Fourteen years after Ellen Greenberg’s death, the case still hangs in a haze of contradiction and suspicion. What happened inside a Philadelphia apartment on a snowy evening in January 2011 remains one of the most contested mysteries in recent memory—a death officially ruled a suicide despite evidence that has long suggested otherwise.

What Happened Ellen Greenberg?

Ellen Greenberg was 27 years old, a first-grade teacher who friends remembered as bright and kindhearted. She lived with her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg, in the Manayunk neighborhood. On January 26, 2011, a blizzard shut down much of the city. Ellen left school early, came home, and within hours was dead—stabbed 20 times, ten of those wounds in her back and neck. Her body also bore 11 bruises in various stages of healing. Goldberg told police he returned from the gym to find their apartment door latched from the inside. When he forced his way in, he discovered Ellen’s body and called 911, telling the operator she had stabbed herself. That detail—that someone could inflict such a barrage of injuries and still be ruled a suicide—has fueled years of disbelief.

Her Parents Believe There Was A Cover-Up

The medical examiner’s office initially called Ellen’s death a homicide. Police pushed back almost immediately, suggesting the manner of death was “suspicious” but not definitive. Weeks later, the ruling shifted to suicide. The apartment was cleaned the next day, and Ellen’s electronics were briefly taken by Goldberg’s uncle, a prominent state judicial official, before being returned to investigators. For Ellen’s parents, Josh and Sandee Greenberg, those early decisions felt like the beginning of a cover-up.

Multiple Agencies Have Looked At The Case

Over the years, the case has bounced between agencies and jurisdictions. Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office reviewed the case in 2018 and they also came to the conslusion that she committed suicide after reviewing her online search history.The family’s lawyers argued those searches never happened, citing chain-of-custody issues and contradictory police reports. They handed over thousands of pages of forensic material, including 3D analyses suggesting that at least some of Ellen’s wounds could not have been self-inflicted.

The Case Was Written Off

Outside experts, from famed pathologist Cyril Wecht to forensic scientist Henry Lee, have reviewed the files and publicly questioned the suicide determination. Wecht put it plainly: he did not understand “how they wrote this off.” By 2022, Chester County briefly declared the investigation inactive, relying on an expert without medical training—another decision that deepened the sense of mistrust.

The Medical Examiner Changed Their Story

Then, in February 2025, a remarkable reversal: Dr. Marlon Osbourne, the medical examiner who once ruled Ellen’s death a suicide, issued a sworn statement saying he no longer believed that to be true. “It is my professional opinion Ellen’s manner of death should be designated as something other than suicide,” he wrote. The statement carried no legal force—the ruling on her death certificate remains unchanged—but it was nonetheless a crack in the wall.

The Case Could Be Re-Opened

For Ellen’s parents, who have fought for over a decade to see the case reclassified, it was validation. They have long argued that their daughter was the victim of a homicide, not a woman who inexplicably turned a knife on herself 20 times. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is now reviewing appeals that could reopen the investigation.