*** WE WANT JUSTICE FOR ELLEN GREENBERG ***
Nancy Grace published February 10, 2025 Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Ellen Greenberg's mom and dad fight back force case reopen.
In this gripping episode, Nancy Grace delves into the case of Ellen Greenberg, a Philadelphia teacher found with 20 stab wounds in her locked apartment—a case initially ruled as suicide. We explore the relentless pursuit of justice by Ellen's parents, who have tirelessly challenged the official findings, leading to a recent decision to reopen the investigation. Join us as we analyze the latest developments, question the original conclusions, and seek the truth behind this tragic and controversial case.
NewsNation published February 3, 2025:
The family of Ellen Greenberg reached a settlement agreement with Philadelphia officials to reopen the investigation into the teacher's death more than 14 years after it happened. NewsNation's Brian Entin shares the latest details.
NewsNation published February 3, 2025: Ellen Greenberg case update 'unexplainable, unforgivable': Ex-medical examiner.
The family of Ellen Greenberg reached a settlement agreement with Philadelphia officials to reopen the investigation into the teacher's death more than 14 years after it happened. Retired forensic pathologist and medical examiner Dr. Michelle DuPre weighs in on "Banfield."
NewsNation published February 6, 2025: Ellen Greenberg's death was staged to look like suicide: Neuropathologistic.
Dr. Wayne Ross, a forens neuropathologist hired by the family of Ellen Greenberg, believes the teacher did not kill herself but was strangled and then stabbed to death. NewsNation senior national correspondent Brian Entin is live in Philadelphia with the latest for “Banfield.”
NewsNation published February 6, 2025: Dem PA Governor Josh Shapiro defends role in Ellen Greenberg case.
Shapiro was Attorney General during her homicide that is clearly a cover-up. (emphasis mine)
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro addressed the case of Ellen Greenberg, whose 2011 death was first ruled a homicide, then a suicide. Shapiro's comments come just days after Greenberg's family reached a settlement agreement with Philadelphia officials to reopen the investigation.
NewsNation published February 5, 2025:
The family of Ellen Greenberg reached a settlement agreement with Philadelphia officials to reopen the investigation into the teacher’s death more than 14 years after it happened. The Greenberg family attorney Joe Podraza spoke with NewsNation's Brian Entin.
NewsNation published September 18, 2024: Ellen Greenberg autopsy photos show stab wounds, bruises.
Ellen Greenberg was found dead in 2011 with 20 stab wounds. Her death was initially ruled a homicide, then quickly reclassified as a suicide. NewsNation's Brian Entin reveals Greenberg's autopsy report, which shows images of stab wounds and bruises.
PennLive
written by John Luciew
Monday February 17, 2025
Vindicated by a pathologist recanting the suicide ruling in Ellen Greenberg’s death, her father and the private detective he hired are blasting the long line of law enforcement officials they say sloughed off the case.
“Josh Shapiro could kiss my (expletive) … for what he didn’t do,” said former state police detective Tom Brennan, who spent more than a decade investigating Ellen’s death for the Greenbergs.
Ellen’s father, Joshua Greenberg, has long stated the family’s belief that Shapiro “sat on” their daughter’s death investigation during the four-plus years he had it as attorney general. The renewed criticism of Shapiro came earlier this week after the Greenbergs settled two lawsuits against Philadelphia officials over the handling of their daughter’s case.
“He should be kicked out of office,” Brennan added of the governor.
Asked by a reporter if he thought Shapiro’s handling of Ellen’s case was “negligence,” the the criminal investigative analyst shot back: “He should still be a township supervisor.”
PennLive’s calls to Shapiro’s spokesperson seeking a response were not immediately returned.
Shapiro’s involvement dates to early 2018. Philadelphia lawyer Larry Krasner, whom the Greenbergs retained to review Ellen’s death in the Manayunk apartment she shared with her then-fiancé, was just sworn-in as Philadelphia’s district attorney. Ellen, raised in the Harrisburg area, was found dead of 20 stab wounds at age 27 on Jan. 26, 2011.
Pressure to re-investigate Ellen’s death, which was initially ruled a homicide but was switched to suicide about two months later, was building due largely to the Greenbergs’ ongoing private probe, which was turning up new evidence and leads. Citing his conflict of interest, Krasner turned over the case to the office of then-Attorney General Shapiro.
The AG who would become governor in January 2023 received all the Greenberg case files generated by Philadelphia police, prosecutors and medical examiner officials over the prior seven years.
Rather than results, the Greenbergs say they got nothing. Ever since, they’ve accused Shapiro and his lieutenants of “sitting on” the case the entire time.
A statement released by the attorney general’s office in 2022 defended their work. It says the office, under Shapiro, conducted what it called an “exhaustive review,” including “new forensic analysis” over “four years of work.”
Despite this, the office said it “regretted” those efforts could not bring more closure. Then, citing the “appearance of a conflict of interest,” the AG’s office washed its hands of the matter and returned the case to Philadelphia, which then transferred it to Chester County.
None of the jurisdictions advanced the investigation, despite what they described as pain-staking reviews. The case currently resides with the Chester County DA’s office, which lists its status as “inactive.”
Responding to PennLive’s questions about whether the Attorney General’s office would take up the case again, a spokesperson said via email: “Considering the case is under Chester County District Attorney’s Office jurisdiction, not ours, we do not have commentary to offer.”
For his part, Shapiro has never personally addressed his work on the Greenberg case, despite the issue coming up last year when the high-profile Democrat was being considered a potential running made for Vice President Kamala Harris’ in the 2024 general election against Donald Trump.
While singling out Shapiro for criticism again this week, Joshua Greenberg also laid blame at the feet of all the law enforcement officials who he said never probed his daughter’s death beyond the suicide ruling.
“Everyone that touched this case that continued to say it was suicide now has stains on those fingers,” Greenberg said. “And those things may come back to haunt them in some way. We had evidence that Ellen did not commit suicide and the whole thing was bogus.”
That evidence culminated in court this week with the Greenbergs’ legal settlements with Philadelphia.
Former Philadelphia pathologist Dr. Marlon Osbourne, who conducted Ellen’s autopsy, initially ruled her death a homicide then, two months later, classified it as a suicide, admitted in a signed court document that he was wrong.
The stunning reversal came nearly 14 years later as part of the Greenberg lawsuit settlements.
In light of Osbourne’s signed court verification recanting his suicide ruling, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s office agreed as part of the settlement to an “expeditious review” of the 27-year-old freckle-faced Philadelphia teacher’s death. The ME’s office did not explicitly promise to change the suicide ruling, but the Greenbergs and their attorneys are already turning the page and focusing on finding her killer.
They suggested that the FBI, the Attorney General’s office or a county district attorney’s office with jurisdiction could take up the homicide investigation.
“Ellen did not commit suicide,” Joshua Greenberg declared. “We won!”
The developments in court this week only add to mysteries from the snowy, stormy evening Ellen was found bloody and lifeless on her kitchen floor, slumped against a cabinet.
Ellen’s fiancé, Sam Goldberg, said he returned from working out in the Manayunk apartment complex gym to find the door to the apartment he shared with Ellen, a first-grade teacher in Philadelphia, latched from inside. She wasn’t responding to his knocks, calls and texts.
Goldberg later told police he had to break the inner door latch to enter and found Ellen slumped and bloodied on the kitchen floor, a 10-inch knife protruding from her chest.
But in his signed verification to the court, Osbourne said it’s now in dispute whether Goldberg forced the apartment door open to gain access. These doubts arose after photos of the swing latch taken at the scene and re-examined during the Greenbergs’ probe showed the latch hadn’t been dislodged from the door.
Additionally, Osbourne wrote in the court document, there’s evidence to suggest “Ellen’s body was moved by someone else inside the apartment with her at or near the time of her death.” This is tied directly to the Greenbergs’ probe revealing streaks of dried blood on Ellen’s face and elsewhere did not line up with the final position of her body.
Finally, Osbourne, who now practices in Florida, cited the findings of then-assistant ME Dr. Lyndsey Emery, who in 2019 conducted a neuropathological evaluation of a six-inch specimen of Ellen’s spinal cord that was damaged by one of the 20 knife wounds she sustained. Emery found “no hemorrhage in the spinal column that is pierced and none in dura that has been pierced,” according to her sworn deposition in the Greenbergs’ lawsuits. Asked by the Greenbergs’ attorney if that meant Ellen was already dead when she received the stab wound, Emery answered, “yes.”
At the time, none of Emery’s findings were released by the ME’s office. They were revealed only when ME officials sat for depositions in the Greenbergs’ lawsuits in 2021 – about 18 months later.
The narrative of suicide in Ellen’s death was set moments after her body was discovered.
During Goldberg’s recorded 911 call he said, among other things, that Ellen had “stabbed herself.” Responding police and a medical examiner official also treated Ellen’s death as a suicide.
At the time of her death, the former graduate of Susquehanna Township High School and Penn State was seeing a psychiatrist and being medically treated for anxiety. Apparently assuming her death was suicide, police did not treat the bloodied apartment as a crime scene that evening.
Ellen’s body was shipped off to the city morgue with the knife still protruding from her chest. The very next day, Osbourne conducted his autopsy and ruled Ellen’s death a homicide, citing “multiple stab wounds by an unknown person.” The detectives returned to the apartment the following day with a search warrant and a forensics team. But by then, the place had been professionally sanitized, wiping away any potential evidence.
