The case of Philadelphia teacher Ellen Greenberg, whose 2011 stabbing death was initially ruled a homicide before the medical examiner switched it to suicide after police objected, will be heard by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
It’s a bombshell update her parents, Joshua and Sandra Greenberg, have been waiting for.
Ellen’s manner of death was originally ruled a homicide by officials in 2011, but was then changed to suicide. Since then, her parents have been fighting for justice.
This meant getting the court to change the ruling from suicide to either homicide or an undetermined manner of death. Armed with a team of experts, they conducted an investigation that disputed the suicide finding, which they claim was changed at the insistence of the police.
“It’s been 13 years and the city has been fighting us every step of the way,” Sandra Greenberg told The Independent in April. “Ellen was a Philadelphia girl, she deserves better from her city.”
Now, they are one step closer. Ellen’s case will now move to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
“For every citizen in this commonwealth this case could potentially have a bearing in their lives or the lives of their family members,” said Joseph Podraza, the family’s lawyer, told The Philadelphia Inquirer following the order issued on Tuesday.
“We believe that if we are allowed to go to trial that a jury or a judge will decide that the evidence is so overwhelming that Ellen did not commit suicide, but instead a homicide that will bring someone or some people to justice.”
Greenberg, 27, was found dead on January 26, 2011, by her fiancé Samuel Goldberg, at their Manayunk neighborhood apartment. She was slumped against the cabinets, her legs splayed out in front of her. The beloved elementary school teacher had been stabbed at least 20 times. A 10-inch knife was lodged in her chest.
Philadelphia Medical Examiner Marlon Osbourne initially ruled her death a homicide, noting the large number of stab wounds, including 10 to the back of her neck.
But police considered her death a suicide because her apartment door was locked from the inside and her boyfriend — who said he found her after breaking down the door — had no defensive wounds.
After police publicly challenged the findings, Osbourne switched the ruling to suicide without explanation.
For more than a decade now, the Greenbergs have been fighting to have her manner of death changed from suicide back to either homicide or undetermined, alleging in civil lawsuits that it was reversed after a closed-door meeting with city police.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office reviewed Ellen’s case in 2019 and ruled her death a suicide. In 2022, the office under then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro reaffirmed that ruling after again reviewing the case between December 2021 and January 2022.
Shapiro, who was the AG from 2017 to 2023, was elected governor of Pennsylvania in 2023, and is reportedly on Kamala Harris’ Vice President shortlist, along with Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.
In 2019, the Greenbergs filed a civil lawsuit against the Medical Examiner’s Office and pathologist Marlon Osbourne, seeking to have the manner of their daughter’s death changed.
But a Pennsylvania appellate court ruled that the Greenbergs do not have standing to sue the city of Philadelphia over the investigation into her death. The Commonwealth court did not rule on whether the manner of death could or should be changed, and criticized the investigation into Ellen’s death.
The panel said that while they were “acutely aware of the deeply flawed investigation of the victim’s death by the City of Philadelphia Police Department detectives, the City of Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, and the Medical Examiner’s Office, we have no choice under the law,” and instead sent it back to the lower courts for further action.
“Even so, in the interests of justice, we believe that providing a detailed review of the Victim’s death and the ensuing investigation is clearly warranted with hopes that equity may one day prevail for the Victim and her loved ones,” wrote Judge Elaine Ceisler in the 13 September ruling.
The “deeply flawed” investigation included a crime scene cleanup that happened before the forensics team arrived and sealed it off, according to appellate court documents.
Nearly a year later, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania granted the appeal filed by Greenbergs of a Commonwealth Court ruling last year that prevented their civil case against the City of Philadelphia from going to trial.
The state’s Supreme Court said it will consider whether “executors and administrators of an estate have standing to challenge an erroneous finding recorded on the decedent’s death certificate where that finding constitutes a bar or material impediment to recovery of victim’s compensation, restitution or for wrongful death, as well as private criminal complaints.”
Oral arguments will be heard at court on a future date.
The Greenbergs have also filed a second civil suit against members of the Medical Examiner’s Office, the Police Department, and the DA’s Office seeking monetary damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress. That suit remains ongoing.
