Ellen Rae Greenberg

Ellen Rae Greenberg (June 23, 1983 - January 26, 2011) was a 27-year-old first grade teacher at Juniata Park Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Jabali-Nash, Naimah.
Homicide or Suicide?: Conflicting Findings Arise in Stabbing Death of Pa. Teacher
. January 31, 2011. www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2019-03-24. Ellen, an only child, was born in New York City, New York to Joshua (Josh) and Sandra (Sandee) Greenberg.

Incident

On January 26, 2011, a blizzard hit Philadelphia, prompting Ellen Greenberg to leave work and return to her Manayunk apartment, where she lived with her fiancé Samuel (Sam) Goldberg, a Gladwyne-based television producer for NBC and later Golf.com.Farr, Stephanie.
A Philly teacher's brutal stabbing has experts at odds: Was it a suicide or homicide?
. Philadelphia Inquirer. March 15, 2019. At approximately 6:40 p.m. that evening, Ellen was pronounced dead as a result of twenty stab wounds, including ten to her back and neck.Farr, Stephanie.

October 16, 2019. Philadelphia Inquirer. There were also eleven bruises in various stages of resolution on Ellen's right arm, abdomen, and right leg.Roppolo, Michael.
Authorities say the cause of a Philadelphia teacher's death was suicide, but her parents say it was murder
" March 11, 2020. CBS 48 Hours. However, despite there being no suicide note, the crime scene was treated as a suicide.

Following the autopsy, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office initially ruled the case as a homicide.Scally, Bernard J.

. February 2, 2011. Montgomery News. However, the next day, the Philadelphia Police Department backtracked and stated that, "the death of Ellen Greenberg has not been ruled a homicide…Homicide investigators are considering the manner of death as suspicious at this time." The case was reversed and officially ruled a suicide in February 2011.

Further investigation

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

One significant point of contention were the stab wounds that penetrated Ellen Greenberg's brain. Dr. Wayne K. Ross wrote that the stab wounds to the brain and spinal cord would have caused severe pain, cranial nerve dysfunction, and traumatic brain injuries. The original medical report stated that neuropathologist Dr. Lucy Rorke-Adams determined there was no such wound. However, when interviewed by ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', Dr. Rorke revealed she did not observe Greenberg's body and confirmed she has no records (bill, invoice, or report) of the examination.

Legal action

In October 2019, Ellen Greenberg's parents filed a civil suit against the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office and Dr. Marlon Osbourne, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy, in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. The suit seeks to change the manner of death to "homicide" or "undetermined" citing new information and the fact that Dr. Osbourne admitted to changing the manner of death at the insistence of the police. A new technology called photogrammetry, unavailable at the time of Ellen's death, created a 3D anatomical recreation of Ellen's wounds, demonstrating that not all 20 wounds could have been self-inflicted.

Ellen Greenberg's parents scored a significant legal victory in January 2020, when the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas allowed the case to proceed past the motion to dismiss stage. The trial is set to begin in 2021.

In August 2022, the Chester County District Attorney’s office announced it would reopen investigation into Greenberg’s death. This was on the heels of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s statement that they were relinquishing the case due to a conflict of interest.

Media coverage

Following ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' investigation, the case became a sensation in the true crime community. Ellen Greenberg's story was featured in the ''Dr. Oz Show'', ''People Magazine'', '' 48 Hours'', ''Inside Edition'', ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', CBS Philadelphia, ''Good Day Philadelphia'' ( FOX29 Philly), ABC Harrisburg, CBS Harrisburg, ''Penn Live'', NBC's Oxygen network, the ''Daily Mail'' (UK), Law.com, and FreakTV (Portuguese). The suspicion surrounding Greenberg's death was also the lead episode in second season of the true crime television show, ''Accident, Suicide Or Murder''.

A number of podcasts have also detailed Greenberg's death, including the ''Criminology Podcast'' (featuring Cyril H. Wecht), Sinisterhood, ''Catch My Killer'', ''Generation Why'', ''Strange and Unexplained'', Stephanie Harlowe's YouTube channel, Rachel Shannon's YouTube channel, Gavin Fish's YouTube Channel, ''Killer Podcast'', ''GRWM'', ''Late Night Crimecsat'', ''Sideline Sleuths'', Kendall Rae's YouTube channel, Bouquet of Madness, ''Women & Crime'', Crime Junkie and Morbid: A True Crime Podcast.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenberg, Ellen
1983 births
2011 deaths
2011 in Pennsylvania
2011 murders in the United States
Capital murder cases
Crimes in Philadelphia
January 2011 events in the United States
Incidents of violence against women
Violence against women in the United States