The homicide investigation quickly foundered, and detectives on the case met at least twice with ME officials to argue Ellen had killed herself.
On April 4, 2011, Osbourne changed the manner of Ellen’s death to suicide — a ruling he now disavows. But as a former Philadelphia official, Osbourne said he is powerless to change it.
Two separate crime scene experts hired by the Greenbergs made similar findings after viewing police photos of the door latch.
The Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science at the University of New Haven states in a written report: “Some damage appears to be in the area of this lock in the close-up photograph. There does not appear to be damage to the doorjamb or evidence of a break-in at the dead bolt lock from the other side of the door.” That report is signed by Lee and Elaine M. Pagliaro.
A second report by Det. Scott Eelman of Lititz, a veteran detective employed by the East Lampeter Township Police Department and a court-qualified expert on crime scene analysis and blood spatter, states: “There is damage noted to the door side of the security latch which is still attached to the door. The screws are still present in the screw hole. The doorjamb side of the security latch does not appear to show any damage.”
To be clear, neither Brennan nor the Greenbergs are pointing fingers at anyone. Both civil cases brought by the family against Philadelphia officials refer simply to an “unknown assailant” in what they believe was Ellen’s homicide.
Goldberg and his family have long declined to comment on the case. An August 2022 letter from the Goldberg family attorney, Geoffrey R. Johnson, written in response to a media account of the case says the family has “maintained a respectful silence on the terrible events of that day while law enforcement authorities have done their job and concluded correctly that Ellen’s death was a suicide…”
Philadelphia pathologist Dr. Marlon Osbourne’s autopsy, conducted the day after Ellen’s death, cited “multiple stab wounds by an unknown person.” With that, he ruled Ellen’s death a homicide.
Yet, by the time Osbourne’s ruling changed the case, investigating police had left Ellen’s apartment late on Jan. 26 without sealing it as a crime scene. The apartment was cleaned and sanitized the next day — before detectives and their forensics team secured a search warrant and returned there on Jan. 28.
The cleaning took place after the apartment management and Sam Goldberg’s father, Richard, each called police on Jan. 27 asking for instructions on how to go about cleaning the bloodied apartment, Johnson confirmed. Both were referred by police to a company specializing in crime scene sanitation.
James Schwartzman, Sam Goldberg's uncle is a prominent judge in Pennsylvania with ties to Josh Shapiro. Sam Goldberg was Ellen Greenberg's husband. Just saying something smells fishy here. Why would the "prominent judge" PERSONALLY go to his nephew's apartment and REMOVE Ellen Greenberg's PERSONAL LAPTOPS, PHONES, and CREDIT CARDS? That is suspicious. (emphasis mine)
James Schwartzman also entered the apartment and retrieved a funeral suit for Sam, his nephew. He also took work and personal laptops, phones, and credit cards belonging to Sam and Ellen to safeguard them, Johnson confirmed.
Police requested and received the items removed by Schwartzman. The electronic equipment was later analyzed by the FBI. But Brennan said submitting any of the removed items as evidence at a court proceeding could be problematic as the chain of custody had been broken.
A "prominent judge" would know that breaking the chain of custody is a big no no. Right? (emphasis mine)
Brennan said the chain of custody requires police and prosecutors to document the handling of evidence the entire time it’s held by authorities to ensure its authenticity.
“They abandoned the scene,” Brennan said of police.
The worst twist was yet to come.
Investigation, interrupted
The police investigation into Ellen’s homicide appeared to stall, based on media reports noting little progress in the case and the lack of police updates to the Greenbergs.
Philadelphia police and prosecutors were stuck with a high-profile killing of a pretty, pre-school teacher from a prominent family – and a lack of answers.
Then on April 4, 2011, the rug was pulled out from under the investigation.
Osbourne, the pathologist who performed the autopsy and initially ruled the death a homicide, amended Ellen’s death certificate, officially changing the manner of death to suicide.
The effect of the suicide ruling was to shut down the homicide investigation. Ellen’s 20 stab wounds were filed away as self-inflicted.
In the decade since, Brennan said he’s unearthed what he believes to be overwhelming evidence that Ellen Greenberg was killed.
This is what the Greenbergs and their attorneys are fighting to present in court. They have just one question: Why are Philadelphia officials battling so hard to stop them?
“They just don’t want us to be in court with them,” Josh Greenberg said. “Why are the officials so afraid to get into court with us?”
Brian Entin asks the Governor of Pennsylvania about the Ellen Greenberg case.
— 🅽🅴🆁🅳🆈 (@Nerdy_Addict) February 7, 2025
Also, many have raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest involving Governor Josh Shapiro and Judge James Schwartzman, who is the uncle of Ellen Greenberg’s fiancépic.twitter.com/6fnfZ1ZfWn
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