The Ellen Greenberg Case: When Forensic Science Says Murder but the City Says Suicide

0:00 A first grade teacher, 20 stab wounds, 10 of them in the back of her neck. The medical examiner called it a homicide, then changed it to suicide. Now 14 years later, the city discovered 20 more bruises and three more stab wounds that were never documented. And yet, they're still calling it a suicide. How do you stab yourself 20 times, mostly in the back of your neck and head, after you're already dying? That's the question Ellen Greenberg's parents have been asking since 2011. And the answer might expose one of the most disturbing cover-ups in modern forensic history. [Music] So let me ask you something, it's a weird question.

1:00 But if you were going to stab yourself, how many times do you think you could stab yourself before your body said, "Nope." Not like theoretically, but like actually physically. Before your body just shuts that all down, decides, "No, we can't function anymore. We're talking about severing nerves and causing seizures, making you lose your vision, dropping your blood pressure, and shutting your whole body down." You're probably thinking, "One, right? Maybe two of adrenaline kicked in." Well, Ellen Greenberg was found with 23 stab wounds. 23, ten of them in her back and neck. And Philadelphia officials looked at that and said, "Yep, suicide.

1:41 She definitely did this to herself. Her parents have been fighting for 14 years to prove that's impossible. And I think the evidence is on their side." January 26, 2011, Ellen Greenberg was the first great teacher in Philadelphia. She was 27 years old, engaged to a guy named Sam Goldberg. That evening, there was a snowstorm. Sam came home around 6.30 pm and said he couldn't get into the apartment because the door was latched from the inside. So he broke it down. When he got inside, he found Ellen on the kitchen floor with a 10-inch knife sticking out of her chest. He called 911, and according to the reports, told the operator that Ellen had either stabbed herself or fallen on a knife.

2:24 That phrase alone should make you pause. His fiancee is dead on the floor with a knife sticking out of her chest, and your immediate thought isn't someone hurt her. It's not what happened, but she stabbed herself. The police showed up and treated it like a suicide from the very start. They were so convinced she killed herself that they didn't even call the crime scene units. They just released the scene. That decision would haunt this case for over a decade. The next day, Dr. Marlon Osborne performed the autopsy, and what he found was disturbing. Ellen had 20 stab wounds all over her body. Some were in her chest, some were in her stomach, but 10 of them were in her back and the side of her neck.

3:04 The back of her neck. How do you stab yourself in the back of your own neck with a 10-inch knife, by the way? She also had 11 bruises and different stages of healing on her arm's legs and torso. Dr. Osborne initially ruled Ellen's death the homicide. Makes sense, right? It looked like a violent attack, but then something weird happened. A few weeks later, after a meeting with the Philadelphia Police Department, Dr. Osborne changed the manner of death to suicide with no explanation to Ellen's parents. They found out from the news. For over 13 years, that ruling stood. Suicide. Case closed. Except Ellen's parents, Joshua and Sandy Greenberg refused to let it go.

3:48 They hired their own experts. They filed lawsuits and they demanded answers. Here's where it gets really interesting. In February 2025, Dr. Marlin Osborne, the pathologist who did the original autopsy, filed a sworn statement saying he no longer believed Ellen's death was a suicide. He said that after reviewing additional information, it was in his professional opinion that Ellen's manner of death should be something other than suicide. Do you hear what I'm saying? The guy who originally called it a homicide then changed it to suicide after talking to the police department is now saying that he was right the first time. He's basically admitting the suicide ruling was wrong, but because he no longer works for the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's office, his opinions don't legally change anything.

4:33 The Greenbergs kept fighting. They sued the city. And in early 2025, they reached a settlement that forced the Medical Examiner's office to reopen the case and conduct a new review. That review was just completed this month. If you're listening to this podcast in October 2025, it was done by the current medical examiner, Dr. Lindsey Simon. And guess what she concluded? Suicide. Again, during her review, Dr. Simon discovered 20 more bruises on Ellen's body and three more stab wounds that were never documented in the original autopsy, raising the total number of bruises to 31 and stab wounds to 23.

5:13 31 bruises, 23 stab wounds, and she still ruled it a suicide. Dr. Simon's report said that Ellen was capable of inflicting these injuries herself even though the pattern was admittedly unusual. She pointed out that there was no evidence of Sam Goldberg's DNA on the knife. There were no defensive wounds, no signs of a struggle, and Ellen had been dealing with anxiety, which the report used to suggest that she was suicidal. But here's the thing. The absence of evidence for murder doesn't automatically mean suicide, especially when the physical evidence seems to defy the laws of human biology. You can say unknown calls or inconclusive something along those lines.

5:55 The Greenbergs hired some of the best forensic experts in the country. Dr. Siril Wecht, a legendary forensic pathologist, Dr. Wayne Ross, a neuro pathologist, and a private investigator named Thomas Brennan. These experts did something the city never did. They used 3D computer modeling to recreate each of Ellen's injuries and see what would happen to her body as she sustained them. According to their analysis, the wounds would have caused unconsciousness, nerve damage, severe pain, loss of coordination, loss of vision, seizures, weakness, massive blood loss, drop in heart rate and blood pressure, brain damage, respiratory failure, irregular heart beat, and loss of spinal fluid.

