Philadelphia’s top pathologist ruled that a schoolteacher found with a kitchen knife in her chest died by suicide, the latest conclusion in a case in which officials have repeatedly reversed their findings in the 2011 death of Ellen Greenberg.
In a 32-page report completed last week, Chief Medical Examiner Lindsay Simon wrote that while the distribution of Greenberg’s injuries — she was found with more than 20 stab wounds and cuts to her neck, head and torso — were “admittedly unusual, the fact remains that Ellen would be capable of inflicting these injuries herself.”
“Many of these stab and incised wounds would best be categorized as hesitation wounds,” Simon wrote.
The pathologist who performed Greenberg's autopsy in 2011 documented 20 wounds, but Simon's report notes three more.
There was no evidence that anyone else entered Greenberg’s apartment before her fiancé forced his way into the locked home on Jan. 26, 2011, found her body and called 911, according to the report. Nor was there evidence of a struggle or of someone else using the knife found in Greenberg's chest, the report says.
No defensive wounds were found, Simon wrote.
The report describes Greenberg, 27, as experiencing work-related anxiety at the time of her death, but it noted that she told a psychiatrist she did not feel suicidal.
A lawyer representing Greenberg’s family blasted the report, calling it a “deeply flawed attempt to justify a predetermined conclusion” that “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.”
In a statement, attorney Joseph Podraza said the medical examiner ignored what he described as key evidence that Greenberg died at the hands of someone else, including unexplained bruising and a three-dimensional model that shows it would have been impossible for her to have inflicted all her own wounds.
"Ellen’s family just wanted the truth," Podraza said. "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.”
The Oct. 10 report comes more than a decade after the pathologist who performed Greenberg's autopsy initially concluded that she died by homicide. That pathologist, Dr. Marlon Osbourne, later changed Greenberg's manner of death to suicide.
Her family sued the medical examiner's office and asked officials to reverse the suicide finding or change it to undetermined.
In a filing in that case this year, Osbourne wrote that Greenberg's manner of death should be "designated as something other than suicide." Osbourne reversed course after he consulted with a pediatric neuropathologist and reviewed additional information from Greenberg's police file, NBC Philadelphia reported.
Greenberg was found dead in the Philadelphia apartment she shared with her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg. According to the medical examiner's report, Goldberg told authorities that he'd left their apartment that afternoon for the gym.
He told police he returned home to find the apartment's front door locked from the inside, according to the report. After having called Greenberg and gotten no response, Goldberg said, he sought help from building staff members and eventually forced his way into the apartment, the report says.
Goldberg said he called 911 when he saw her body on the floor, according to the report. The operator planned to help him perform CPR, but when he got close, he saw the knife in her chest and waited for first responders, the report says.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 or go to 988lifeline.org to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
