A pathologist’s controversial ruling that Ellen Greenberg, a 27-year-old Philadelphia woman who died from 20 stab wounds, died by suicide is coming under new scrutiny after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments by Greenberg’s parents and lawyers.
Greenberg’s mother, Sandy Greenberg, told Fox News Digital that the family learned the court had agreed to hear their case on Tuesday. The court will hear whether her parents, as executors of her estate, have legal standing to challenge the coroner’s findings.
Last year, an appeals court panel denied Greenberg’s parents’ request to force the Philadelphia coroner to reclassify Greenberg’s death from suicide to homicide or undetermined cause, finding that the parents did not have standing to be parties to the case.
But the judges also harshly criticized the city, police and coroner’s office who investigated the case.
Philadelphia woman found with 20 stab wounds, bruises ruled suicide, ignoring murder evidence: Expert
Ellen Greenberg photos provided by friends and family. (Justice for Eren)
Greenberg’s parents maintained the murder was covered up and vowed to fight it all the way to the state Supreme Court, where they finally prevailed last week after outside experts warned it would be an uphill battle.
“We, Ellen’s mother and father, have always wondered why she doesn’t have standing to sue,” her father, Dr. Joshua Greenberg, told Fox News Digital. “We started fighting for Ellen, but we’re fighting for standing to sue and the right to challenge the coroner. At this point, we can’t challenge the coroner’s conclusions.”
This is a big win for us.
Philadelphia mayor faces scrutiny after resisting calls to review “suicide” of woman stabbed 20 times
A rendering showing more than a dozen of Ellen Greenberg’s 20 stab wounds. (Tom Brennan)
After Greenberg’s death, Dr. Marlon Osborne, a forensic pathologist with the city medical examiner’s office, ruled it a homicide, according to court documents, but then, after meeting behind closed doors with police, he reversed course and officially ruled it a suicide.
Greenberg was found dead in the kitchen of her home in January 2011 with 20 stab wounds, including 10 from behind, at least one of which may have been inflicted after she was already dead, court documents said. Greenberg’s body also had numerous healing bruises.
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Ellen Greenberg in an undated family photograph. (The Greenbergs)
Investigators found a half-prepared fruit salad on the counter and signs of a struggle, including an overturned knife holder.
Her parents’ attorney, Joe Podraza, said the door locks had been tampered with and there were signs her body had been moved, and he told Fox News Digital that a knife found at the scene did not have fingerprints on it.
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Ellen’s parents, Dr. Joshua Greenberg and Sandy Greenberg, spoke to FOX Nation. (Fox News)
The crime scene was cleared before detectives with a search warrant arrived, according to court documents. The appeals court judges said they had not received records of police interviews with the building’s security guard or with Greenberg’s fiance, who called police to report finding her collapsed in the apartment.
However, city police and prosecutors have repeatedly maintained that the cause of death was suicide.
“They never talk about the large gash on Ellen’s head,” Dr. Greenberg said Monday. “They don’t talk about the wrist restraints or how she was restrained, they just talk about the fact that there were no defensive wounds.”
Video evidence has also been lost, he said.
“This is a total hoax,” he added. “This is a cluster.”
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Experts said damage found on the lock on Greenberg’s apartment door was inconsistent with police reports that said the door had been kicked in from the outside. (Tom Brennan)
Podraza and the family’s private investigator, Tom Brennan, said there was plenty of evidence in the case that deserved scrutiny: Despite being found in her bloody kitchen with nearly 20 stab wounds, Greenberg was clutching a “brand new” white towel in her left hand.
The scene of a Philadelphia teacher’s suspicious suicide was cleared before police arrived with a search warrant.
Renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht, who independently reviewed the autopsy findings, deemed the evidence “strongly suspicious of homicide.”
Wecht, who died in May, previously told Fox News Digital that after looking at the forensic evidence, he believed it was “extremely, extremely unlikely” that Greenberg killed himself.
A young Ellen Greenberg smiles in this undated photograph provided by a childhood friend and classmate at Penn State. (Courtesy of Friends of Ellen Greenberg)
“In all my years of experience and all the murder-suicides I’ve dealt with, I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.
Another prominent forensic pathologist, Dr. Henry Lee, also investigated the case. According to court documents, Lee concluded that the angle of the wound on the back of Greenberg’s head “would have been difficult to inflict self-inflict,” and that her injuries were “consistent with those found at a murder scene.”
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The Chester County District Attorney’s Office is conducting a new outside investigation after Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner resigned over a conflict of interest and former Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who now serves as the state’s governor, was accused of a separate conflict of interest.
Osborn, who has since moved to Florida and works for the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office, did not respond to requests for comment on the Greenberg case.
