Nancy Grace reports on missing Calif. teen, mysterious suicide of Philadelphia teacher
‘Crime Stories’ host Nancy Grace discusses updates in the case of a missing California teen and previews her new show on the mysterious suicide of Ellen Greenberg, now streaming on Fox Nation.
Ellen Greenberg, a 27-year-old teacher in Philadelphia, was found covered in bruises and stabbed to death in her apartment during a blizzard more than a decade ago.
There was evidence that the scene had been staged and her body had been moved – including that the dried blood would have dripped sideways across her face if she’d died in the position she was found, according to the family’s private investigator. But authorities ruled it a suicide.
Greenberg’s fiancé, Samuel Goldberg, told investigators he came home on Jan. 26, 2011, kicked in the locked door to their apartment and found her dead with a knife stuck in her chest, leaning "supine" against a kitchen cabinet, according to court documents.
Despite the blood-soaked crime scene and stab wounds to the back of her skull, however, investigators found "no evidence of a struggle in the kitchen area or anywhere else in the apartment."
Ellen Greenberg, left, in an undated family photo (Greenberg family)
Dr. Marlon Osbourne, a former pathologist at the Medical Examiner’s Office in Philadelphia, initially ruled the death a homicide, based on the injuries, then backtracked and revised the manner of death to suicide after conferring with city police, according to a civil lawsuit from Greenberg’s family.
Experts with years of experience in homicide investigations and forensic pathology told Fox News Digital that the evidence suggests homicide, not suicide.
When asked for evidence supporting the suicide determination, Philadelphia police deferred comment to the outside agency now handling the case.
"This investigation is being handled by the Chester County District Attorney's Office, please reach out to them," a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
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Another rendering showing more than a dozen of Ellen Greenberg's stab wounds. (Tom Brennan)
The Chester County District Attorney’s Office is conducting an outside investigation into the case after years of activism from Greenberg’s family and reluctance to intervene on the parts of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who referred the case back and forth before the Chester probe.
Tom Brennan, a former state police trooper for 25 years and private investigator the family hired almost a decade ago, told Fox News Digital that through depositions in a civil lawsuit, the family discovered last year that Greenberg suffered a 6.5 centimeter wound to the back of her head after her heart stopped beating.
Several forensic pathologists, including Dr. Cyril Wecht, one of the country’s leading experts in the field, reviewed Dr. Osbourne’s findings over the years and found the circumstances "strongly suspicious of homicide."
Suicide is "highly, highly unlikely," in Greenberg’s case, Wecht told Fox News Digital Tuesday, and he said he was "delighted" by the Chester County review.
"In all my years of experience, and all of the homicides that I’ve done, and suicides, I’ve never seen anything like this," he added.
A spokesperson for the Chester County DA confirmed the office had assigned an investigator and a prosecutor to review the case but declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation.
Greenberg suffered 20 stab wounds, including 10 to her back, as well as numerous bruises that pathologists determined had been inflicted at different times.
"The manner of death cannot be suicide," Joe Podraza, the Philadelphia lawyer representing her parents, told Fox News Digital.
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The evidence doesn’t add up, he said, citing testimony from one of the medical examiner’s own employees, photographs of the crime scene and the nature of Greenberg’s injuries.
"The neuropathologist…testified that the wound in the sample that remains from Ellen’s spine is a post-mortem wound, or one that was administered after she was dead and had no pulse," he said. "If you consider that was not the last wound, because the knife was found in her chest, you’d have to then agree that Ellen, while she was dead, somehow proceeded to stab herself in the back of the head, pull the knife out and then stab herself in the chest -- all without a pulse."
Ellen Greenberg, left, in an undated family photo (Greenberg family)
Greenberg’s parents, Dr. Josh Greenberg and Sandee Greenberg, told Fox News Digital that after more than a decade of outside experts re-examining their daughter’s case, they believe that the evidence does not support suicide. She had defensive wounds on her wrist that went unacknowledged in the original autopsy, her body had been moved, and her left hand was gripping the knife in her chest – although she was right-handed. Evidence also suggested she suffered stab wounds from two distinct knives, they said, but only the one stuck in her chest was recovered.
And according to a statement from the former building manager provided by Brennan, the family’s private investigator, a crime scene cleanup crew came in and washed the apartment – before forensic investigators had a chance to look through it.
"We have never accused anyone of murdering our daughter," Dr. Greenberg told Fox News Digital. "We have asked the cause and matter to be changed to undecided or homicide. We would like an impartial investigation with an impartial prosecutor."
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During a 2021 deposition as part of a civil lawsuit Greenberg’s filed over the suicide designation, former Medical Examiner Dr. Sam Gulino testified that he’d received no complaints about Dr. Marlon Osbourne, pathologist in his office who handled Greenberg’s case.
But department records showed Osbourne was named in at least three reprimands, according to Brennan. In one, his supervisor, Dr. Gary Collins, pointed out "serious and dangerous flaws" in Osbourne’s autopsy work, including missing the signs of manual strangulation on a victim who, in photographs, clearly had been strangled, among other mistakes.
"Dr. Osbourne, these major discrepancies show an obvious lack of care for your work," Collins wrote.
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Osbourne has since moved to Florida, where he works in the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office. He did not immediately respond calls seeking comment.
Dr. Wayne Ross, another specialist in forensic and neuropathology who re-examined Greenberg’s death at Brennan’s behest, has argued the facts support a designation of homicide and that Osbourne’s autopsy had missed obvious signs of manual strangulation that he found in addition to the stab wounds and other bruising.
"The constellation of scene findings are inconsistent with suicide," he wrote. "Scene findings compatible with being staged."
Outside investigators said the damage shown to the lock on Greenberg's apartment door is inconsistent with the report it had been kicked in from the outside. (Tom Brennan)
One of the more controversial pieces of evidence is the door lock on Greenberg’s apartment. Photos show a metal door with a slinging latch above a regular exterior door lock. The latch is shown with minor damage – but still attached in a way that makes it unlikely anyone kicked in a locked door to get inside, experts told Fox News Digital.
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"There’s no way they broke into that apartment," said Pat Diaz, who served 26 years as a Miami-Dade homicide detective before becoming a private investigator. "The left side lock would come right off. Guaranteed."
He also said there would likely be visible damage near the bottom handle.
"This was not a suicide," he said. "That is usually somebody with anger when you’ve got that many stab wounds. Somebody was angry."
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