Ellen Rae Greenberg. Was it suicide or homicide?

In this podcast I discuss the true crime story of Ellen Rae Greenberg mysterious death.

Let me know what you think of her crime.

The Mysterious Death of Ellen Rae Greenburg: Was It Suicide or Homicide?



MEDIA LINK: Ellen Rae Greenberg: Suicide or homicide? The 27-year-old teacher was found dead in her Philadelphia kitchen in 2011.

 

[Cousin Dupree]

Mother of woman whose death was ruled suicide says new info proves murder

EXCLUSIVE: Ellen Greenberg’s death by 20 stab wounds - including to the back of her neck - was ruled suicide. Her mother Sandra, who has spent 13 years fighting for justice and says she will ‘never give up’, says bombshell new testimony may finally prove her daughter was murdered

www.the-independent.com

‘It’s an obvious murder’: Mother of teacher whose death by 20 stab wounds was ruled suicide rages as bombshell new testimony may finally prove her case​

APRIL 2024

For 13 years, Ellen Greenberg’s parents have fought to prove she did not die by suicide, but that she was murdered – and now, new bombshell testimony could make their case.

In a shocking development that came earlier this week during a hearing for a civil lawsuit in the beloved Philadelphia teacher’s brutal 2011 death, the family’s attorney said the state’s former assistant district attorney is set to testify that her body was likely moved after she had been fatally stabbed at least 20 times.

“It’s an obvious murder,” Ellen’s mother, Sandra Greenberg told The Independent in reaction to Tuesday’s hearing in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.

“You can’t make this up.”

On 26 January 2011, Ellen was found by her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg, dead in the kitchen of their Manayunk, Philadelphia apartment. She was slumped against the cabinets, her legs splayed out in front of her.

The 27-year-old elementary school teacher had at least 20 stab wounds, many to the back of her head and neck. A 10-inch knife was lodged in her chest.

Following an autopsy at the time, pathologist Dr. Marlon Osbourne of the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s office ruled her death a homicide, citing “multiple stab wounds by an unknown person.”

But with little evidence to go on, the case stalled and months later, on 11 April, Dr. Osbourne amended her death certificate, changing the manner of death to suicide.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the medical examiner was told that police were “leaning” toward suicide and looking at “mental issues” she might have had, despite her family’s pushback.

Records show Ellen was being treated for anxiety at the time, but the family’s experts hired over the years have found it’s unlikely her medications contributed to suicidal thoughts.

“She was brutally murdered, stabbed once, twice, 20 times,” Ms Greenberg said of their only child. “That’s rage. She did not do that to herself.”

Through the years, the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania couple have fought to change the ruling from suicide back to either homicide or undetermined manner of death, by enlisting in their team of experts and conducting an investigation that disputed the suicide finding, and say it 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,” Ms Greenberg told The Independent. “Ellen was a Philadelphia girl, she deserves better from her city.”

At the hearing on Tuesday, the Greenbergs’ attorney, Joseph Podraza, in an effort to push forward with a sworn deposition of former Assisstant District Attorney Guy D’Andrea, revealed that D’Andrea had a previously unknown conversation with the city’s then-medical examiner, Dr. Samuel Gulino and Gulino then determined that Ellen’s death was a homicide.

“D’Andrea had firsthand knowledge of the file and evidence,” Mr Podraza told the judge. “Dr. Gulino told D’Andrea, ‘this is a homicide.’”

Mr Gulino allegedly told Mr D’Andrea that Ellen’s body had been in a “supine position for a period of time,” he continued.

This means she was flat on her back and not slumped in a seated position against a kitchen cabinet as she was reportedly found, according to the hearing.

Mr Podraza said that the medical examiner told Mr D’Andrea that her body was likely moved and that they were able to tell by how the blood on Ellen’s face had dried up.

He also said there was no evidence that emergency responders were the ones who moved her body.


Mr D’Andrea is also set to argue that, according to the medical examiner, one of the stab wounds would have "immediately incapacitated" her, making self-infliction unlikely.

The court is allowing the Greenbergs’ attorneys to move forward with discovery and depositions in the case. Their deadline is 6 May.

Ms Greenberg said she doesn’t want to get her hopes up after 13 years of roadblocks and disappointment, but said she is pleased with the court’s decision to allow Mr D’Andrea to be deposed and believes that he can bring new evidence to the investigation.

Stabbed 20 times, with some stab wounds on the back of her head?! And that looks like suicide?!

 

[Tresir]

I think part of this settlement probably included an agreement on taking another look at the case, and some other things. I don't see her parents settling just for money and not ensuring some of these other things.

You know, I don't know if it played in butt Philly is rife with crime and LE and politicians want to keep the crime stats down, especially with violent crime and homicides in particular. Others think it was the connections he/his family had.

I know MEs also have to or are supposed to not just take their own findings on an examination but information from LE on what they saw, determined, etc. LE kind of decided this was a suicide....

So what is your belief in this one. I do not believe it was any suicide.

I would like to know how anyone else barred and locked the door from the inside and why there were two post mortem wounds in her neck.

 

[Takeitfromme]

I would like to know how anyone else barred and locked the door from the inside and why there were two post mortem wounds in her neck.

I'd like to know with all the evidence that's obvious why this was ruled a suicide in the first place... I'm not totally up to date on this case

 

[Regina]

No, I said no such thing. In fact I said with Collier, I could go either way. I was resistant at first when they suddenly changed it, but it was suddenly changed as you know. They've managed to mostly convince me (LE). It's when there are things in them when I look at all that it is almost impossible to believe the victim could have done oneself, OR that one would find hard to believe any freak accident could have caused, OR too many of those things.

There are unusual cases of all kinds, doesn't mean they didn't happen, including unusual homicides with strange facts.

I was n't saying any such thing at all.

And good morning!

Good morning!
Sorry that I must have misunderstood what you said.
Re Debbie Collier, for me, there's no doubt it was suicide but the reason I mentioned her case is because of LE's premature statements to the media, not because it's another mysterious/ suspicious death type of case.
In that case, I don't remember whether the ME's opinion was ever mentioned, nor whether he had one but I do remember LE repeatedly telling the media that she was "targeted" and I'm sure they mentioned elements of the scene that caused them to think that way. Now, I'd watched the case unfold and never saw the involvement of anyone else and also, I'm sure it was helpful to have known of a similar case where the person set themselves on fire and so that might be why I saw particular aspects of the scene in a different way.
It sounds to me that in this case, the ME may have told LE that it looked like homicide when he actually hadn't had enough info at that time to determine manner, period.

 

[Tresir]

I'd like to know with all the evidence that's obvious why this was ruled a suicide in the first place... I'm not totally up to date on this case

It's a strange mixture of wounds - some are just a couple of millimetres deep, like self harming but others are deep and possibly fatal. Then there are two that are determined to be post mortem.