The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office has reaffirmed that Ellen Greenberg’s 2011 death was a suicide, following a long-delayed review that precedes a scheduled court hearing before Judge Linda Carpenter on Oct. 14.
Greenberg, a 27-year-old teacher, was discovered dead in her Philadelphia apartment on Jan. 26, 2011, by her fiancé, Sam Goldberg, during a snowstorm. She had sustained 20 stab wounds — including injuries to her neck, back, head, and heart — and had multiple bruises in various stages of healing. The knife was found lodged in her chest.
Initially, then–assistant medical examiner Dr. Marlon Osbourne ruled her death a homicide. However, weeks later, after meeting with the Philadelphia Police Department, the manner of death was changed to suicide — a shift that halted any criminal investigation into the case. Goldberg was never considered a suspect and has not been charged with any crime.
For more than a decade, Greenberg’s parents, Sandee and Josh Greenberg, have fought to challenge that ruling. They hired several independent experts, including forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht, who determined that Ellen’s injuries were inconsistent with self-infliction, and forensic neuropathologist Dr. Wayne Ross, who concluded that there was evidence of strangulation and that her death may have been staged.
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The Greenbergs gathered more than 167,000 petition signatures urging the City of Philadelphia to reopen the case and filed two lawsuits: one in 2019 against the Medical Examiner’s Office and Dr. Osbourne, and another in 2022 against the City, former Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Sam Gulino, and others. Their attorney, Joe Podraza, alleged the investigation was so “deeply botched” that it amounted to a “cover-up.”
In February 2023, the Greenbergs settled those lawsuits, receiving a monetary payment and an agreement from city officials to reexamine Ellen’s manner of death. Around the same time, Dr. Osbourne signed a statement saying he no longer believed Ellen had died by suicide.
Their story was later featured in the ABC News Studios docuseries “Death in Apartment 603: What Happened to Ellen Greenberg?”, which included interviews with friends, family, and experts who argued that Ellen’s wounds and the crime scene pointed toward homicide. One expert suggested that some of her injuries were inflicted postmortem.
Despite these assertions, Philadelphia Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lindsay Simon reached a different conclusion in a new 32-page report issued on Oct. 10, 2025. Simon stated that the office had been “asked to conduct an independent and unbiased review of all available materials relating to the death of Ellen Greenberg.”
Simon reviewed reports from Wecht, Ross, and private investigator Thomas Brennan. In her analysis, she acknowledged that the “distribution of injuries is admittedly unusual,” but maintained that Ellen was physically capable of inflicting them herself. Simon cited Ellen’s history of anxiety and noted that no evidence linked Goldberg to the crime — his DNA was not found on the knife, and there were no signs of abuse or struggle in the apartment.
“With all of this information considered,” Simon wrote, “it is the opinion of the undersigned that the manner of Ellen Greenberg’s death is best classified as suicide. All opinions stated in this report are expressed with a reasonable degree of medical certainty.”
Attorney Joe Podraza strongly disagreed, arguing that the new report “builds a flimsy case on the distorted portrayal of Ellen’s mental health and ignores key evidence that contradicts suicide.” He added, “These contradictions and other unanswered questions surrounding Ellen’s death require a deeper look — which Dr. Simon has now permanently foreclosed.”
