Teacher's Body Found in Woods, Student Charged

The Danvers, Massachusetts, public school district canceled all classes today as police investigate the death of a 24-year-old math teacher—whom they suspect was killed by a 14-year-old student. High school teacher Colleen Ritzer was reported missing at 11:20pm last night, the Boston Globe reports. Police searched the school, finding blood in a second-floor bathroom. Soon thereafter, they found the suspect walking along the side of Route 1. The 14-year-old had been reported missing earlier, after failing to return home from school.

Soon after locating the boy, police discovered Ritzer's body in the woods behind the school, according to WBZ. The teen has been charged with murder, and will be arraigned later today. Town officials started alerting parents at about 4:45am that school would be closed. "We are all terrified," one junior said. "No one will ever look at this school the same way." The teen has not been officially identified, but 14-year-old Philip Chism was reported missing yesterday, and the DA's office confirmed to the Danvers Patch that the incidents are connected. (More Danvers, Massachusetts stories.)