Ellen Greenberg’s case is now headed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, following her family’s appeal to change the ruling on her death from suicide to homicide.
The family, according to the Greenberg family lawyer, Joseph Podraza, has been fighting for more than a decade to change Ellen’s cause of death.
“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,” Podraza said.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, 27-year-old Ellen, a first-grade teacher, was found fatally stabbed in her Manayunk apartment in 2011. Greenberg’s fiancé, Sam Goldberg, said he left for the gym while Ellen chopped up fruit in the kitchen.
He returned home to find the front door locked, with the swing lock attached to the inside side of the door.
Goldberg said he called and texted Ellen numerous times, but when he couldn’t get an answer and couldn’t get help from the apartment management, he broke the lock and walked inside.
Inside the apartment, Ellen was found slumped over in the kitchen, with “some of her upper body/shoulders resting against the lower half of the white kitchen cabinets.”
According to court documents, the city medical examiner’s office initially classified the death as a homicide. However, following a meeting with police and prosecutors, they later changed the determination to suicide.
The Philadelphia District Attorney upheld Ellen’s death as a suicide despite some of the wounds showing no signs of bleeding, suggesting that she was not alive when those wounds were inflicted.
Her parents, Dr. Joshua Greenberg and Sandee Greenberg, have said from the beginning that they suspected foul play. Since her death, they’ve been battling with officials to take a closer look at the case.
Ellen Greenberg Case File by Leigh Egan
The family initially sought justice in the lower court in September 2023, fighting to change the official manner of her death. The court ruled against them but acknowledged flaws in the investigation.
“We have proven psychologically all the wounds could not have been inflicted by Ellen,” Podraza said, according to CBS 21.
The Greenberg family told CBS 21 that the process of presenting their case before the supreme court could take over a year.
To learn more about Ellen’s case, visit the Justice for Ellen Facebook page.
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[Featured image: Ellen Greenberg/Handout]
