Sign up to get updates from us
On January 26th, 2011, Ellen Greenberg left work because Philadelphia was getting hit with a blizzard. She got back to her apartment where she lived with her fiancé Sam Goldberg and she was later pronounced dead that evening. She had 20 stab wounds, and her death was ruled a homicide, but the manner of death was reversed and officially ruled a suicide in February of 2011.
https://www.drinkingthecoolaid.com/
Resources:
Recap of part 2: The Greenberg’s were told that there was a neuropathologist report done on Ellen’s spinal cord and it was the the reason the case was closed and changed to suicide, but the police and the medical examiner didn’t have the report and the forensic pathologist said she didn’t do a report and never saw the specimen. The Greenberg’s hired their own experts to look through the files and they all started coming to the same conclusion. Cyrill Wecht said “It is my professional opinion that the manner of death of Ellen Greenberg is strongly suspicious of homicide.” Henry Lee said, “The number and type of wounds and bloodstain patters observed are consistent with a homicide scene.” Wayne Ross said, “It is my opinion that the investigating authorities should pursue this case as a homicide. It is further my opinion to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the manner of death is a homicide. The scene findings were indicative of a homicide.”
Gregory McDonald said, “Typically, if a person is stabbing you, they’re not going to stab you several times superficially and then start to stab you deeper. It’s possible, but that’s one of the things that struck me as not being consistent with homicide.”
All of these experts are saying this is strongly suspicious of a homicide, yet, Marlon Osbourne, changed her manner of death to suicide.
Tom Brennan was absolutely determined to figure out how Ellen’s manner of death was switched to suicide. On sept 13th 2013, a conference call placed from the Dauphin County coroner’s office to medical examiner officials in Philadelphia seemed to supply some answers. On the call was Brennan, the pathologist the Greenberg's hired named Dr. Wayne Ross, and county Coroner Graham Hetrick, who was on the call, but never spoke. On the other end of the line was Osbourne and his boss, Philadelphia Medical Examiner Dr. Samuel Gulino. Brennan took notes during the call: “Dr. Ross began the conversation by asking Dr. Osbourne a number of questions related to Dr. Osbourne’s findings in his autopsy report. Osbourne responded to all Dr. Ross’ questions. Although Dr. Ross did not agree with a number of Dr. Osbourne’s responses, the call remained congenial.”
Brennan noted that the tone of the call changed drastically. He said, “I then asked Dr. Osbourne why he changed the cause and manner of death from homicide to suicide. Dr. Osbourne responded, I changed it at the insistence of the police because they said there was a lack of defense wounds.”
Brennan said, “Since when do the police have anything to do with making a medical decision regarding the cause and manner of death?”
Dr. Osbourne did not respond, and the call was ended shortly after this.
The next time the Greenberg's’ team was able to question Osbourne and Gulino, was under oath during the depositions in April 2021 that were taken for the family’s lawsuits against Philadelphia officials, including the pair of pathologists. They were questioned about the undisclosed meeting where they decided to amend Ellen’s death certificate. Gulino said, “It occurred in the medical examiner’s office, in one of our conference rooms.”
Gulino couldn’t recall the exact date this took place and couldn’t remember which police officers attended, but he knew the meeting had to have taken place prior to her certificate being changed on April 4th of 2011. Ok, thanks for providing specifics.
Gulino said, “I don’t recall who it was that asked me to take part in this meeting. I did not initiate the meeting. What I recall being discussed is that the police wanted to present additional evidence that they felt showed that the death of Ellen Greenberg was a suicide and not a homicide.”
He was questioned about what evidence was provided and he said, “The two topics that I remember from that meeting were the absence of defensive cuts on Ellen Greenberg’s hands or forearms and the fact that the door was locked, or the lock was engaged from inside the apartment.”
Osbourne said that he had been asked by an officer on at least one other occasion prior to the meeting to change the manner of death, but he couldn’t remember which officer this was or the names of the officers who attended the meeting. Under Pennsylvania law, Osbourne was the only person with the power to change Ellen’s death certificate.
One thing the Greenberg family learned was that the medical examiner’s office had kept a key specimen of Ellen’s knife-stabbed spinal tissue.
