Death of teacher Ellen Greenberg – who suffered 20 stab wounds – ruled a suicide again in fresh agony for her family

The death of school teacher Ellen Greenberg, who suffered 20 stab wounds, has been ruled a suicide, again, causing fresh agony for her family.

Greenberg was 27 years old when her fiancé, Sam Goldberg, found her bloody body on the kitchen floor of their Manayunk apartment on the night of January 26, 2011, as a nor’easter brought snow to Philadelphia. She had 20 stab wounds, including multiple in the back of her neck and head. A 10-inch knife was sticking out of her chest.

“She fell on a knife!” Goldberg told a 911 operator in audio used in the recently released Hulu docuseries Death in Apartment 603: What Happened to Ellen Greenberg? “Her knife is sticking out. There’s a knife sticking out of her heart.”

Dr. Marlon Osbourne, a Philadelphia medical examiner who performed Greenberg’s original autopsy, initially ruled her death a homicide. But days later, Osbourne changed his ruling to suicide.

Since the apartment was not treated as a crime scene it was quickly cleaned by a professional crew.

For more than a decade, Greenberg’s parents, Joshua Greenberg and his wife, Sandra Greenberg, have been fighting to change the ruling back to homicide or at least undetermined, as they believe the investigation into their daughter’s death was botched.

In February, the city of Philadelphia settled two lawsuits from Greenberg’s parents, agreeing to pay the family $600,000 and agreeing to expeditiously review the teacher’s cause of death.

After months of waiting and a scolding from a Philadelphia judge on the slow pace of the review, one was performed.

The new review, which was conducted by Philadelphia's Chief Medical Examiner Lindsay Simon, has again confirmed Greenberg died by suicide.

“While the distribution of injuries is admittedly unusual, the fact remains that Ellen would be capable of inflicting these injuries herself,” Simon wrote, according to the review, which was obtained by the Daily Mail.

Simon said many of the wounds could be classified as hesitation wounds and that there were no signs of a struggle or defensive wounds. The head medical examiner also said no one else’s DNA was on the knife used in the stabbing, and there was a lack of evidence of domestic abuse in Greenberg’s relationship with Goldberg.

Greenberg’s mother said she now believes her daughter was being abused before her death, telling the Daily Mail in February, “I knew she was struggling with something. But I didn't know what.”

The Greenbergs’ attorney, Joseph Podraza Jr., lambasted Simon’s findings, calling them “deeply flawed.”

“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,” Podraza told CBS News Philadelphia.

Greenberg was struggling with anxiety at the time of her death and had recently changed medications to help with her insomnia, which Simon concluded meant she had “an increase in energy to act on her anxious thoughts.”

“This report is tripe, an embarrassment to the City, and an insult to Ellen and her family,” Podraza said. “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."

On the day of Greenberg’s death, Goldberg had gone to the gym in their apartment complex before returning to their unit to find the door locked from the inside. He eventually broke down the latched door, walking into a horrific scene.

During the 911 call that followed, the operator told Goldberg she would walk him through how to administer CPR, to which he replied, “I have to, right?”

“The man that was going to marry my daughter, have children with her – when he is asked to do CPR and says ‘I have to, right.’ I couldn’t believe my ears,” Greenberg’s mother recently told Variety.

Goldberg has since moved on with his life. He has settled in New York and is married with two children, according to the Daily Mail.

In November 2024, Goldberg told CNN, “When Ellen took her own life it left me bewildered. She was a wonderful and a kind person who had everything to live for. When she died a part of me died with her.

“Unimaginably, in the years that have passed I have had to endure the unimaginable passing of my future wife and the pathetic and despicable attempts to desecrate my reputation and her privacy by creating a narrative that embraces lies, distortions and falsehoods in order to avoid the truth. Mental illness is very real and has many victims,” he added.

Outside of court in December 2024, Greenberg’s father told reporters, “That’s what this is all about: Justice for Ellen. We’re not trying to do anything else. Not trying to hurt anyone else. They’re lying. They’ve done a lot of lying throughout this whole thing.”

In January, shortly before the city of Philadelphia reached its settlement with the Greenbergs, Osbourne changed his mind about Greenberg’s death, saying in a court document it “should be designated as something other than suicide,” as he had “become aware of additional information,” 6abc Action News reported.

The Independent has reached out to the Greenbergs’ attorney and the Philadelphia's Medical Examiner's Office for additional comment.