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DANVERS, Massachusetts (CNN) — Before 14-year-old Philip Chism allegedly killed his algebra teacher, the pair had at least one more encounter as student and teacher, a witness said.
Chism had been doodling and listening to music during Colleen Ritzer's algebra I class during the school's final period, classmate Cambria Cloutier told CNN. Creating such drawings was unusual for Chism, and when the final bell sounded at 1:55 p.m. Tuesday, Ritzer asked him to stay after class.
Cloutier sat two desks over from Chism, who rarely participated in class discussion but was "a really good student," she said.
While shuttling between two after-school meetings, Cloutier said, she looked into the same classroom and saw Ritzer standing by her computer and Chism sitting in a chair about 5 to 10 feet away. The teacher smiled at her, Cloutier recalled.
At some point that afternoon, Ritzer went to a student girls' bathroom on Danvers High's second floor, as someone was in the locked faculty bathroom, a source close to the investigation said.
Chism allegedly followed her in.
The school reopened its doors Friday, as the first answers began to surface.
How was Ritzer killed? With a box cutter the suspect, Chism, had brought into school, a source close to the investigation says.
What happened to her body afterward? It was stashed in a recycling bin, rolled outside, then dumped about 20 feet into woods behind the northeastern Massachusetts high school's athletic fields, adds another source. It was left there -- not buried, not even covered.
And where did the alleged killer go afterward? After changing his clothes, he went to a Wendy's fast-food restaurant and a movie, sources say, before police in a neighboring town saw him walking on a busy road under the pitch-dark sky early Wednesday.
Yet the question of why this happened -- why a popular young educator who always wore a smile and went the extra mile was killed allegedly by a teenager who friends, family and co-workers described as reserved and well-behaved -- continues to loom large.
Chism, who had moved to the Boston suburb of Danvers before the start of the school year, remained jailed without bond Thursday. A grand jury will play a big part in deciding his next step: If they indict him for first- or second-degree murder, he -- like any juvenile age 14 or older -- would be tried as an adult, based on Massachusetts law.
Meanwhile, the tight-knit North Shore community is still trying to make sense of what he allegedly did and of life without a teacher who so many appreciated, learned from and loved.
"It's just surreal how quickly someone can go, and how much we take for granted every day," said Danvers High student Chris Weimert. Ritzer was "the nicest teacher you could ever have. I can't believe it."
