The Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office has stuck by its controversial determination that a 27-year-old teacher died by suicide, despite calls for a new investigation into her death.
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Ellen Greenberg was found on the kitchen floor of her Manayunk apartment on Jan. 26, 2011, with 23 stab wounds on her chest, abdomen and the back of her neck. Despite the volume and location of the cuts, police treated her case like a suicide based on her lack of defensive wounds and testimony from her fiancé Samuel Goldberg, who said she locked herself inside the unit. The medical examiner initially broke with this opinion, ruling her manner of death a homicide, before switching his conclusion to suicide.
Greenberg's parents never accepted this finding and have fought for a reexamination of the case through a recent docuseries and civil litigation. Their lawsuit compelled the city of Philadelphia to conduct a new review of Greenberg's death. Medical examiner Lindsay Simon concluded, however, that "the manner of Ellen Greenberg's death is best classified as 'Suicide.'"
"While the distribution of injuries is admittedly unusual, the fact remains that Ellen would be capable of inflicting these injuries herself," Simon wrote. "Many of these stab and incised wounds would be best characterized as hesitation wounds. No defensive injuries were identified on her body. There was no evidence to indicate Ellen was incapacitated or incapable of defending herself."
The 32-page report circulated ahead of a Tuesday court hearing, where city officials were expected to deliver their findings. That hearing ended quickly and quietly, PennLive reported, with the Greenbergs' attorney Joseph Podraza considering "this matter closed, at least for the petition that was before the court."
In a separate statement, Podraza blasted the medical examiner's conclusion and promised to continue fighting.
"This report is tripe, an embarrassment to the City, and an insult to Ellen and her family," he said. "Ellen’s family just wanted the truth. It is clear the truth will not come from Philadelphia’s law enforcement machinery. Though Ellen’s city turned its back on her, we will continue through other avenues to get justice for her murder, by any means necessary."
The development marks the latest unexpected turn in a complicated case. Greenberg's death had received renewed attention in recent years from journalists and true crime fans, who questioned the initial investigation. In February, the medical examiner who performed Greenberg's autopsy backtracked on his determination, submitting a sworn statement that her manner of death should be changed. The Greenberg family settled its lawsuit with the city days later, on the condition that officials "expeditiously" review the case. That review was still pending in September, which prompted criticism from the presiding judge.
The eventual report drew on records and photographs from the original case file, as well as transcripts of depositions from the Greenberg family's case, consultive reports and additional investigative materials. Simon also watched the docuseries. She noted three additional wounds on Greenberg's body not recorded in the initial autopsy, though Simon argued they "did not result in significant internal injury." No other person's DNA was detected on the knife lodged in Greenberg's chest, the report added, and there was no evidence of a third party in the apartment on the day of her death.
Simon's final analysis pointed to Greenberg's history of anxiety and visits to a psychiatrist, allusions that Podraza called "cynical distortions" of a "managed" condition "widely experienced daily by over 40 million Americans." The report was signed and submitted Friday, with Simon expressing "a reasonable degree of medical certainty."
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