we know that she was found with a what a three foot long stick one inch in diameter that had been shoved up inside of her lust murders are predicated on the obsessive fantasies of the offender and it's um it's not enough for these types of killers to just kill actually they have to have this compulsive need to act out their fantasies with their victims and on their victims bodies it's very very weird but it's almost like a signature component of the crime and i remember even in the beginning and it's still i guess to be determined a lot of people are wondering if the brian coberger situation was like that um and if that's why there was so many stabbings i don't know i'm not going to try to digress too much onto that right now. So while awaiting trial, apparently officers were investigating the validity of a very disturbing tip and lead that they received, which, are you ready for this?

14-year-old kid, now 15, who's accused of brutally murdering this beloved teacher, Colleen, that he got a twisted thrill from setting pet cats on fire. So first of all, if this is true, what the heck is wrong with this guy? But also, does this show a clear pattern of escalation? We see so many times in serial killer cases and murderers that they start by harming animals, that that's one of the biggest signs to look for, that if there's ever any sort of talk of that, like, oh, that's a big red flag, it's time to, like, alert the police or, like, keep an eye on that guy or, like, ditch this guy, not go dance in the rain with him, you f***ing little weirdo. But but anyways apparently he got this thrill out of setting cats on fire so if this guy is so cold and calculated and cold-blooded to where he's

setting cats on fire and like getting off on it how in the world is he triggered by the word Tennessee how are we supposed to believe that if this whole cat thing is true how are we supposed to believe that somebody who got thrills out of setting pet cats on fire is the same person who gets triggered by the word Tennessee and again I'm not trying to make fun of him or say that you know his feelings aren't valid for it's sucking so bad moving from Tennessee to Danvers I get it I'd be pissed too but like come on I think that this kid is much more in line with like a psychopath. That's just my opinion. And guys, it gets even worse. Prosecutors for Phillip's trial asked for more strict security after he allegedly also attacked a female youth worker that month. Court papers reveal that

Phillip, who was now at the time 15 years old, had slipped away from his caregivers, crept along a common hallway, crouched down out of view, then followed this female youth worker to a locker room, choked her, and beat her around the head and face, all well armed with a pencil. Other workers came to the woman's aid when she was screaming, and they restrained him, luckily. Court documents also said that he appeared to be psychotic and was out of touch with reality, yelling, screaming incoherently, foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog while being restrained by staff. So after that, he was committed to a mental hospital for 30 days of evaluation and treatment.

When I heard this, the first thought that came to my mind was Aiden Fucci the killer in the Tristan Bailey case which is just a freaking horrifying case but if you've been following that one or if you did follow that one you may remember that when he was set to have one of his first hearings maybe it was even the prelim hearing I can't remember now there was video footage of him in the jail and he in my opinion was acting i don't believe it was real as though he was hearing voices he did this like notorious hair flip and he was just like huh huh looking around with this like really stupid look on his face um and that's kind of what this reminds me of like just all a show all acting leading up to

the trial assistant da kate m Kate McDougall said that nothing during the investigation had pointed to a mental health issue, but Phillips' lawyer, Denise Reagan, said that she would raise the issue of mental competency if and when she felt it was appropriate, which, whatever that means. And Phillips' trial was absolutely batshit crazy, and it revealed even more disturbing details, as if that's even physically possible at this point literally before it could even begin in day three of jury selection after a brief recess philip's attorney returned to court without philip where was philip one of the clinicians on duty told the judge that philip was refusing to come back and was on the floor banging his head saying it's not

safe to go in with him at the moment. Psychologist Colleen McMillan testified in court about Philip's condition to explain what was going on and tell the judge what was up and she says that she met with Philip for 90 minutes with his back turned to her the entire time. She said that Philip says that he doesn't want a trial and hoped that someone would come in with a gun and shoot him. I bet other people wish that too, my friend. He said a voice warned him not to trust his lawyers and that he began conversing with an imaginary man. Philip told her the man didn't want to be identified because the man said that the psychologist was also part of the team that put him away. He's also started reporting a burning sensation from anxiety from listening to the proceedings and fear of being attacked from

people in the courtroom who were walking around behind him. Phillip also claimed to have a plan to take his own life, but apparently he wouldn't share it with her. Prosecutors argued this issue and saying it's not about competence, but Philip's unwillingness to go forward with the trial. So the next day, attorneys came back once again to meet and discuss the situation. The prosecutor said, this absolutely is a matter of will and not competency. This defendant is holding every single party hostage and manipulating all of us. Everything that has happened in the last 24 hours is not real, it's fake. She argued that the state has conducted a very thorough evaluation on Philip and filed a 96-page report saying that doctors have studied him and declared him manipulative.

