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What happened to Ellen Greenberg—and why her stabbing was ruled a suicide—has a precise but disputed answer: Philadelphia officials classified the death as suicide because of the locked-door scene, no documented intruder or defensive wounds, and their view that the wounds could have been self-inflicted. The official ruling still stands after a 2025 review, but experts disagree.
Greenberg was 27 and worked as a first-grade teacher when she was found dead in the kitchen of the Philadelphia apartment she shared with her fiancé on January 26, 2011. The original autopsy called the death homicide before the classification was changed to suicide. A new review added reported injuries but reaffirmed the official ruling.
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Key takeaways
- According to the original 2011 autopsy documentation, Ellen Greenberg had 20 stab wounds, including 10 to the back of her neck, and 11 bruises; the account is reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer.
- Philadelphia Chief Medical Examiner Lindsay Simon’s October 2025 review reported three previously undocumented skin perforations and 20 additional bruises, bringing the reported totals to 23 stab wounds and 31 bruises.
- Simon reaffirmed the official manner of death as suicide, while original pathologist Marlon Osbourne later stated in a sworn 2025 statement that the death should be designated as something other than suicide.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that five of seven consultative forensic reports reviewed by Simon favored homicide or found the injuries inconsistent with suicide; one report supported suicide, and another said the body had been moved without determining the manner of death.
- A February 2025 civil settlement led to the new review and reportedly included a $650,000 payment, but the settlement did not establish that Greenberg was murdered.
- No court has identified a killer or entered a criminal verdict proving homicide; the official classification remains suicide, while the forensic dispute remains unresolved.
What happened to Ellen Greenberg on January 26, 2011?
Ellen Greenberg was a 27-year-old first-grade teacher who was found dead in the kitchen of the Manayunk, Philadelphia, apartment she shared with her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg, on January 26, 2011. The original autopsy documented 20 stab wounds and 11 bruises in various stages of healing. The case reporting and later medical-examiner review describe the physical findings, but the meaning of those findings has been disputed for years.
Investigators were told that the apartment’s interior swing-bar lock was engaged and that the door had to be broken down. Police reported no sign of an intruder and no defensive wounds. Those scene observations became central to the original decision to treat the death as a suicide, although later experts disputed what the scene, blood patterns, body position, and wounds showed.
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Why was Ellen Greenberg’s stabbing ruled a suicide?
The official suicide ruling relied on a combination of scene evidence, the absence of documented defensive injuries or a struggle, the lack of evidence that a third party gained access, and the medical examiner’s conclusion that the wounds could have been self-inflicted. The 2025 review also cited information about Greenberg’s anxiety related to her work as a first-grade teacher.
Simon’s review said that grades Greenberg needed to submit on the day of her death suggested she had previously given inflated grades to students. The review interpreted a recent medication change as having improved Greenberg’s insomnia while leaving the underlying anxiety and possibly increasing her energy to act on anxious thoughts. Simon wrote: “While her recent change in medications had helped with the insomnia associated with her anxiety, she did not survive long enough to address the anxiety itself. Thus, she had an increase in energy to act on her anxious thoughts.”
The medication and anxiety discussion is Simon’s interpretation of the available information, not evidence that Greenberg had expressed suicidal intent. The official review also did not treat the number of wounds alone as decisive. Instead, Simon considered the wound locations, depth, scene circumstances, lack of defensive wounds, and the possibility that all of the injuries were self-inflicted.
What is the difference between the cause of death, manner of death, and a criminal verdict?
The cause of death describes the physical injury or disease that caused a death, while the manner of death describes the circumstances under categories such as suicide, homicide, accident, natural causes, or undetermined. In Greenberg’s case, the central official dispute concerns the manner-of-death classification, not whether stabbing injuries were documented.
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A medical examiner’s classification is not the same as a criminal verdict. A suicide classification does not by itself prove every detail of how the death occurred, and a disputed homicide interpretation does not identify a killer. Criminal responsibility requires a separate investigation and legal process. The available record contains no criminal conviction establishing that someone murdered Greenberg.
How did the original homicide ruling change to suicide?