Eight years after Ellen’s investigation had been closed and changed to suicide, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner asked his recently hired assistant ME to examine the specimen. Dr. Lyndsey Emery conducted the exam in 2019, but she didn’t write a report about it. In May 2021, she communicated her findings verbally to Philadelphia Medical Examiner Sam Gulino. The tissue she examined came from a deep stab wound to the back of Ellen’s neck that likely occurred after her heart had stopped beating. Brennan said that at her deposition, “she stated that her examination revealed that the wound lacked hemorrhage, and if it lacked hemorrhage, then what? It lacked pulse. And if it lacked pulse, then the victim was dead.”
Emery said she was asked by Gulino to perform an “informal, curbside” exam of the spinal specimen which lasted 45 minutes to an hour and included her making sections of the specimen to look at under the microscope and she took photos. To place the specimen into proper context with the injuries found at autopsy, she looked at file photos and found “sharp force injury to the bone and ligaments of the back of the spinal column, the vertebral column.” The injuries lined up with damage to the spinal specimen. During the exam, she found, “a corresponding cut of the dura (Doo-ra)” that covers the spinal cord. She also found a “1.1 centimeter defect of the vertebral column itself.”
She did not find any sign of bleeding from the wounds to the spinal specimen. “There is a defect in the dura that corresponds with the spinal cord, or the spinal column injury, but there is no hemorrhage around it.”
The Greenberg's’ attorney asked: “And by the fact that now the dura is not demonstrating hemorrhage, as you found also that the spinal column didn’t, would that weigh a little more in suggesting that Ellen was dead at the time that this wound was administered?”
Emery said, “Yes. So, I have all of this evidence that says there is no hemorrhage or reaction to any of these changes in the spinal cord.”
The attorney said, “So what you’re saying is, Ellen would have been dead when this was administered?”
Emery said, “Yeah. I mean, lack of hemorrhage means no pulse.”
Emery did mention that there was another possible cause for the lack of hemorrhaging in the sample. The blood could have been washed away during the autopsy. This would be far more likely for the dura covering, but far less likely for the spinal column itself. She repeatedly stated that she had no opinion on the manner of death though.
She did mention that typically, when she does an exam, she also files a written report, but she was told not to in this case. Gulino said she could verbally tell him of her findings, and he would work it into his own report, but there is no evidence that this happened. The information in the deposition led the Greenberg's to file the second lawsuit, accusing officials of a cover-up.
Did Ellen stab herself? If she did, she was able to keep stabbing, despite the pain, to inflict 20 wounds that varied in severity.
Ellen was 5’7” and weighed 136 pounds. Would she have the strength to push a 10-inch kitchen knife into her chest?
The Greenberg's have hired a team of experts that say this was homicide and they intend to prove it. The evidence they point to would include a 3D computer analysis of the trajectory and depth of all 20 stab wounds. The analysis was conducted by BioMX Corp, a Virginia-based independent computational biomechanics engineering consulting company that reconstructs accidents and “criminal injuries” for court cases. The report and 3D images and the written conclusions it contained are included in the Greenberg's’ lawsuits.
The process is able to digitize Ellen’s autopsy photos, producing a 3D model of her exterior and interior anatomy. Each of her stab wounds are also digitally re-created based on the exact measurements, depths, and placements of each wound that was documented during the autopsy. The kitchen knife that was in her chest was digitized and placed into each wound, according to the exact measurements of location, width, and depth. There are more than forty 3D images showing the knife’s angle of entry at each wound and the depth the knife’s blade reached within her body for each puncture mark.
After inputting all the data for the 3D analysis, the report stated the following:
“Eleven posterior head and neck wounds sustained by Ellen Greenberg are not biomechanically consistent with self-infliction.” It says that they are “consistent with focalized stabbing by an assailant.”
The 3D analysis identified two of the posterior stab wounds as being particularly severe. Both were so deep that one penetrated her vertebra, spinal column and spinal cord, and the other bore into her brain.
The stab wound to the spinal column was the one examined years later by Dr. Lyndsey Emery using a spinal specimen and she had testified that there was a strong possibility Ellen was dead when this blow was struck. The 3D analysis is not able to determine the sequence of the stab wounds and they were not able to determine this during the autopsy either. The only thing that they know for sure is that the last wound was in Ellen’s chest because the knife was found in there.
