Death of Ellen Greenberg

Ellen Rae Greenberg (June 23, 1983 – January 26, 2011) was an American woman who died after sustaining 20 stab wounds. Her death was officially ruled a suicide despite the 20 stab wounds (10 to her back and neck) and 11 bruises, sparking extensive debate as to whether the cause of death was actually homicide. The mysterious circumstances surrounding the manner of death have prompted significant political activity, legal action, and global media coverage.

Ellen Rae Greenberg was born on June 23, 1983, to Josh and Sandee Greenberg.^[1] She earned a degree in communications from Penn State University and her teaching credentials from Temple University and Chestnut Hill College ^[2] She was a first-grade teacher at Juniata Park Academy in the Juniata neighborhood of Philadelphia.^[3][4] She lived in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia, where she shared an apartment with her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg.^[5]

On January 26, 2011, a blizzard hit Philadelphia, prompting Greenberg to leave work and return to her apartment.^[5] At approximately 6:40 p.m., Greenberg was pronounced dead as a result of 20 stab wounds, including 10 to her back and neck.^[6][7] There were also 11 bruises in various stages of resolution^[8] on her right arm, abdomen, and right leg.^[9]

According to the investigation report, Greenberg's body was discovered by her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg, who returned from a gym to find their apartment door secured with a swing latch, and knocked it down after unsuccessfully trying to reach her.^[10] Goldberg subsequently called 911 stating that Greenberg "stabbed herself" and "fell on a knife".^[11]

The crime scene was initially treated as a suicide by the police investigators,^[5] but after the autopsy the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office ruled the case as a homicide.^[12] The next day, the Philadelphia Police Department differed with that conclusion, saying, "the death of Ellen Greenberg has not been ruled a homicide [...] Homicide investigators are considering the manner of death as suspicious at this time."^[12] The medical examiner's office then changed its conclusion, saying in February that the death was a suicide.^[4]

The apartment was cleaned and sanitized on January 27, after permission to do so was given from the police. James Schwartzman, Samuel Goldberg's uncle and the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board in Pennsylvania,^[13] also entered the apartment that day to retrieve work and personal laptops, phones, and credit cards belonging to both Goldberg and Greenberg. Police returned to the scene on January 28 after gaining a search warrant, and also requested and retrieved the items taken by Schwartzman.^[14][15]

In early 2018, the office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro took over the case.^[16] In 2019, a spokesperson for Shapiro stated that computer searches made on Ellen's computer pointed toward Greenberg's death being a suicide and that the investigation had been closed.^[17][18] Legal representation for the Greenberg family disputed such evidence on the laptop, stating that it is undisputed that Samuel Goldberg's uncle James Schwartzman took possession of Ellen's iPhone and two computers, breaking the chain of custody.^[19] The Philadelphia Police had also sent Ellen Greenberg's computers to the Philadelphia Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory (RCFL) for a forensic examination, and a police document later summarized the findings: "Keyword Searches were done on every computer searching for Suicide Information and the examination did not reveal anything remarkable."^[19]

During the multi-year period in which the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office had control over the case, the Greenberg family's legal team provided them with a significant volume (over 10 gigabytes) of new evidence, including detailed forensic files and medical findings; 3D stab wound analyses of each of the 20 strikes Ellen suffered; and lengthy depositions of three Philadelphia medical examiner officials, one of whom said Ellen was likely already dead when one of those stab wounds occurred.^[20][21]

In July 2022, the internet community uncovered relationships between Josh Shapiro and the families of Samuel Goldberg and James Schwartzman, prompting the Attorney General's Office to send the case to the Chester County, Pennsylvania District Attorney's Office to avoid the "appearance of a conflict [of interest]."^[16] The Chester County District Attorney announced the investigation was inactive, citing an independent forensic expert with an undergraduate degree in entomology (the study of insects) and without any medical training, which was widely criticized by Greenberg's legal team and the true crime community.^[22]

On March 15, 2019, The Philadelphia Inquirer released a front-page investigative report reviewing the suspicious circumstances surrounding Greenberg's death.^[5] Pittsburgh forensic pathologist Cyril H. Wecht, who challenged the single-bullet theory of the John F. Kennedy assassination, reviewed the case, determined it was "strongly suspicious of homicide", and said he did not "know how they wrote this off as a suicide".^[5] Similarly, forensic scientist Henry Lee, who testified for the defense in the O. J. Simpson murder trial, reviewed the case files and concluded, "the number and types of wounds and bloodstain patterns observed are consistent with a homicide scene".^[5]