Marlon Osbourne, the pathologist who performed the original autopsy, initially classified Greenberg’s death as homicide and later changed the classification to suicide after discussions involving police and the medical examiner’s office. The change is one of the reasons the case has remained controversial; the original pathologist’s first conclusion and later conclusion do not match.
Osbourne’s position later changed again. In a sworn statement signed in January 2025, Osbourne said that Greenberg’s manner of death “should be designated as something other than suicide.” Reporting about the case identified homicide and undetermined as the remaining possibilities under discussion, but Osbourne’s statement did not itself constitute a court finding that homicide had occurred. The Inquirer’s account of Osbourne’s original and revised opinions provides the context for that disagreement.
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What did the 2025 Ellen Greenberg autopsy review find?
Philadelphia Chief Medical Examiner Lindsay Simon completed a new review in October 2025 and reaffirmed suicide. The official 2025 medical-examiner review reported three additional skin perforations and 20 additional bruises that were not documented in Osbourne’s original notes.
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Simon stated that the manner of death “is best classified as ‘Suicide.’” The review therefore added documented injuries and bruises without changing the official classification. The additional findings did not resolve the competing interpretations of the wound mechanics, blood evidence, body position, or autopsy materials.
Why do experts disagree about the wounds and scene?
The disagreement concerns more than whether 20 or 23 wounds were counted. Experts have disputed whether the location, depth, sequence, and mechanics of the wounds are physically consistent with self-infliction; whether blood patterns and body position support the official account; how the scene was handled; and what the spinal-cord evidence means.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Simon considered seven consultative forensic reports in the 2025 review. Five of the seven reports reportedly concluded that the case indicated homicide or that the injuries were not biomechanically consistent with suicide. A sixth report did not determine the manner of death but concluded that Greenberg’s body had been moved. One report supported suicide. The reports favoring homicide were retained by the Greenberg family, according to the reporting, while the report supporting suicide was produced for the city. These reports are expert opinions, not a judicial verdict.
| Issue | Official suicide interpretation | Disputed or alternative interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Official status | Simon’s October 2025 review concluded that the death was best classified as suicide. | Osbourne’s January 2025 sworn statement said the manner should be something other than suicide; the remaining possibilities discussed in reporting were homicide or undetermined. |
| Apartment scene | The engaged interior swing-bar lock, broken-down door, lack of a documented intruder, and reported lack of struggle supported the suicide interpretation. | Later experts disputed how the scene, access evidence, body position, and investigative handling should be interpreted. |
| Wound biomechanics | Simon concluded that all 23 reported wounds could have been self-inflicted and described 11 as small, shallow hesitation wounds. | Five of seven consultative reports reportedly favored homicide or found the injuries biomechanically inconsistent with suicide. |
| Blood and body position | The official conclusion remained suicide after review of the available evidence. | A sixth consultative report reportedly concluded that Greenberg’s body had been moved but did not determine whether the manner was suicide or homicide. |
| Spinal-cord evidence | Simon said “the preponderance of the evidence suggests the defect was an artifact from the autopsy.” | Former medical-examiner neuropathologist Lyndsey Emery testified that two cuts to the spinal column lacked hemorrhaging, and forensic expert Wayne K. Ross concluded that Greenberg was already dead when one wound was inflicted. |
| Legal significance | The medical examiner’s classification is the official administrative finding. | The classification does not identify a killer or prove homicide in criminal court. |
The contrast is important: the official review did not ignore the unusual or disputed evidence. Simon reviewed it and reached a different interpretation from Osbourne and most of the consultative reports described in the reporting. The disagreement remains a disagreement among forensic interpretations rather than a settled finding that one side has legally proven its case.
What is the spinal-cord dispute?
The spinal-cord evidence became a major point of disagreement because a retained piece of tissue and related photographs were interpreted differently by the experts. Former Medical Examiner’s Office neuropathologist Lyndsey Emery testified that two cuts to the spinal column lacked hemorrhaging. Emery said the absence of hemorrhage could indicate insufficient time for bleeding, insufficient tissue disruption, or that Greenberg was already dead when the wound was inflicted.