The 3D analysis can conclude that several of the previous stab wounds, such as the neck injury, would have debilitated Ellen, causing, “impaired, coordination, semiconsciousness and unconsciousness” among numerous other physical and mental effects. The autopsy results and 3D wound analysis show that Ellen sustained a deep stab wound to her brain and this strike alone could have caused her to lose consciousness.
The Greenberg's hired Dr. Wayne Ross, the Lancaster-based neural forensic pathologist, who is a court-qualified expert on stab wounds, and he wrote the following about Ellen’s brain injury after reviewing the autopsy files:
“There was evidence of a stab wound, which penetrated the cranial cavity and severed the cranial nerves in the brain. As a result, Ellen would experience severe pain, cranial nerve dysfunction, and traumatic brain signs and symptoms, including numbness, tingling, irregular heartbeat, bradycardia, respiratory depression, neurogenic shock and impaired loss of consciousness.”
How on earth did she stab herself in the chest after all of this?
This is only focusing on the effects of one stab wound, but she had 20. The 3D model report simulated the severity and effects of each wound and here is a list of some of the physical effects she would have suffered:
“Unconsciousness, cranial nerve defects, severe facial pain, impaired coordination, impaired or loss of vision, seizure, weakness, blood loss, loss of heart rate and blood pressure, hypoxic brain damage, respiratory failure, cardiac dysrhythmia, and loss of cerebrospinal fluid” among other significant and physical damage.
This alone, should be enough proof to reinvestigate this case as a homicide, but there’s more. The 3D analysis of Ellen’s autopsy shows multiple bruises on her wrists, right arm, neck, right hip, and both legs. The report states: “Multiple contusions of Ellen Greenberg’s upper and lower extremities of various resolutions are biomechanically consistent with assailant-oriented trauma and not self-inflicted injury.”
Bruising is defensive wounds. Tom Brennan wonders if this suggests that someone held her wrists and ankles.
Cyril Wecht had also written in his report about the bruises, stating: “Multiple contusions in various stages of resolution were present on the upper and lower extremities.”
Dr. Ross wrote that the bruising on her neck was “evidence of strangulation.” He said, “There was a mark over the front of the neck which was consistent with a fingernail mark. There were multiple bruises under the neck and in the strap muscles over the right side of the neck.” He felt that “the patterns were compatible with a manual strangulation.”
Brennan also agreed with this and said that during an autopsy, they take the skin from in front and they flip it up so they can view the esophagus. In Ellen’s autopsy, she had hemorrhaging in her throat, which, in his opinion, was proof of manual strangulation.
To show both sides though, Wecht’s report didn’t mention neck bruising or the possibility of manual strangulation.
Ellen did have several fresh bruises, but she also had numerous older bruises at various stages of healing. They were located on her torso, arm and both legs. Ross wrote in his report that “The patterns were consistent with a repeated beating.” I also want to mention that these areas of the body would be easy to hide with clothing. If she was being abused by someone, that could explain why other people didn’t know about it.
Wecht's report mentioned the bruises, but he didn’t come to any conclusions about this.
Her parents wonder if this bruising could explain why Ellen suddenly suffered from anxiety and wanted to leave Philadelphia. They later learned from a family friend that Ellen was preparing to leave the day she died.
Her father, Josh Greenberg said, “We’re just moving up a legal ladder. It’s a very tough, frustrating life. And it’s very disappointing who we are fighting.” He accused the city of trying to wait him out or bleed him dry financially. He said, “The city’s job to postpone, procrastinate and make excuses. It’s a stall. They’re hoping I die or run out money.”
He’s furious about the way things have gone with the police and he said, “I hope these people see my daughter bleeding in pain every time they look at a child. That’s what we have to face. That’s what we see. It should haunt them forever and ever, if they have any kind of conscience.”
The Greenberg's say that their goal of winning justice for their daughter imbued their golden years with deeper meaning. Joshua said, “This has given us a purpose and a mission. When I think about stopping this mission, I get sick.”
Josh said, “Our way of enjoying the holiday season is doing whatever we can to get justice for our daughter. When it comes to a family holiday, there’s a hole in our heart, just like an empty seat at the table where our daughter should be.”
