CrimeOnline’s Nancy Grace took center stage at CrimeCon Denver Friday, to spread awareness regarding Ellen Greenberg, a Pennsylvania teacher found stabbed 20 times.
“Body Bags” host and Distinguished Scholar of Applied Forensics at Jacksonville State University, Joseph Scott Morgan, joined Grace to discuss the suspicious death, which was initially labeled a homicide, then changed to suicide by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Ellen, a first-grade teacher, was found deceased in her Manayunk apartment in 2011. Greenberg’s fiancé, Sam Goldberg, said he left for the gym while Ellen chopped up fruit in the kitchen.
He returned home to find the front door locked, with the swing lock attached to the inside side of the door.
Goldberg said he called and texted Ellen numerous times, but when he couldn’t get an answer and couldn’t get help from the apartment management, he broke the lock and walked inside.
Inside the apartment, Ellen was found slumped over in the kitchen, with “some of her upper body/shoulders resting against the lower half of the white kitchen cabinets.”
Goldberg has not been named a suspect in the case.
Several inconsistencies and irregularities have surfaced with forensics in the case, including how Ellen could have managed to stab four inches into her chest after stabbing herself multiple times.
Ten of the stab wounds were to the back of her neck, one stab wound was to the back of her scalp, another wound was on her stomach, and eight wounds were found on her chest.
Further, Ellen was left-handed, but the knife was held with her right hand, according to the autopsy report.
“She’s not ambidextrous,” Morgan said.
A forensic examination indicated that Ellen also had two sharp force injuries that lacked bleeding, meaning the wounds could have been inflicted after her death.
Neuropathologist Lyndsey Emery, who was hired by the city of Philadelphia to evaluate Ellen’s spinal cord, told Ellen’s family attorney that Ellen had no hemorrhaging, as it strongly suggests she did not have a pulse when she was stabbed.
She concluded that at least one of the 20 stab wounds on Greenberg occurred postmortem.
“[There was] no hemorrhage,” Morgan said. “This was a post-mortem injury. This was only discovered years later, afterward.”
Grace, who co-authored the book,”What Happened to Ellen?: An American Miscarriage of Justice,” also questioned the cause of death, referencing Ellen’s behavior shortly before the stabbings.
“She filled up her car with gas…forward-thinking. When you’re suicidal, you’re not thinking about filling up your car,” Grace said.
In the days before her death, Ellen also sent out “Save the Date” cards for her upcoming wedding and made Christmas cards for her students.
Family members have said that although she was struggling with anxiety, she was not depressed or suicidal, and would not have taken her own life.
Since their daughter’s death, Dr. Josh and Sandee Greenberg have been locked in court disputes over changing the cause of death. They claimed that the medical examiner’s office hid homicide evidence.
In February, the City of Philadelphia settled two of the Greenberg couple’s lawsuits.
As part of the settlement, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office agreed to review Ellen’s initial autopsy, but so far, that has not happened.
“They spent their life savings trying to get her cleared,” Grace said. “They sold their house.”
The next hearing is scheduled October 14.
To learn more about Ellen Greenberg and the case, visit the “Justice for Ellen” Facebook page. You can also sign the “Justice for Ellen Rae Greenberg” petition on Change.org.
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[Feature Photo: Ellen Greenberg/Family Handout]