Specifically, they said his behavior is entirely inconsistent with someone hearing voices. Eh, kind of rings true to Agent Fucci, right? The judge had no choice but to commit him to another facility, though, to get checked for mental competency. Just dragging the feet, everything at a standstill, so ultra annoying. Let me just say this. Number one, it's funny that he wasn't this anxious and this nervous when he attacked Colleen in the bathroom and then went to a movie after he killed her and ate a cheeseburger at Wendy's using her credit card. Also, he was able to stalk and attack a staff

member at whatever facility that was that he was at when that happened, but now that he's being confronted with his actions, he's too scared to face the music, he's banging his head on the floor, he's hearing voices. Also, going back to Aiden Fucci, let's just say just say this like did he watch this trial as an infant and is that why he acted this out because it is just crazy that they pulled pretty much the same thing maybe being in the courtroom facing jury selection or during jury selection i should say with dozens of people in a very grave and sad mood with stern looks including parents his own mom crying maybe that started to be a little bit of a reality check in his sick mind and maybe that's why he was having a psychotic break but I think more along the lines of this

was all an act so as maddening and as frustrating as this delay was to Colleen's family and the prosecution as well it was better than giving the defense grounds for appeal so they said okay let him go get checked out for mental competency. This is super annoying. It's holding everything up, but we don't want you to come back later and appeal everything and say that he should have been checked for mental competency. So after a nearly three-week evaluation at a recovery center, Philip was found competent to stand trial and jury selection resumed. So the jury selected and then we actually start going into the trial. Once the trial started, the prosecution did not play. They came in hot. And let me just tell you, Kate McDougal was like ready to drag Philip. She came out of the gate hot. And honestly,

I'm here for it. So in the prosecutor's opening statements, she said that Philip arrived at school, that he had a blue sweatshirt with a hood, gloves,, she said that Philip arrived at school that he had a blue sweatshirt with a hood, gloves, a mask, and a box cutter, that he wasn't crazy when he killed Colleen, that this was calculated. He was focused and unwavering from his horrible plan to take what he wanted. And as a quote, she says, he had a goal, a terrible, terrible purpose, and he played it out in the woods and he didn't care what came after that they also claimed that colleen was incapacitated but not dead when she got into the woods meaning that she was still alive as he was wheeling her out of that school in the green

recycling bin they say that's where he carved those deep wounds and finished his sexual attack on her we know that he didn't get to finish what he started in the bathroom because he was interrupted. So what they're saying there is remember that girl who opened the door, saw the naked butt, and was like, oh god, sorry, like I didn't mean to, and then booked it out? He was in the process of trying to assault Colleen, they say, but because he wasn't able to, because he was interrupted, that's why he then wheeled her to the woods and finished his attack there. So the prosecution paints their whole story their whole position and really attacks philip and then it was time for the defense to try to paint philip as this triggered little boy his defense attorneys came out and pretty much said that yes philip did kill colleen it was brutal and that they were not

going to argue that which good because i mean the only thing that we're missing in this trial is watching him in the bathroom or the woods because everything else was caught on camera, so, like, obviously he killed her. If you were going to try to deny that, you'd be an absolute moron. However, they did say that Philip was psychotic, saying, why else would a kind, smart, good-natured 14-year-old commit these terrible acts? He must be psychotic. They argued that he was uprooted from his home in Tennessee, thrust into a school in town where he knew no one, and he had no place to hide. The defense's expert witness, Dr. Richard Dudley,

who had spent several decades evaluating kids and teens with severe mental illnesses, then took the stand. He said he believed Philip had heard voices since he was 10 years old. His defense said that while he was attacking Colleen, he was not a kind, smart 14-year-old boy. He was responding to those terrible commands that were hallucinations in his head and that he did not choose to do this. Which, okay, let me just say one thing that bothers me so much about trials and expert witnesses and this goes for the prosecution as well but expert witnesses will literally say whatever you want them to they are paid to basically be an expert witness so i don't really know how credible it is

in the end all be all it isn't new and it isn't new it isn't a secret we all kind of already know this which makes it awkward whenever the state's like oh no well our doctor said he was a big faker and then you have somebody say well no our doctors say it was real obviously they're going to counter each other out that's just how it goes and i get it it's because they both want to build these strong arguments but like anybody could say anything in that regard let me just say that so now the question is was philip in the throes of psychosis and couldn't help but listen to these alleged voices in his head? Or is he a malicious, manipulative, dangerous little prick who is faking a mental illness now because he got caught? That was going to be up to the 12 people on the jury who have no medical education because that makes perfect sense, right?

Let them decide. Let them listen to these expert witnesses who both counter each other out negating all these things and then you have to decide and i'm not coming down on the justice system guys i get it i believe in the justice system i believe in a jury trial but when it comes down to something like this to state was he malicious or was he in psychosis how can a jury truly decide that i don't know Tell me if you know the answer. Now, during day two of the trial, Philip went and pulled the exact same stunt that he did during jury selection. I am not even joking. And the prosecution was pissed. Sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I'll bleep that out. And they were very concerned about the timing of this, because when this happened, it was when the actual green recycle bin that he used was

going to be brought into the courtroom for jurors to see. They also urged the judge to not let Philip continue to act like he's in control of this process. And this time too, the judge was not having it. He was not dealing with these delays. So he said, you know what, fine. If Philip wants to waive his right to be present in court, that's fine. It's going to continue without him. But once Philip was brought back in and the judge explained that Philip could waive his right to be present, Philip said that now he actually wants to be there, now that it wasn't working. So I don't know. It wasn't confirmed why Philip decided to stay in court and why he changed his mind, but I believe it's because he didn't want to pass the