One significant point of contention were the stab wounds that allegedly penetrated Greenberg's brain. Wayne K. Ross, an investigator hired by the family, wrote that the wounds to the brain and spinal cord would have caused severe pain, cranial nerve dysfunction, and traumatic brain injuries.^[9] The original medical report stated that an esteemed consulting neuropathologist, Lucy Balian Rorke-Adams, had determined there was no such wound. But when asked about the case seven years later by The Philadelphia Inquirer, Rorke-Adams responded, in writing, "I have no recollection of such a case", and "I would conclude that I did not see the specimen in question although there is a remote possibility that it was shown to me."^[9] The newspaper examined the records and determined that "there was no bill, invoice, or report from Rorke-Adams for this case".^[9]

Initially, investigators thought the apartment door had been locked from the inside using a swing bar latch, and reported that Goldberg had been with a security guard when busting it open. The manager of Greenberg's apartment building later claimed that the door being latched did not prove Greenberg had locked the door from the inside. The security guard in question said he was not there when Goldberg forced open the door, and security footage showed Goldberg without the security guard on the elevator just before the 911 call was made. An analysis of phone records by CNN also appeared to contradict claims by two relatives of Goldberg's that they had been on the phone with him as he broke the door down.^[11][15]

In October 2019, Greenberg's parents filed a civil suit against the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office and Marlon Osbourne, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy, in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.^[6] The suit seeks to change the manner of death to "homicide" or "undetermined", citing new information and the fact that Osbourne admitted to changing the manner of death at the insistence of the police.^[6] Photogrammetry, which was unavailable at the time of Greenberg's death, created a 3D anatomical recreation of her wounds and demonstrated that not all her stab wounds could have been self-inflicted.^[23]

In January 2020, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas allowed the case to proceed past the motion to dismiss stage.^[24] The trial was set to begin in 2021.^[25] In February 2022, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office under Shapiro reaffirmed that her death was a suicide, which was criticized by Greenberg's parents.^[17] In August 2022, the Chester County District Attorney's office announced it would reopen the investigation into Greenberg's death, shortly after the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office relinquished the case due to an "appearance of" conflict of interest.^[26] On July 30, 2024, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Eastern District granted a petition for allowance of appeal to review the challenges to Greenberg's cause of death.^[27] In February 2025, following a lawsuit from Greenberg's parents, a settlement was reached in which Greenberg's death would be re-investigated. Osbourne filed a sworn statement in which he stated he no longer agreed with the ruling of her death as a suicide following a review of additional information in the case.^[28]

In February 2025, the pathologist that originally ruled the case a suicide signed a document stating he amended his position on the cause of her death, no longer considering it a suicide. He wrote "it is my professional opinion Ellen’s manner of death should be designated as something other than suicide." Since Osbourne is no longer employed by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s office, his statement does not have any influence on the official death certificate.^[11]

On October 10, 2025, in a 32-page report,^[29] Chief Medical Examiner Lindsay Simon, Philadelphia's top pathologist, reaffirmed the original ruling that Greenberg died by suicide.^[30] While Simon accepts that "the distribution of injuries is admittedly unusual," she maintains that Greenberg "would be capable of inflicting these injuries herself."^[31] Based on an analysis of photographs taken at autopsy, Simon also contends that the defect found in Greenberg's spinal cord could have been caused accidentally by a probe during the autopsy procedure. Simon further observes that even if Greenberg sustained such an injury to her spine antemortem, it would neither have incapacitated Greenberg nor have prevented her from continuing to move.^[32]

Following The Philadelphia Inquirer investigation, the case became a sensation in the true crime community. The incident was featured in the Dr. Oz Show,^[33] People Magazine,^[34] 48 Hours,^[9] Inside Edition,^[35] The Philadelphia Inquirer, CBS Philadelphia,^[25] Good Day Philadelphia (FOX29 Philly),^[36] ABC Harrisburg, CBS Harrisburg, Penn Live, NBC's Oxygen network,^[37] the Daily Mail, and Law.com. The suspicion surrounding Greenberg's death was also the subject of a March 2019 episode of the true crime television series Accident, Suicide or Murder.^[37] Nancy Grace covered the mysterious circumstances surrounding Ellen's death in her book What Happened to Ellen? An American Miscarriage of Justice.^[38]

A documentary series revolving around the case Death in Apartment 603: What Happened to Ellen Greenberg? for ABC News Studios and Hulu premiered on September 29, 2025, directed by Nancy Schwartzman, and executive produced by Elle Fanning and Dakota Fanning.^[39][40] The series mentions that a number of podcasts had covered the story once the 2019 article^[5] was published in the The Philadelphia Inquirer.^[41]

• Jonathan Luna