Sandee told Dateline, “My daughter did not commit suicide. We’ve grieved her life for years. Now we want to clear her name. We want justice for her. And we want closure.”
In October of 2019, the Greenberg's attorney, Joseph Podraza Jr., filed a civil lawsuit on their behalf against the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s office and the pathologist who conducted the autopsy, to get the officials to change Ellen’s manner of death from suicide to undetermined or back to homicide.
In January of 2020, the judge ruled that the case could move forward, but the court proceedings were on hold due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The case did start moving again in 2021. After months of pre-trial testimony and medica coverage, the Greenberg's’ attorney said that on December 10th, 2021, his team provided “numerous additional materials to the AG’s Office in response to the AG’s statement to the press that the AG would review new material if the material was supplied.” To clarify, AG is Attorney General.
The materials submitted included the apartment building surveillance video, the declarations of two building employees, and the videotaped depositions of Dr. Gulino, Dr. Osbourne, and Dr. Emery of the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office.
Once this was submitted, the Greenberg's requested that Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro review and reopen the case. He did not respond to any questions from Dateline, but a spokesperson confirmed they received the new evidence, and it was being reviewed.
Timeline:
On the day before her death, Ellen’s mom texted her and said, you need to see a professional. Ellen said: Ok, I’m trying. Just scared of it for everything. On the day of her death, the two of them talked at 7 AM and had a pleasant conversation.
Ellen’s class let out early due to the blizzard and she gassed up her car at 1:30 PM. Was this strictly out of habit? Or, was she looking towards the future and didn’t want her life to end that day?
At 2:30 PM, she called a restaurant. I’m not entirely clear on this. Was she trying to order something? Make reservations? Or even cancel reservations? Maybe this is part of the big dinner party plans for Sam’s birthday?
At 4:46 PM, Ellen’s computer was used for the last time
At 4:50, Sam left the apartment and headed to the gym located in the apartment complex. The key fob records show that he entered the gym at 4:54 and he was also caught on camera. He got back to the apartment just after 5:30. The calls from Sam to Ellen registered between 5:30 and 5:42 and the series of texts were sent from 5:32 to 5:54.
If you believe that Ellen took her own life during this 40-minute window, that’s a really tight timeline. She was in the middle of cutting up fruit. There were washed blueberries in a strainer and a sliced orange on the counter. She just lost it in the middle of preparing a snack? Or, did the two of them have a fight and she thought enough is enough? If you believe that scenario, why didn’t any neighbors hear them fighting? They were able to hear Sam shouting at the door to be let in. If Ellen was ending her own life, how did she complete everything before Sam got back to the door? According to his story, the swing bar latch was engaged, meaning, the door could be opened a few inches and according to the reports, you can see into the kitchen, where her body was. Why didn’t he hear her stabbing herself? Or see her afterwards?
Sam went down and spoke to the security guard and the guard called Ellen’s phone at 6:07 and 6:10, but this is where their stories differ. Sam said that after he talked to the security guard, the two of them went to the apartment and Sam broke down the door. The security guard said he never left his post. He flat told Sam that it was against their policy to break down the door. He was not seen on surveillance video leaving his post to go with him and he also mentioned that he thought it was odd that Sam kept saying he had been at the gym because he wasn’t wearing sneakers, he had boots on. Also, if he was there, why wasn’t he heard on the 911 call? Did he just leave the scene to head back to his post after seeing a woman’s dead body on the floor? The operator even asked Sam if anyone else was there and he said no
Sam didn’t just go back up to the apartment and break the door down like he said, either. At 6:14, he ALLEGEDLY called Kamian (Kay-mee-an) Schwartzman, his first cousin and good friend. At 6:26, Sam ALLEGEDLY answered a call from his uncle James Schwartzman, who was a prominent attorney and judge. According to Gavin Fish’s Youtube video, He’s the kind of judge that makes sure other lawyers remain ethical. Why would he contact an attorney before entering that apartment? Why waste time if you think Ellen is in danger? Do you know who he didn’t contact? Anyone that Ellen could possibly know. He didn’t call her parents or her friends to see if anyone knew where she was. He was positive she was in that apartment...why? How would he know that if he didn’t see her in there? What did he say on that phone call to Kamian that prompted Kamian to contact his attorney father and have him reach out to Sam? Is it weird timing that right after this call, Sam allegedly broke down the door at 6:30 and found Ellen?