Forensic expert Wayne K. Ross concluded that Greenberg was already dead when that wound was inflicted. That interpretation would conflict with a theory that all of the wounds were inflicted by Greenberg during a suicide attempt.
Simon reached another conclusion in the 2025 review, writing that “the preponderance of the evidence suggests the defect was an artifact from the autopsy.” The review reportedly did not examine the spinal-cord specimen itself and instead relied on earlier reports and photographs. The family’s attorney disputed that method and argued that histological examination would be needed to determine whether the wound bled. The disagreement illustrates why the new review did not end the forensic controversy.
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In February 2025, Philadelphia settled two civil lawsuits brought by Greenberg’s parents and agreed to an expedited review of the manner of death. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on February 3, 2025 that the settlement included a $650,000 payment, withdrawal of the lawsuits, and an agreement that Greenberg’s parents would not sue the city again regardless of the review’s result.
The settlement created a process for a new medical-examiner review; it did not decide whether Greenberg died by suicide or homicide. Simon’s October 2025 review subsequently reaffirmed suicide, so the settlement produced additional review and findings but no change in the official manner-of-death classification.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Did the courts decide whether Ellen Greenberg was murdered?
No. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court’s September 13, 2023 decision did not decide whether Greenberg died by suicide or homicide. The court held that the estate lacked standing to compel the Medical Examiner’s Office to change the manner-of-death designation. The Commonwealth Court decision also treated several claimed injuries as legally insufficient or speculative and described the death certificate as advisory rather than dispositive in later proceedings.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket later recorded that an application for discontinuance in Osbourne v. Greenberg was granted on May 14, 2025. The May 14, 2025 Supreme Court order was a procedural disposition, not a judicial finding that the suicide ruling was correct and not a finding that homicide had been proven.
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Was Ellen Greenberg murdered, and is the case still unresolved?
There is no established public finding that Ellen Greenberg was murdered, but the suicide classification remains vigorously disputed. The official medical-examiner position is still suicide after Simon’s 2025 review; Osbourne’s later opinion says the manner should be something other than suicide; and the consultative reports described in the reporting do not agree with one another.
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No court has identified a killer, and no criminal conviction has established homicide in connection with Greenberg’s death. The most accurate current description is therefore: officially ruled suicide, challenged by the family, the original pathologist’s later statement, and several outside experts, with the central forensic dispute unresolved.
Further reading and viewing
Book: What Happened to Ellen? Nancy Grace hardcover, by Nancy Grace and Benée Knauer, offers a book-length account of the case and the Greenberg family’s effort to challenge the ruling. The book is a reported perspective on the dispute, not an official medical-examiner conclusion or court adjudication.
Documentary: Death in Apartment 603: What Happened to Ellen Greenberg? is a three-part ABC News Studios documentary series about the case and the family’s effort to challenge the ruling. ABC News Studios’ official announcement described the series as premiering on Hulu and for Hulu subscribers through the Hulu on Disney+ bundle. Streaming availability, regional restrictions, and subscription requirements can change and should be checked at publication time. The documentary is a media treatment of the dispute, not a new legal adjudication.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Ellen Greenberg’s fiancé ever proven to be her killer?
No. The available court and reporting record does not establish that Samuel Goldberg, Greenberg’s fiancé, was charged, found liable for her death, or proven to be her killer. The case’s disputed forensic evidence should not be treated as proof against him or any other named person.
Did a court decide whether Ellen Greenberg was murdered?
No. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court’s 2023 decision addressed whether the estate had standing to force the Medical Examiner’s Office to change the manner-of-death designation; it did not decide suicide versus homicide. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s May 14, 2025 discontinuance order was procedural rather than a ruling on the facts.
Did the 2025 Ellen Greenberg review change the official ruling?
The October 2025 review added three previously undocumented skin perforations and 20 additional bruises to the reported record, bringing the totals to 23 stab wounds and 31 bruises, but Lindsay Simon still reaffirmed suicide as the official manner of death.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: Ellen Greenberg’s death remains officially classified as suicide after Philadelphia’s October 2025 re-review, despite an initial homicide classification, a later contrary statement from the original pathologist, and substantial disagreement among outside forensic experts. No court has established that Greenberg was murdered or identified a killer.
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