The mother and father of 27-year-old Ellen Greenberg, a Philadelphia instructor whose 2011 dying was dominated a suicide after she was discovered with practically two dozen stab wounds and lined in bruises, appeared in court docket final week, the place a decide advised them town’s suicide declaration was “puzzling.”
Greenberg was present in her kitchen with 20 stab wounds and a knife in her chest with a half-made fruit salad on the countertop throughout a blizzard on Jan. 6, 2011.
Her mother and father, Dr. Josh and Sandee Greenberg, have been entangled in authorized battles with the federal government since their daughter’s dying, combating the willpower that it was a suicide.
Oral arguments have been heard Dec. 11 in a Philadelphia courtroom as a part of a 2022 lawsuit the Greenbergs filed that accuses native officers and the medical expert’s workplace of masking up their daughter’s dying and taking part in a “hid conspiracy for the aim of disguising Ellen’s murder as a suicide,” in accordance with authorized paperwork.
This was the primary time the Greenbergs sat in a courtroom and listened to arguments of their daughter’s case.
“I really feel like we’re advocating for her,” Sandee stated in a press release to Fox Information Digital after the listening to. “We’re getting nearer to justice for Ellen. We’re very decided and never giving up.”
On the time of her dying, Greenberg had despatched out save-the-date notices for her marriage ceremony with Sam Goldberg, who stated he returned house from a health club, broke down the door, and located his fiancée’s physique of their shared condo in Manayunk, a quiet neighborhood in Philadelphia.
Within the hour earlier than Goldberg referred to as 911, he despatched Greenberg a sequence of calls, emails, and eerie textual content messages, in accordance with court docket data.
Between 5:32 p.m. and 5:54 pm, Goldberg’s final 9 texts to Greenberg included the next: “Hey,” “open the door,” “what r u doin,” “im getting pissed,” “whats up,” “you higher have an excuse,” “what the f***,” “ahhh,” and “u do not know.”
Goldberg referred to as 911 at 6:33 p.m., and Greenberg was pronounced lifeless by medics shortly thereafter.
A forensic pathologist with town medical expert’s workplace on the time, Dr. Marlon Osbourne, initially dominated Greenberg’s dying a murder, in accordance with court docket paperwork. Then he reversed course after assembly with police behind closed doorways and formally dominated it a suicide.
The Greenbergs have argued that officers concerned of their daughter’s case “grossly botched” the investigation and conspired to cowl it up because of this. The Greenbergs additionally accused them of deliberately inflicting the couple emotional misery.
“I don’t assume anybody disagrees the crime scene ought to have been dealt with in a different way,” Widespread Pleas Court docket Decide Michael Erdos stated throughout the Dec. 11 listening to, Greenberg household lawyer Joe Podraza confirmed with Fox Information Digital. “The actual fact the dying certificates nonetheless lists the reason for dying as suicide is puzzling.”
The Greenbergs and outdoors investigators have questioned why authorities allowed the crime scene to be professionally cleaned and sanitized earlier than detectives arrived with a search warrant, in accordance with court docket data.
“Simply as Dr. Osbourne was conducting his post-mortem … finally concluding Ellen’s dying was a murder, the premises the place Ellen was murdered have been completely cleaned,” paperwork state.
The Greenbergs have additionally questioned why Goldberg’s uncle, James Schwartzman, a distinguished Pennsylvania decide, was allowed to enter the condo and take away a variety of Ellen’s belongings, together with her laptop and cellphone.
Throughout final week’s listening to, Erdos dismissed one of many defendants within the lawsuit towards metropolis officers concerned however withheld judgment on the opposite 4 defendants. Erdos requested Podraza to file briefs outlining how he intends to indicate a jury that the remaining defendants straight and deliberately, not simply recklessly, inflicted emotional misery upon the Greenbergs.
“It’s a steep climb however not an unimaginable climb. … You could have a combating likelihood,” Erdos stated throughout the listening to in reference to the Greenbergs’ lawsuit.
The defendant dismissed was Lyndsey Emery, a former pathologist with the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Workplace who was requested in 2019 to look at a piece of Greenberg’s preserved spinal column. The opposite 4 defendants named within the lawsuit embody Osbourne, the previous metropolis pathologist who carried out Greenberg’s post-mortem; former Chief Medical Examiner Sam Gulino; retired Murder Sgt. Tim Cooney; and Murder Det. John McNamee.
Through the years, forensic pathologists, crime scene consultants, former regulation enforcement officers, and attorneys have expressed doubts about Greenberg’s suicide ruling. And Goldberg lately broke his silence on the dying of his bride-to-be, seemingly believing in any other case.
“When Ellen took her personal life, it left me bewildered. She was a beautiful and a sort one that had the whole lot to reside for. When she died, part of me died along with her,” Goldberg advised CNN in his first public assertion about Greenberg’s dying.
“Unimaginably, within the years which have handed, I’ve needed to endure the unimaginable passing of my future spouse and the pathetic and despicable makes an attempt to desecrate my repute and her privateness by making a narrative that embraces lies, distortions, and falsehoods with a purpose to keep away from the reality. Psychological sickness could be very actual and has many victims.”
Greenberg’s 20 stab wounds included 10 from behind, not less than one in every of which might have been inflicted after she was already lifeless, in accordance with court docket paperwork. She was additionally discovered lined in bruises in several levels of therapeutic, implying she had acquired them over the course of a while, in accordance with the post-mortem report.
“My daughter was being abused,” her father beforehand advised Fox Information Digital. “She had accidents on her physique in line with abuse.”
Dr. Cyril Wecht, a famed forensic pathologist who carried out an unbiased evaluation of the post-mortem, discovered the proof “strongly suspicious of murder.”
Wecht, who died in Could, beforehand advised Fox Information Digital that after wanting on the forensic proof, he believed the concept that Greenberg might have died by suicide was “extremely, extremely unlikely.”
Greenberg’s mother and father beforehand stated that whereas a psychiatrist, Dr. Ellen Berman, had recognized the 27-year-old with nervousness earlier than her dying, the psychiatrist additionally famous that Greenberg didn’t have suicidal ideas or emotions.
Along with their newest lawsuit, the Greenbergs beforehand filed one other lively lawsuit in 2019, aiming to have the designation of “suicide” on her dying certificates changed with “murder” or “undetermined.” That case is pending earlier than the Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket.
Philadelphia Police didn’t instantly reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark. They’ve beforehand declined to debate the case. Goldberg didn’t instantly reply for remark.
A consultant for Schwartzman beforehand responded to the claims that he eliminated objects from the scene on his behalf, telling Fox Information Digital that police gave Schwartzman permission to go in and take Greenberg’s belongings, confirming he had eliminated her computer systems and cellphones.
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