I do want to say that it’s often reported that Sam called his uncle, but according to the Prosecutor’s podcast and Gavin Fish, that isn’t true. He called his cousin Kamian, and he had James Schwartzman call Sam. If the door was locked and Sam was calling Ellen’s name and calling her phone, why would he be so positive that she was in that apartment? It is very possible for a swing latch to lock on its own if the door is shut hard enough. If the lock isn’t pushed all the way against the door frame, and it’s opened halfway, it can accidentally lock. This is extremely common, and my parents mentioned that they just had this happen to them at a hotel and when they contacted the front desk, they said it’s not a problem, it happens all the time. Also, a swing latch can be locked from the outside, it’s really not that complicated.
When Sam entered the apartment, he saw Ellen’s bloody body on the floor of the kitchen with her head and shoulders propped against the cabinets. He called 911 at 6:33 PM. The last call from Sam to Ellen was at 5:52 PM and the last text from Sam to Ellen was at 5:54 PM, so there was a 29-minute gap before calling 911. He called 911 at 6:33 and just one minute later at 6:34, his cousin, Kamian arrived. Why would he rush over when Sam was only saying the door was locked and Ellen wasn’t answering his calls? Wouldn’t your first instinct be to contact maintenance to get the door unlocked? The reason I’m harping on this specific point is because Sam’s text messages didn’t sound worried, in fact, he sounded like he was threatening her. If he wasn’t worried when he was texting her, why did Kamian and his father James rush to the apartment? There needs to be an explanation for this.
Ellen’s mom heard the 911 call and she said she was shocked that Sam was so calm, and she thought it was odd that he mentioned he was at the gym before finding her. I also found this odd, but a 911 operator analyzed the call on one of the podcasts I listened to and mentioned that it’s not that strange. People will give their entire life story before answering the questions, so I thought that was a good perspective to add in.
When the paramedics arrived at 6:36, Sam was waiting in the hallway. Ellen was declared dead at 6:40 PM and the police arrived shortly after this, so the building manager led them to the apartment. Both the police and the medical examiner, wrote in their reports at the scene that Sam said the doorman/security guard was with him when he broke down the door, but we know that wasn’t true. He was alone when he broke the door down. Unfortunately, there aren’t any cameras in the hallway, so we can’t even verify if the door was actually locked like Sam said it was. He did ask for help opening the door, but what if it wasn’t locked? Some people have wondered if this piece of the story wasn’t true. If that’s the case, that’s pretty risky. If he asked the guard to help break it down and he agreed, what would Sam do if they got up there and it wasn’t locked? This almost confirms that it was locked, but the door isn’t broken at all. You would expect some damage if someone is breaking a door down, but there just wasn’t. The swing latch is slightly bent, and the screws are partially out, but to me, it looks staged. That’s just my personal opinion. If the door isn’t broken, at the very least, I would expect to see that swing latch broken. It wasn’t even torn off the doorframe. Everything was still intact.
Gavin Fish did a video where he installed a swing latch on his office door. He mentioned that he didn’t want to cause damage to the door or the frame in his home, so he didn’t tighten the screws all the way. He tried a couple times to bust through the door with light force, but it didn’t budge. When he put some effort into it, the door frame broke off and the swing bar latch was still attached to it. Obviously, this isn’t an exact science, but it did exactly what you would expect when breaking a door down.
The security guard made an official statement that he was the only person at the desk working security on the afternoon of January 26th, 2011 and he confirmed that Sam went to the first floor of the apartment building and said he couldn’t get in his apartment. The guard confirmed that he never escorted him and no one else was with him either. If he did go to Sam’s apartment, he would have used the elevator or the stairs. The security cameras confirm that the security guard did not go with Sam, nor did anyone else. He said that he did not see Sam at the apartment, and he didn’t witness anything he did on the sixth floor that day.
NEXT WEEK:
We will hear the 911 call
The medical examiner was reprimanded for other cases and it’s an unsettling number of issues that were discovered
We will talk about the knife wounds and the positions it would have been in
Discuss the reasons this could be suicide and the reasons this could be homicide
RESOURCES:
