The Chester County District Attorney's Office will not open a criminal investigation into the 2011 fatal stabbing death of Ellen Greenberg, whose death was first ruled a homicide and then switched to a suicide.
Greenberg's parents have been battling for more than a decade to have evidence in the case reexamined, an attempt to bring justice for their daughter.
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Chester County detectives, who took up the case two years ago, are "unable to move forward" with a criminal probe after reviewing past investigations conducted by Philadelphia police and the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, the D.A.'s office said Friday.
Greenberg, a 27-year-old elementary school teacher in Philadelphia, was found with 20 stab wounds and a 10-inch knife stuck in her chest at her Manayunk apartment on the afternoon of Jan. 26, 2011. The door to the apartment, which she shared with her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg, had been locked from the inside. Goldberg, who had been at the gym in their building on Flat Rock Road, told police he had to bust down the door to the apartment before he found Greenberg bleeding in the kitchen and called 911, investigators said.
A pathologist with the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Officer initially ruled the case a homicide due to the nature of the stab wounds. Police questioned that determination, pointing to evidence at the scene, including that Goldberg had no defensive wounds and there were no other signs of an intruder having entered the apartment. The city was in the middle of a snowy Nor'easter that day.
Weeks after the initial homicide ruling, the medical examiner changed the manner of Greenberg's death to suicide. That decision was made despite the unusual circumstances of the case, effectively closing the investigation. Questions have been raised about whether injuries to Greenberg's neck might have caused spinal cord damage that would have made it impossible for her to continue stabbing herself so many times. Investigators also have examined whether evidence showed Greenberg was suicidal at the time of her death.
Why did the case go to Chester County?
Greenberg's parents, Joshua and Sandra, of Harrisburg, having been fighting for years to have the ruling on their daughter's death switched back to homicide or "undetermined" instead of suicide. Over the years, the family has hired forensic experts to analyze the evidence in Greenberg's case to demonstrate the probability that she someone stabbed her.
Multiple law enforcement investigations have failed to yield a change in the status of the case. It ended up in the hands of Chester County detectives due to perceived conflicts of interest at the Philadelphia D.A.'s office and the attorney general's office.
In 2012, the Greenberg family had hired Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner — then a civil rights lawyer — to help get the investigation reopened in the city. Although the effort was unsuccessful at the time, Krasner later referred the case to the attorney's general's office in 2018 after he had been elected district attorney.
The attorney general at the time, Josh Shapiro, had his office review the case for more than a year before ultimately closing the investigation, citing evidence to support the suicide ruling.
The Greenbergs filed a civil lawsuit against the city in 2019 to obtain information related to the investigation and their daughter's autopsy. The lawsuit revealed new details about the case and renewed public scrutiny of the agencies that had handled it, in addition to spawning interest from online sleuths and multiple true crime podcasts.
The Chester County D.A.'s Office agreed in 2022 to review past investigations by Philadelphia police and the attorney general's office. They also conducted new interviews about the case and had another forensic evaluation performed.
"(B)ased on the current state of the evidence, we cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed," the D.A.'s office said Friday. "This standard of proof — beyond a reasonable doubt — makes the criminal investigation different than other legal cases or issues that surround Ms. Greenberg's death. Because we cannot meet our burden of proof with the information and evidence presently available, we placed this investigation in an inactive status."
Since there is no statute of limitations on homicides in Pennsylvania, the possibility remains that new evidence could lead to the investigation being reopened in the future.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear family's civil lawsuit
Joseph Podraza, Jr., the attorney representing Greenberg's parents, called the investigation in Chester County "extremely limited and constrained" in a statement Friday. Podraza also cast doubt on the expertise of the forensic examiner tasked with reviewing the evidence and cited independent findings that support a homicide ruling.
Despite Friday's decision by Chester County prosecutors, the Greenbergs scored a victory with their civil lawsuit in August when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said it will hear the family's case concerning their legal standing to challenge the ruling on their daughter's manner of death. A lower court decision sided with the city last year, but also found that the initial Philadelphia police investigation in 2011 was "deeply flawed."
A second civil suit filed by the Greenbergs seeks monetary damages from the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office, the police department and the district attorney's office for intentional infliction of emotional distress. A court date has not yet been set set for the case that will be heard by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
"We now look forward to an upcoming trial where a full and forthright examination of the core issues surrounding Ellen's murder may be publicly conducted before an independent Judge and jury of our peers," Podraza said.
