The family of Ellen Greenberg has been fighting for more than a decade to overturn the medical examiner’s ruling after the 27-year-old was found dead with more than 20 stab wounds inside her locked apartment in northwest Philadelphia, according to a report by WPVI.
“It is my professional opinion Ellen’s manner of death should be designated as something other than suicide,” Dr. Marlon Osbourne, who conducted the initial autopsy, said in a Saturday court filing.
Democrat Josh Shapiro, who served as Pennsylvania’s Attorney General in 2019, reviewed the case when Greenberg’s family sued the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office, and his team upheld the suicide ruling in February 2022.
But months later, citizen journalist Gavin Fish alleged there was a personal connection between Shapiro and a potential witness in the case — a lawyer and cousin to the primary suspect, Greenberg’s fiancée Samuel Goldberg — who Goldberg spoke with on the phone the night she died, before he called 911 to report her death.
Shapiro recused himself from the case after these allegations came to light, calling the claims “unfounded” but acknowledging that they “created the appearance of a conflict” of interest.
This ruling makes for the second reversal in Greenberg’s cause of death, as Osbourne had initially determined that the teacher died due to homicide in January 2011, but he changed it to suicide the next month.
On Saturday, Osbourne said he changed his ruling after new information came to light:
I am now aware that information exists which draws into question, for example, whether Ellen’s fiancé was witnessed entering the apartment before placing the 9-1-1 call on January 26, 2011; whether the door was forced open as reported; whether Ellen’s body was moved by someone else inside the apartment with her at or near the time of her death; and the findings of [Lyndsey] Emery, M.D. from her neuropathological evaluation of Ellen’s cervical segment sample.
According to PennLive, Dr. Emery declared that a lack of hemorrhage in Greenberg’s spinal column where she was stabbed suggests that particular wound was received after she was already dead — and thus could not be self-inflicted.
The city was compelled to change Greenberg’s cause of death after a resolution came in on Saturday showing one of the defendants had been dropped from the second civil suit that was headed to the Supreme Court, WPVI noted.
There are currently two civil cases that have been filed by Greenberg’s parents.
One case accuses the city of emotional distress for allegedly mishandling their daughter’s death investigation and covering it up. Jury selection for that trial will begin next week, on February 10.
Greenberg was found dead by her fiancée on January 26, 2011, in their shared apartment located in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Manayunk. Authorities have never officially suspected him of foul play.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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