chance to throw another tantrum in the future like a child in a grocery store that is just my opinion I think he was trying to do all of these stall techniques when this one didn't work and when the judge finally called his bluff and said like all right look fine then you know what you don't need to be here that means like well no no I do want to be here during the course of the entire trial jurors saw the chilling videos of Philip following Colleen into the bathroom. But the prosecutor, nearly yelling at times, walked them through Philip's movements, checking his pocket for the box cutter, putting his hoodie on, putting on the gloves, opening the bathroom door, and then wheeling the recycle bin out. And she said, and I quote, I quote, but all of those images, while they show deliberate premeditation, don't matter as much as one. The only still image that matters in this case is the image of Colleen in the woods, the

image that the defendant painted of Colleen, stripped, battered, brutalized, and violated. The defense was able to get Phillips' initial conversation and confession where he told the police about the girl and the woods thrown out, but fortunately the case was so strong from that video and the physical evidence, and I mean it's just unreal, like thank goodness for all of those video cameras. So the verdict finally comes in, and Philip was found guilty of murder, rape, and robbery, and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after serving 40 years. He's currently at a Supermax prison in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and Colleen's family was extremely disappointed in this because they wanted Philip to have life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But again, going back to what I talked about in the beginning of this video, because of his age, even though he's being tried as an adult, there's not really much that anybody can do about it. Throughout the trial, Philip also didn't appear to show an ounce of remorse and looked completely just devoid of all emotion completely, which combined with this heinous crime suggests to me that he's seriously a psychopath. Like, I get it, I'm not a doctor and that's not a diagnosis, it's just my opinion, but like to be that cold that cold that callous there's something else going on and you're like lighting cats on fire Bro, the writing's on the wall

After philip's conviction colleen's family filed a wrongful death suit naming the town of danvers the school district and the school's cleaning company For cleaning up potential evidence They were not after money for themselves, but they wanted any proceeds to benefit school safety programs and a charity in Colleen's name. Ultimately, the lawsuit asked for answers, like why nobody was monitoring those surveillance cameras in real time, why Phillip was just allowed to roam the school visibly showing blood, which are all pretty fair points, if I'm going to be honest. And the lawsuit was finally settled in August of 2022 for an undisclosed amount. Colleen's family set up a memorial fund called the Colleen Ritzer Memorial Fund, whose mission is to foster a society of compassion with kindness as a motivating influence

in all of its endeavors. They sell pink daisies, they organize 5k events, and they do a variety of other things to help raise money for this fund. They've also created a hashtag where they encourage others to share acts of kindness on social media using the hashtag kindness for Colleen. Now, I want to know what you guys think about this case. Not only do you think that it was premeditated and that he is, you know, had planned this or if you think he was truly a psychopath who heard voices. But it goes back to the beginning question. What should the punishment be for children who commit these crimes? Was Philip a cold-blooded, calculated, deviant pervert who was going to commit a crime at any age and just got started at a young age, especially given his cat history and lighting them on fire? Or was it because his brain wasn't fully formed? I forget

what lobe that is, the frontal lobe or whatever it is. So his decision making was skewed and that by going to prison for a few decades, he might be rehabilitated, have reform, and then he won't be a nuisance to society anymore. There's just such a fine line, I feel like, because the risk is that these kids, the Aiden Fuches of the world, the Philip Chisms of the world, the, what's her face, Sheila Eddie, was that it? Sheila Eddie, I think, from the We Go on 3, when they killed her best friend. These people in the world, if they are sentenced lightly because they're young and because people think that there's the possibility of reform, when they're released and put back on the street, what if they are still

violent and they can murder somebody else? Is it that they just got caught at a young age and they should be incarcerated for life because they're born bad? Or is it that they can got caught at a young age and they should be incarcerated for life because they're born bad or is it that they can be worked on and fixed and find god and all these things i don't know to me based on the brutality of so many of these crimes like aidan fucci's crime against tristan bailey like philip chisholm and the stick and the assault and all that like killing your best friend and luring her out into the woods in the middle of the night, these seem more calculated to me, not like a young kid whose mind isn't fully formed. In my opinion, it feels like their mind is formed and they're smart enough and they're manipulative enough to execute these murders and these attacks. So does the

punishment fit the crime? What do you think? All right, guys, thank you so much for tuning in with me on this Monday or Tuesday, depending on where you're when you're listening to this, whether it's on YouTube or the podcast. Thanks for tuning in with me on another episode of Serialistly. We are going to be dropping them every single week. Remember, they get released on the podcast sooner than they do over here on youtube so if you want something brand spanking new to start your week listen to the podcast version but you can always pop over here if you want to see the video version too and if you guys are liking this podcast please don't forget to rate it on apple spotify all of your things give it a rating give

it a review do your thing and let me know in the comments what cases we should talk about on the next episode of Serialistly. All right, guys, it is me, your true crime BFF, Annie Elise, signing off, and I will see you next week. All right, bye.