Fourteen years and countless court battles after Philadelphia teacher Ellen Greenberg was found stabbed 20 times in her apartment, the city’s Medical Examiner’s Office has once again ruled her death a suicide – even after new findings revealed startling new details.
It’s a ruling that has reignited outrage among forensic experts and deepened one of Philadelphia’s most emotionally charged mysteries.
The latest determination comes after an independent reexamination promised to Greenberg’s parents as part of a legal settlement with the City of Philadelphia.
In a 35-page report released on Friday, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lindsay Simon concluded that Greenberg’s death “is best classified as ‘Suicide,’” reaffirming the city’s original 2011 finding – even as her total number of injuries climbed to 23 stab wounds and 31 bruises.
Simon’s conclusion stands in direct opposition to the recent opinion of Dr. Marlon Osbourne, the very pathologist who performed Ellen’s autopsy in 2011. Earlier this year, Osbourne signed a sworn statement saying her death “should be designated as something other than suicide.”
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman, who has closely followed the case, said the city’s renewed suicide ruling defies both science and common sense.
“It continues to be a travesty of justice, a cover up for someone with a lot of influence — either because of money, position or friends in high places,” Lieberman told The Independent.
“There is absolutely no way that she could have or would have committed suicide by stabbing herself with knives in all of these awkward positions. First of all, women who commit suicide generally use a more gentle means, such as an overdose. They do not stab themselves and not in these spots. She would have had to be a contortionist. This is the act of someone who was enraged at her and got pleasure out of each stabbing.”
Lieberman also rejected the medical examiner’s emphasis on Greenberg’s anxiety as a contributing factor.
“People who commit suicide do so because of depression, not usually because of anxiety, which she is alleged to have had,” she said. “If she had anxiety, it was because of her boyfriend who was controlling and violent. It is my opinion that he did it.”
New wounds, same conclusion
According to Simon’s report, the new wounds – three superficial “perforations of the skin” not previously noted – “did not result in significant internal injury.”
Simon said the pattern of injuries was “unusual” but “not inconsistent with self-infliction,” adding that eleven of the stab wounds were “small and shallow” and “consistent with hesitation wounds.”
“While the distribution of injuries is admittedly unusual,” Simon wrote, “the fact remains that Ellen would be capable of inflicting these injuries herself.”
Simon also documented 20 more bruises than were originally noted, bringing the total to 31.
She attributed them to “incidental contact sustained during activities of daily living, including her work as a first-grade teacher.”
Simon said her conclusion rested on 10 factors, including the absence of defensive wounds or signs of struggle, no evidence of a forced entry, and the fiancé’s DNA not being present on the knife.
She also cited statements suggesting Greenberg was struggling with anxiety over her work as a teacher. In her report, Simon wrote that Greenberg was “a young woman suffering from anxiety at the time of her death.”
“The anxiety appeared to mostly be due to her work as a teacher,” she continued. “She was specifically worried that the grades she needed to submit on the day of her death would indicate she had previously given inflated grades to her students.”
Simon added, “While her recent change in medications had helped with the insomnia associated with her anxiety, she did not survive long enough to address the anxiety itself. Thus, she had an increase in energy to act on her anxious thoughts.”
‘A deeply flawed attempt to justify a predetermined conclusion’
The Greenberg family attorneys William Trask and Joseph Podraza blasted the new ruling, calling it a betrayal of the promise of an independent review.
“Simon’s so-called ‘independent review’ of Ellen Greenberg’s death is a deeply flawed attempt to justify a predetermined conclusion,” Trask said in a statement to 6abc Action News.
“It includes false claims – like the assertion that a stab wound in Ellen’s spinal column was made during autopsy, a theory rejected by every credible expert, including the City’s own neuropathologist.”
