Disclaimer: The article has mentions of stabbing.
27-year-old Ellen Greenberg’s mysterious death following 20 stab wounds in 2011 remains a cold case. The school teacher, who lived with her boyfriend Sam Goldberg, was found unconscious and in a pool of blood by the latter, as she lay on the kitchen floor. The frantic 911 call made by the boyfriend was a chilling one, where he described a 10-inch kitchen knife sticking out of Goldberg’s heart. Because her death was not natural, an autopsy was performed at the family’s request. Interestingly, while the examiner ruled it out as a homicide initially, he later changed it to suicide, which left the woman’s family shocked.
FULL STATEMENT from Ellen Greenberg family attorney Joe Podraza:
“MEO Simon’s so-called “independent review” of Ellen Greenberg’s death is a deeply flawed attempt to justify a predetermined conclusion. It includes false claims—like the assertion that a stab wound in Ellen’s… pic.twitter.com/Ujd0QVmNN9
— Surviving The Survivor Podcast (@PodcastSTS) October 14, 2025
What’s more, this verdict of suicide by the Philadelphia examiner, Dr. Marlon Osbourne, led to the apartment no longer being considered a crime scene. As a result, all possible evidence that Ellen’s family thought could be gathered to examine her cause of death was quickly cleaned by a professional crew. Goldberg’s parents have, for a decade now, not given up on seeking justice for their daughter’s mysterious death. They are still fighting to get the case ruled back to a homicide or even undetermined, since they vehemently believe that the autopsy verdict has botched the case.
Moving forward, it was in February 2025 when the city of Philadelphia resolved two lawsuits filed by Greenberg’s parents, Joshua and Sandra. The authorities thereafter agreed to pay the bereaved family members a settlement amount of $60,000 and even confirmed to review the case again, this time in an expeditious manner. Still, after months of waiting, a review was done on Ellen Greenberg’s cause of death after receiving a tongue-lashing scold from the Philadelphia judge.
The new review of the case was spearheaded by Philadelphia’s Chief Medical Examiner, Lindsay Simon. Bringing a shocker for the family, this time too, the primary teacher’s death was ruled as a suicide and not a homicide. The examiner, in his notes on the case, acknowledged that the distribution of injuries all across Ellen’s body was unusual in nature. However, it does not take away from the fact that these wounds could very well be inflicted by herself, as a part of self-harm.
Moving on, Simon’s review analysis of the cold case further underlined that many of the wounds suffered by the 27-year-old seemed to be hesitation wounds. He ruled out the chance of finding any defensive wounds all over her body, which further strikes out the possibility of a struggle during her death. Speaking to the Daily Mail, the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed that there was no other DNA found on the knife, which had caused the stabbing wounds on her body. There was also a lack of evidence on Ellen being in an abusive relationship with Sam Goldberg.
In response to the latest review, Ellen’s mother, Sandra Greenberg, claimed that she now believes that her daughter was a victim of abuse right up to her death. In her words, “I knew she was struggling with something. But I didn’t know what.” The attorney from the victim’s family has also pointed out several flaws and shortcomings even in the review by the Philadelphia court.
Ellen’s mother further pointed fingers at her daughter’s then boyfriend, Sam Goldberg, who has moved on in his life. As per reports, he is settled in New York, is married, and a father of two kids. Sandra Greenberg recalled Sam’s confusing hesitation to perform CPR on Ellen after he found her in a pool of blood. Speaking to Variety, she stated, “The man that was going to marry my daughter, have children with her – when he is asked to do CPR and says, ‘I have to, right?’ I couldn’t believe my ears.”
Joseph Podraza Jr, the attorney from Ellen’s family’s side stated “By ignoring key evidence that contradicts suicide—the extensive 3D photogrammetry, a recreation which proves Ellen could not self-inflict all of the wounds, unexplained bruises, missing surveillance footage, an intact lock, accounts of a toxic relationship, etc.—Simon builds a flimsy case on distorted portrayals of Ellen’s mental health, propped up by cynical distortions of Ellen’s managed anxiety, a condition widely experienced daily by over 40 million Americans.”
Interestingly, it was in January 2025 when Dr. Osbourn, the medical examiner who performed the first autopsy on Ellen Greenberg after she was found dead, changed his mind about the nature of her death. Right before the Philadelphia government was about to hand over settlement money to the victim’s family, Osbourn, in his court document, stated that it “should be designated as something other than suicide”, since he had become aware of ‘additional information’.
In other news, the cold case of Ellen Greenberg’s death has been recently adopted as a docu-series titled “Death in Apartment 603: What Happened to Ellen Greenberg?”.
