Ellen Greenberg‘s long-disputed death has once again been ruled a suicide by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner—14 years after the school teacher was discovered dead inside her city apartment, having suffered multiple stab wounds.
In 2011, New York native Greenberg, then 27, was found by her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg, on Jan. 26, 2011, inside their Manayunk apartment unit, which had been locked from the inside when he tried to gain access.
When he finally managed to gain access, he discovered Greenberg on the floor of their kitchen with a knife protruding from her chest.
An autopsy later revealed that the first grade teacher had suffered 20 stab wounds to her neck, back, head, and heart—and then-medical examiner, Dr. Marlon Osbourne, initially ruled her death as a homicide, stating that she had been “stabbed by another person.”
However, just a few weeks later, Dr. Osbourne changed the cause of death to suicide, which prevented any criminal investigation from taking place—a controversial decision that has now been catapulted back into the headlines as a result of a new Hulu documentary, “Death in Apartment 603: What Happened To Ellen Greenberg?” which examines the circumstances surrounding Greenberg’s death.
In the years since Greenberg’s death, her parents, Sandee and Josh Greenberg, as well as many of her other friends and family, have been fighting tirelessly for her case to be reopened and reexamined, and have also filed two lawsuits alleging that the police investigation into their daughter’s passing was “botched.”
Both of those lawsuits were settled on Feb. 3 of this year—resulting in city officials agreeing to look into whether changing the manner of death would be appropriate.
Now, Philadelphia Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lindsay Simon has once again determined that Greenberg’s manner of death is “best classified as a suicide,” after her office was “asked to conduct an independent and unbiased review of all available materials relating to the death of Ellen Greenberg,” as first reported by People magazine.
Addressing suggestions that Greenberg could not have inflicted all of the wounds herself, Dr. Simon wrote: “While the distribution of injuries is admittedly unusual, the fact remains that Ellen would be capable of inflicting these injuries herself.”
Dr. Simon also called attention to the fact that Greenberg had been “suffering from anxiety,” which was well documented in the months leading up to her passing.
The medical examiner emphasized that there is no evidence to suggest Goldberg was involved in his partner’s death, writing that “the fiancé’s DNA was not detected on the knife used to inflict the injuries” and noting that there were no signs of a struggle, or an abusive relationship.
The ruling has sparked fury from Greenberg’s family, however, who issued a statement via their lawyer, Joseph Podraza Jr., in which they slammed the “deeply flawed attempt to justify a predetermined conclusion.”
“It includes false claims like the assertion that a stab wound in Ellen’s spinal column was made during the autopsy, a theory rejected by every credible expert, including the City’s own neuropathologist,” the statement continued.
“By ignoring key evidence that contradicts suicide, the extensive 3D photogrammetry, a recreation which proves Ellen could not self-inflict all the wounds, unexplained bruises, missing surveillance footage, an intact lock, accounts of a toxic relationship.”
“Ellen’s family just wanted the truth. It is clear the truth will not come from Philadelphia’s law enforcement machinery. Though Ellen’s city turned its back on her, we will continue through other avenues to get justice for her murder, by any means necessary,” Podraza added.
Dr. Osbourne previously shed light on his decision to rule Greenberg’s death a suicide, noting—while under oath—that information from the scene led him to change his determination from his initial view that it had been a homicide.
He pointed out that Greenberg appeared to have been alone at the time of her death and that there had been no signs of forced entry at her apartment, which was located inside a complex in the neighborhood of Manayunk.
At the time, the building was known as the Venice Lofts, however it has since undergone an extensive renovation under a new name, Apex Manayunk.
On the day that she died, Greenberg had returned home early from work, after schools in the local area were closed as a result of a blizzard.
Her fiancé told police that he had gone to the gym in their building—only to find that the front door to their unit had been latched from the inside, leaving him unable to enter.
In the Hulu documentary, several workers who were present in the building at the time shared their own recollections of the day, with one front desk attendant recounting how Goldberg came down to the lobby asking for help in accessing the unit.
The miniseries, which premiered on Sept. 29, featured several pieces of security camera footage taken of Goldberg inside the building, although there were no cameras available outside the couple’s apartment unit—although cellphone records showed that he had made multiple attempts to text and phone Greenberg before breaking down the door.
Authorities who arrived on the scene initially determined that Greenberg had died by suicide after Goldberg told the emergency responder that his partner had “stabbed herself” or that she had “fallen on a knife.”
As a result, the attending officers did not call in a Crime Scene Unit—and the apartment was then cleaned by a professional team, which left no potential evidence.
Greenberg’s computer and her phone were also removed from the apartment by a member of Goldberg’s family—although they were handed back to the police when the medical examiner made his initial determination that her death had been a homicide.
During their attempt to change their daughter’s manner of death, the Greenbergs have hired multiple experts to find answers in her case, including a forensic pathologist and a forensic neuropathologist, both of whom determined that her wounds could not have been self-inflicted.
