February 11, 2025
The parents of Ellen Greenberg, a Pennsylvania teacher whose death was initially ruled a suicide, have sued the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office to have their daughters manner of death listed as a homicide.
On January 26, 2011, 27-year-old Greenburg, a first-grade teacher at the nearby Juniata Park Academy, left her workplace early. There was a blizzard that day and everyone had been dismissed.
She went back to her apartment in Venice Lofts, Manayunk, which she shared with her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg, who worked as a TV producer.
That evening, Goldberg left the apartment around 4:45 p.m.
He said he finished up a session at the gym, which was located inside the complex, and returned to their apartment on the sixth floor to find it locked from the inside.
He knocked on the door and called out to Ellen but there was no response.
He began to call her and text her but she didn’t answer, he said.
Messages he sent went unanswered.
The inquirer would later publish some of the messages Goldberg sent:
“open the door,” he wrote, “I’m getting pissed,” and “you better have an excuse,” “what the f***,” “ahhh. u have no idea.”
When the complex security wouldn’t help him get inside, he took matters into his own hands.
He said at around 6:33pm he eventually forced the door open to get inside, where he found Ellen Greenberg dead in the kitchen, a 10-inch knife protruding from her chest.
He called 9-1-1 immediately he said, and was told not to administer CPR because of the knife lodged in Greenberg’s chest that was likely piercing her lung.
By 6:40pm Ellen Greenberg was officially pronounced dead.
According to the family, this knife was never fingerprinted, although some media outlets said only the victim’s DNA was found on the knife.
Neighbours did not report hearing anything other than Goldberg knocking loudly on the door to get inside. Nobody had entered through the balcony as a thick blanket of snow remained untouched.
She had a total of 20 stab wounds, 10 of which were in her neck and back.
Her right arm, left leg, and abdomen were bruised, with all the bruises at different stages of healing.
When police arrived at the scene, they treated the death as a suicide, however autopsy listed the death as a homicide. (Autopsy can be read in full here)
The police proceeded to refer to the death as a suicide.
Detective John McNamee said the superficial wounds seemed like "test" wounds, hesitant attempts to stab one’s own flesh, in his opinion, it hinted at suicide.
The Philadelphia Medical Examiner's office followed suit, and by February change the nature of death to a suicide.
The victim’s parents said Greenberg appeared to be halfway through preparing a fruit salad on the kitchen countertop, and a knife block had been knocked on the floor.
The victim’s parents, Joshua, and Sandra Greenberg’ said Ellen Goldberg had also suffered a "gash to the head," and alleged that there were restraints around her wrists.
The location and amount of stab wounds is considered unusual for a suicide. However, of the 20 wounds, 16 were superficial. One stab wound to the back of the neck penetrated the vicinity of the spinal cord, but apparently did not damage the spinal cord itself.
The final fatal wound pierced the aorta and left upper chest.
Jo Podraza, the lawyer of Goldberg's parents, Joshua, and Sandra Greenberg, said that the lock on the door to the apartment looked as though it had been tampered with. He alleged that the knife was not finger printed.
Goldberg was also found with a white towel in her left hand that was not stained with blood.
Greenberg's parents alleged in the suit that Goldberg's parents paid for the cleaning service and that his relatives went into the apartment and took digital devices, like laptops and a cell phone.
Joshua and Sandra Greenberg reportedly reached a settlement with the office after filing a suit against the city.
After a judge finally allowed the victim's parents to go to trial against city officials in an emotional distress case, claiming their daughters case was inadequately investigated and covered up.
A former police officer had his case dismissed, but there was enough evidence to move forward with the train against other officials with the Philadelphia Police Department and Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office.
Standing before the jury, the medical examiner agreed, as part of a deal, to reopen the investigation into Ellen Goldburg's death.
In February 2025, Marlon Osbourne, who at the time of Greenberg's death was the former assistant medical examiner for the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office, admitted that he was wrong to have changed the victim's death from homicide to suicide.
In a statement he said that based on "new information" that was brought to his attention following his departure from his old position, coupled with his findings at the time of the autopsy, that, in his professional opinion: "Ellen’s manner of death should be designated as something other than suicide."
The victim's parents did not want monetary damages from Dr. Osbourne, simply for him to acknowledge that their daughter's death was not a suicide. Their attorney took a "better late than never" approach to Osbournes sworn statement, calling it courageous.
February 04, 2025
