The dad and mom of 27-year-old Ellen Greenberg, a Philadelphia trainer whose 2011 demise was dominated a suicide after she was discovered with practically two dozen stab wounds and coated in bruises, appeared in courtroom final week, the place a decide advised them the town’s suicide declaration was “puzzling.”
Greenberg was present in her kitchen with 20 stab wounds and a knife in her chest with a half-made fruit salad on the countertop throughout a blizzard on Jan. 6, 2011.
Her dad and mom, Dr. Josh and Sandee Greenberg, have been entangled in authorized battles with the federal government since their daughter’s demise, combating the dedication that it was a suicide.
Oral arguments have been heard Dec. 11 in a Philadelphia courtroom as a part of a 2022 lawsuit the Greenbergs filed that accuses native officers and the health worker’s workplace of protecting up their daughter’s demise and collaborating in a “concealed conspiracy for the purpose of disguising Ellen’s homicide as a suicide,” in line with authorized paperwork.
This was the primary time the Greenbergs sat in a courtroom and listened to arguments of their daughter’s case.
“I feel like we’re advocating for her,” Sandee stated in a press release to Fox Information Digital after the listening to. “We are getting closer to justice for Ellen. We are very determined and not giving up.”
On the time of her demise, Greenberg had despatched out save-the-date notices for her marriage ceremony with Sam Goldberg, who stated he returned house from a health club, broke down the door, and located his fiancée’s physique of their shared house in Manayunk, a quiet neighborhood in Philadelphia.
Within the hour earlier than Goldberg referred to as 911, he despatched Greenberg a sequence of calls, emails, and eerie textual content messages, in line with courtroom information.
Between 5:32 p.m. and 5:54 pm, Goldberg’s final 9 texts to Greenberg included the next: “Hello,” “open the door,” “what r u doin,” “im getting pissed,” “hello,” “you better have an excuse,” “what the f***,” “ahhh,” and “u have no idea.”
Goldberg referred to as 911 at 6:33 p.m., and Greenberg was pronounced useless by medics shortly thereafter.
A forensic pathologist with the town health worker’s workplace on the time, Dr. Marlon Osbourne, initially dominated Greenberg’s demise a murder, in line with courtroom paperwork. Then he reversed course after assembly with police behind closed doorways and formally dominated it a suicide.
The Greenbergs have argued that officers concerned of their daughter’s case “grossly botched” the investigation and conspired to cowl it up in consequence. The Greenbergs additionally accused them of deliberately inflicting the couple emotional misery.
“I don’t think anyone disagrees the crime scene should have been handled differently,” Widespread Pleas Court docket Choose Michael Erdos stated throughout the Dec. 11 listening to, Greenberg household legal professional Joe Podraza confirmed with Fox Information Digital. “The fact the death certificate still lists the cause of death as suicide is puzzling.”
The Greenbergs and outdoors investigators have questioned why authorities allowed the crime scene to be professionally cleaned and sanitized earlier than detectives arrived with a search warrant, in line with courtroom information.
“Just as Dr. Osbourne was conducting his autopsy … ultimately concluding Ellen’s death was a homicide, the premises where Ellen was murdered were thoroughly cleaned,” paperwork state.
The Greenbergs have additionally questioned why Goldberg’s uncle, James Schwartzman, a outstanding Pennsylvania decide, was allowed to enter the house and take away various Ellen’s belongings, together with her laptop and cellphone.
Throughout final week’s listening to, Erdos dismissed one of many defendants within the lawsuit towards metropolis officers concerned however withheld judgment on the opposite 4 defendants. Erdos requested Podraza to file briefs outlining how he intends to point out a jury that the remaining defendants straight and deliberately, not simply recklessly, inflicted emotional misery upon the Greenbergs.
“It’s a steep climb but not an impossible climb. … You have a fighting chance,” Erdos stated throughout the listening to in reference to the Greenbergs’ lawsuit.
The defendant dismissed was Lyndsey Emery, a former pathologist with the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Workplace who was requested in 2019 to look at a bit of Greenberg’s preserved spinal column. The opposite 4 defendants named within the lawsuit embody Osbourne, the previous metropolis pathologist who carried out Greenberg’s post-mortem; former Chief Medical Examiner Sam Gulino; retired Murder Sgt. Tim Cooney; and Murder Det. John McNamee.
Through the years, forensic pathologists, crime scene consultants, former regulation enforcement officers, and attorneys have expressed doubts about Greenberg’s suicide ruling. And Goldberg just lately broke his silence on the demise of his bride-to-be, seemingly believing in any other case.
“When Ellen took her own life, it left me bewildered. She was a wonderful and a kind person who had everything to live for. When she died, a part of me died with her,” Goldberg advised CNN in his first public assertion about Greenberg’s demise.
“Unimaginably, in the years that have passed, I have had to endure the unimaginable passing of my future wife and the pathetic and despicable attempts to desecrate my reputation and her privacy by creating a narrative that embraces lies, distortions, and falsehoods in order to avoid the truth. Mental illness is very real and has many victims.”
Greenberg’s 20 stab wounds included 10 from behind, a minimum of one in every of which may have been inflicted after she was already useless, in line with courtroom paperwork. She was additionally discovered coated in bruises in several phases of therapeutic, implying she had obtained them over the course of a while, in line with the post-mortem report.
“My daughter was being abused,” her father beforehand advised Fox Information Digital. “She had injuries on her body consistent with abuse.”
Dr. Cyril Wecht, a famed forensic pathologist who carried out an unbiased evaluate of the post-mortem, discovered the proof “strongly suspicious of homicide.”
Wecht, who died in Could, beforehand advised Fox Information Digital that after wanting on the forensic proof, he believed the concept that Greenberg may have died by suicide was “highly, highly unlikely.”
Greenberg’s dad and mom beforehand stated that whereas a psychiatrist, Dr. Ellen Berman, had identified the 27-year-old with nervousness earlier than her demise, the psychiatrist additionally famous that Greenberg didn’t have suicidal ideas or emotions.
Along with their newest lawsuit, the Greenbergs beforehand filed one other lively lawsuit in 2019, aiming to have the designation of “suicide” on her demise certificates changed with “homicide” or “undetermined.” That case is pending earlier than the Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket.
Philadelphia Police didn’t instantly reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark. They’ve beforehand declined to debate the case. Goldberg didn’t instantly reply for remark.
A consultant for Schwartzman beforehand responded to the claims that he eliminated gadgets from the scene on his behalf, telling Fox Information Digital that police gave Schwartzman permission to go in and take Greenberg’s belongings, confirming he had eliminated her computer systems and cellphones.
