Ruled as a Suicide

The Mysterious Death of Ellen Rae Greenberg

[2011 | Philadelphia]

It was January 26, 2011. With a snowstorm hitting northern Philadelphia, elementary school teacher Ellen Rae Greenberg was dismissed early. Ellen filled up her gas tank before driving back to her shared apartment with her fiancé, Sam Goldberg.

28-year old Sam, a TV producer for NBC News, was home at the time and the two hung out for a while before Sam left for a gym workout around 4:45 PM. 45 minutes later, he returned to a locked apartment. He tried unlocking with his keys, but the door only cracked a few inches open as the swing bar lock was locked from the inside. He called for Ellen and banged the door repeatedly, but there wasn’t any answer. For over 20 minutes, he texted Ellen, increasingly irritated with each text,

Hello

open the door

what r u doing

im getting pissed

hello

you better have an excuse

what the f*ck

ahhh, you have no idea

In the end, he decided to get help. According to Sam, he asked the apartment security guard for tools to help him break into his apartment. Despite Sam coming back and forth to persuade the guard, he refused as it was against the apartment policy. However, the guard did accompany Sam as Sam forced his way in by kicking down the door.

To Sam’s horror, his fiancée was slumped lifelessly against the kitchen cabinet. He immediately dialed 911 and performed chest compression on Ellen. After the initial shock, he noticed a knife lodged in her, whereby the 911 dispatcher quickly put the CPR to stop. When paramedics arrived, they pronounced Ellen dead on the scene at 6:40 PM.

Ellen Rae Greenberg

27-year-old Ellen Rae Greenberg was born in New York and she’s the only daughter of Joshua and Sandra Greenberg. She was bubbly and kind-hearted with a competitive edge in sports. She originally planned to be a speech pathologist with her communications degree but later realized that wasn’t the career path she wanted. She then pursued a Master’s degree in education and landed a teaching job at Juniata Park Academy.

The Mysterious Death of Ellen Rae Greenberg

Ellen had 10 stab wounds at the back of her head and neck, and another 10 in her stomach, abdomen, and chest. The police were quick to rule it as a suicide. They found no signs of an intruder, stolen valuables, signs of Ellen struggling, nor did the neighbor hear any disturbance other than Sam yelling for Ellen to open the door. Bloodstains were isolated to just the kitchen.

The next day, the coroner’s office ruled Ellen’s death as a homicide. Authorities failed to contact Ellen’s family personally, as they found out through news media as they were preparing for Ellen’s funeral. Strangely enough, months later, it was ruled as a suicide.

One of the factors contributing to the change in the ruling was Ellen taking prescribed Ambien and Klonopin for her anxiety, where both medications have side effects that could bring out suicidal thoughts and behavior. Just months away from her wedding, Ellen struggled with crippling anxiety.

She sought comfort from her parents, telling them she wanted to quit her job and come back home. Her parents assured her that she would always be welcomed back at home and encouraged her to seek professional help from a psychiatrist.

In therapy, Ellen blamed her anxiety stemming from being overwhelmed with work. The psychiatrist did not find any signs of Ellen being in an abusive relationship or trapped in an unhappy relationship with Sam. Ellen’s psychiatrist attested that Ellen was very anxious and insecure but not suicidal. Neither do Ellen’s family and friends think Ellen was suicidal.

Ellen’s father, Joshua Greenberg, said,

“She was anxious but she was still happy.”

Fighting for Ellen

Investigating the wounds

Over a decade, Ellen’s family continued their investigation by hiring an attorney and private investigators. In photogrammetry of Ellen’s wounds, Greenberg’s attorney, Joseph Podraza, stated that some of the stab wounds were just not possible to be self-inflicted based on the wound’s location and depth, especially those to the back of her neck and head. What’s even more confusing was the police finding a clean white towel in Ellen’s fist.

Out of 20 stab wounds, Ellen had 4 serious wounds and several other shallow wounds. The sergeant and investigators assigned to the case took those superficial wounds as an indication of Ellen hesitating and testing out stabbing herself before going for the actual stab.

Gregory McDonald, the chief deputy coroner of Montgomery County, agreed that those shallow wounds were indications of hesitation. It was unusual for an assailant to stab someone superficially before stabbing for a deeper wound. He believed that it was physically possible for Ellen to stab herself at the back of her neck, but it was also unusual for someone to choose that location. It was also rare for someone to self-inflict injuries by stabbing themself through their clothing as most would pull their clothes up.

Lack of defensive wounds

Another factor that pushed for a suicide ruling was that Ellen would have defended herself against such violent act. However, Assistant District Attorney Guy D’Andrea later found out that the initial coroner that examined and stated Ellen’s spinal cord was undamaged, never did any test on her spinal cord. There weren’t any documentation trails, whether in invoice or report that the medical examiner worked on Ellen’s spinal cord. When the coroner was asked in 2018, she wrote

“I would conclude that I did not see the specimen in question although there is a remote possibility that it was shown to me. However, I have no recollection of such a case.”

From Ellen’s stored sample of the spinal column, Greenberg’s neuropathologist confirmed that her spinal cord was indeed severed. While they were unable to determine the order of the stab wounds, it was possible that an assailant could have severed her spinal cord, leaving Ellen incapacitated to defend herself.

No signs of intruder(s)

Ellen was supposedly locked in her apartment on the 6th floor with no signs of intruders breaking in as the door was claimed to be locked. No signs of disturbance on the snow below the couple’s balcony. However, the latch could have easily been unlocked from the outside with a credit card with tutorials easily available on Youtube.

Contradictions

According to Sam, even though the guard refused to lend him any tools to break into the apartment, the guard still accompanied him as he forced his way in. However, the guard stated he never left his station. In fact, the guard saw Sam returning in boots, not any sort of running shoes. Though, Sam could have easily switched out of his running shoes to boots before returning home.

In Sam’s police statement, he immediately called 911 and started CPR on Ellen. However, in truth, his phone history recorded him calling his parents and his attorney uncle before dialing emergency services. When he was asked to perform CPR, Sam allegedly asked,

“Do I have to?”

It was also strange how Sam only realized the 10-inch knife plunged 4 inches deep into Ellen’s chest after 3 minutes of CPR. When asked, he said, “She must have fallen on it.” Forensic later confirmed that only Ellen’s DNA was found on the knife.

Other evidence not matching up

The blood trail found Ellen’s cheek indicated that Ellen was in a horizontal position, opposed to the position Ellen was found. Ellen’s body could be shifted and propped up into that position.

Allegedly, investigators found searches of “painless suicide” and “quick suicide” on Ellen’s laptop that wasn’t password secured, but Greenberg’s attorney refuted, stating that there hadn’t been any searches on suicide. Greenberg’s technology expert explained that those searches on suicide were phantom searches based on analytics when Ellen searched for medication’s side effects such as weight gain.

Reopening Ellen’s Case

In October 2019, the Greenbergs filed a civil lawsuit against Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office and the pathologist who originally worked on Ellen’s autopsy. In December 2021, the Greenbergs pushed to reopen Ellen’s case along with new evidence and support from the public.

Ellen’s mother said,

“We just want Ellen’s name cleared. She did not do this to herself. And she deserves justice. They try to close our doors, but we always find another way in. We’re never giving up.”

In the latest update in March 2022, it was announced that the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office has reviewed Ellen’s case again and stands firm that it is a case of suicide.

To show support to Ellen’s family and for more updates:

Sign up for Ellen’s petition at Justice for Ellen Rae Greenberg Visit the Facebook page at Justice for Ellen

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