‘Suicide’ of bride-to-be stabbed 20 times re-examined 14 years later
For years, parents of the 27 year-old have been advocating to have her death changed to a homicide. Now, the forensic pathologist has reversed his suicide ruling.
Lifestyle
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The 2011 death of a woman named Ellen Greenberg was initially ruled a homicide, but the pathologist later changed it to suicide after police questioned his findings.
Fourteen years later, he admitted that he was wrong to reclassify the death.
Greenberg, a 27-year-old teacher from Philadelphia, was found dead on January 26, 2011, with 20 stab wounds to her chest, abdomen, head, and back of her neck, according to People magazine.
She was discovered on the kitchen floor of her flat during a blizzard, with her fiance, Sam Goldberg, claiming he returned from the gym, broke down the door, and found her body in a pool of blood with a 10-inch knife in her chest.
An autopsy report showed that Ms Greenberg had bruises in various stages of healing, suggesting she had sustained them over time.
Despite authorities declaring her death a suicide due to the absence of defensive wounds, her parents, Josh and Sandra Greenberg, have fought continuously to have the ruling changed back to murder.
Marlon Osbourne, the issuing pathologist, has now stated in a sworn statement that he should not have classified Ms Greenberg’s death as a suicide.
In the statement, which was part of a settlement agreement in a lawsuit involving her parents, he expressed that, “Based on my consideration of the new information brought to my attention after leaving my position as Medical Examiner for the City of Philadelphia, along with my original autopsy findings and information considered while I was actively involved in Ellen’s case, it is my professional opinion Ellen’s manner of death should be designated as something other than suicide.”
“For example, whether Ellen’s fiance was witnessed entering the apartment before placing the 911 call on January 26, 2011,” he said, “(and) whether the door was forced open as reported; and whether Ellen’s body was moved by someone else inside the apartment with her at or near the time of her death.”
Ms Greenberg’s fiance has never been considered a suspect by authorities.
In a civil lawsuit filed by Ms Greenberg’s parents, they alleged that the City of Philadelphia misclassified their daughter’s stabbing death as a suicide to cover up a botched homicide investigation.
Now a judge has ruled that their civil case will officially go to trial and ordered Mr Osbourne, fellow medical examiner Sam Gulino, and homicide detective John McNamee to testify, as they allegedly participated in the cover-up, according to the Daily Mail.
“I’m hoping we’re going to prove that Ellen did not commit suicide,” Josh Greenberg, her father, told NBC10.
“That’s what this is all about: justice for Ellen.”
The Greenbergs have been very vocal about their belief that their daughter’s brutal death was a murder.
They have questioned why the crime scene was cleaned and sanitised before detectives arrived and why Mr Goldberg’s uncle, James Schwartzman, a prominent Pennsylvania judge, was allowed to enter the flat and remove several of Ellen’s belongings, including her computer and phone.
They also allege that police officers did not check the flat or knife for fingerprints or DNA, nor did they perform luminol testing, which detects the presence of blood at crime scenes.
Investigators also found signs of a struggle, including that the knife block had been knocked over, according to Fox News.
According to her parents’ lawyer, Joe Podraza, there was evidence that the door lock had been tampered with and that her body had been moved.
Originally published as ‘Suicide’ of bride-to-be stabbed 20 times re-examined 14 years later