6:36 In other words, after the first few stabs, Ellen would have been physically unable to keep going. Their conclusion, she could not have self-inflicted all the wounds. It's biomechanically impossible. And let's talk about the spinal wound. One of the stab wounds was an Ellen's spinal column. Dr. Simon's report tried to dismiss this by claiming it was an artifact. A mistake made during the autopsy. With the Greenbergs attorney said that explanation was rejected by every credible expert who looked at it, including the city's own neuro pathologist. If that spinal wound was real and inflicted before death, there's no way Ellen did it to herself. And if it was inflicted after death, well, that's even worse because it means someone else was there.

7:20 The official ruling says there were no defensive wounds, which they claim supports the suicide theory. But defensive wounds and restraint injuries are two different things. Defensive wounds happen when you're actively fighting someone off. Restraint injuries happen when someone is holding you down. The experts hired by the Greenbergs looked at those 31 bruises and said that they were consistent with someone being restrained, not self-inflicted injury. Ellen had bruises on her wrists, her arms, her neck, her hips, and her legs. That's a pattern you'd expect to see if someone was being held or grabbed. There's also the issue of hemorrhaging. Some of Ellen's wounds showed a lack of hemorrhage, which means her heart wasn't beating when they were inflicted.

8:03 If your heart stops, you stop bleeding. So if some of these wounds were made after Ellen's heart stopped, that means they were post-mortem, and you can't stab yourself after you're dead. Let's go back to that apartment. Sam Goldberg said the door was latched from the inside, which supposedly proved Ellen was alone. But the building manager later said that the latch being engaged does not prove Ellen locked it. They were also inconsistencies in Sam's story. Phone records appeared to contradict claims from two of Sam's relatives who said they were on the phone with him when he broke the door down. The police footage showed Sam alone in the elevator right before he called 911, which contradicted earlier claims that a security guard helped him to force the door open.

8:45 And according to the Greenberg's attorney, there was missing surveillance footage from the hallway that was never reviewed. None of this proves Sam was involved, and I'm not suggesting that he was, but it raises serious questions about what actually happened that night and whether the initial investigation was thorough enough. Here's the problem. As I see it, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's office is part of the city of Philadelphia. The Greenbergs were suing the city for a cover-up and emotional distress. So the city was defending itself in court while also being responsible for reviewing the very case, it's being sued over. That is a massive conflict of interest. The Greenberg's attorney, Joseph Pardraza Jr. called a new report a deeply flawed attempt to justify a predetermined conclusion.

9:31 He said it was an embarrassment to the city, and honestly it's hard to argue with that. If there was any real doubt about how Ellen died, the proper classification should be undetermined, not suicide. Undetermined means we don't know for sure. It doesn't require proof of homicide, but it would reopen the investigation and allow law enforcement to look at the case with fresh eyes. Instead, the city doubled down. The October 2025 ruling means Ellen's death certificate will remain suicide. Her parents are now pursuing other legal avenues. There's a Hulu docuseries called Death in Apartment 603 that came out recently, shining more light on the case. The public pressure is building, but the official record hasn't changed.

10:13 So what do I think? I think I've been pretty clear throughout this podcast, based on everything I've read, the biomechanical evidence, the expert testimony, the contradictions in the scene, and the fact that the original pathologist himself no longer believes it was suicide. I think this case deserves a real investigation, not a review designed to defend the original ruling, but an actual objective investigation into what happened to Ellen Greenberg. Because right now, the evidence suggests that a 27-year-old teacher was killed in her apartment, and the people responsible for finding out who did it, decided it was easier to blame her.

10:58 Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, binge-able True Crime Stories. My name is Joe, I'm the host, and yes, this episode had a completely different vibe than usual. If you've been listening for any length of time, you know that I don't usually weigh in with my opinion. Very often. I do sometimes, and it's usually not controversial. But this one, man, this story does something to me. I don't know why. It's one of those things where you can see the answer right there in front of you, and you think they should see that answer as well, but they've got their eyes closed. They don't want to see what's right in front of them. And that's so frustrating to me that I couldn't keep it like a usual normal episode where I just tell you the facts of the case and keep it to that.

11:39 At the time that I'm recording this, the information has just recently come out that they decided to continue to rule it a suicide, and it was one of those, for me, one of those WTF moments where you're stunned in desilence. And I decided to do what I normally do, which is sit down and research and talk about it here. Hey, if you're a new listener to the podcast, welcome. Kind of a strange episode for you this to be your first one, but I appreciate the fact that you're here. Make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening right now. It's very important. You can go to 10minuteMurder.com. You can contact me there. There's a blog there at 10minuteMurder.com. Also links to where you can find me on social media. Go there and follow me.

12:19 If you enjoy the podcast, if you think it's important for this information to you, to get out to everyone, make sure you share specifically this episode to your friends and family and anyone you think that matters. Thank you so much for listening to 10minuteMurder. I'll see you next time. [Music]