“By ignoring key evidence that contradicts suicide – the extensive 3D photogrammetry, a recreation which proves Ellen could not self-inflict all of the wounds, unexplained bruises, missing surveillance footage, an intact lock, accounts of a toxic relationship, etc. – Simon builds a flimsy case on distorted portrayals of Ellen’s mental health, propped up by cynical distortions of Ellen’s managed anxiety, a condition widely experienced daily by over 40 million Americans,” Trask added.
“Shame on Dr. Simon. This report is an embarrassment to the City and an insult to Ellen and her family. Ellen’s family just wanted the truth. It is clear the truth will not come from Philadelphia’s law enforcement machinery. Though Ellen’s city turned its back on her, we will continue through other avenues to get justice for her murder, by any means necessary.”
Conflicting opinions
Simon’s findings also run contrary to the opinions of five of seven forensic experts whose reports she reviewed – most of whom concluded the death was indicative of homicide or “not biomechanically consistent with suicide.”
Only one expert, retained by the city, supported the suicide theory.
The newly identified injuries have also renewed questions about a stab wound to Ellen’s spinal column, which several independent pathologists say shows no sign of hemorrhaging – meaning, they argue, that it was inflicted after death.
Simon, however, wrote that “the preponderance of the evidence suggests the defect was an artifact from the autopsy.”
Critics, including Podraza, say that conclusion is scientifically baseless because Simon did not conduct her own exam of the preserved spinal cord specimen.
“You can’t render an opinion as to whether a wound bled or not without a histological exam,” Podraza told PennLive. “You can’t say that a wound is an artifact of autopsy without doing more than simply looking at a photograph.”
Homicide to suicide
Ellen Greenberg was 27 when her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg, reported finding her dead in their Manayunk apartment on the evening of January 26, 2011.
She was slumped on the floor against the kitchen cabinets, her legs splayed out in front of her and had been stabbed at least 20 times, including 10 times the back of her neck. A 10-inch knife was lodged four inches deep in her chest.
Her death was initially ruled a homicide, but that decision was changed to suicide two weeks later – a reversal that stunned her family and prompted a decade-long legal fight.
Police maintained there was no sign of forced entry, and Goldberg told investigators that the swing-bar lock on the door was latched from the inside. He has never been accused or charged with any wrongdoing.
By the time detectives returned to the apartment after the autopsy classified Greenberg’s death as homicide, the scene had been professionally cleaned, and some of her electronics were reportedly removed by a member of Goldberg’s family.
In 2024, Goldberg told CNN: “Mental illness is very real and has many victims. I hope and pray that you never lose someone you love like I did to a terrible disease and then be accused by ignorant and misinformed people of causing her death.” It’s the only time Goldberg has publicly spoken about the case.
The case has continued to draw national attention – most recently through the Hulu docuseries Death in Apartment 603: What Happened to Ellen Greenberg?
The three-part series, which premiered in late September, revisits inconsistencies in the police investigation, questions surrounding the autopsy, and the family’s years-long campaign for transparency.
According to her report, Dr. Simon acknowledged that she watched the Hulu documentary as part of her review.
The fight isn’t over
For years, the Greenbergs have fought to have the manner of death reclassified as homicide or undetermined.
In February 2025, they reached a settlement with the city, agreeing to withdraw two lawsuits in exchange for a new review and a $650,000 payment. Simon’s report was that promised review.
To the Greenbergs, the results feel like history repeating itself.
“The whole thing was bogus,” Greenberg’s father, Joshua Greenberg, told PennLive. “I expected the city to do this. Her synopsis doesn’t change a darn thing. Philadelphia will do everything they can to prove their point.”
They returned to court on Tuesday for a hearing that was meant to compel the city to deliver the promised report. But with the report having been released, there was little left to be said.
“We consider this matter closed, at least for the petition that was before the court,” Podraza told the judge. “What the future holds, we will see.”
While Greenbergs and their attorneys have said their fight for justice is far from over, they aren’t ready to discuss details of their next move.
Following the hearing, Podraza told The Independent: “We are reevaluating our leg options, as well as the involvement of law enforcement other than those in Philadelphia.”
