Philadelphia teacher death review upholds suicide ruling experts dispute

An extended-awaited assessment of the demise of Philadelphia instructor Ellen Greenberg, who controversially dedicated suicide from 23 stab wounds in 2011, has reaffirmed the discovering — however consultants nonetheless say the proof tells a unique story.

Dr. Lindsay Simon, the town’s lead researcher, was tasked with reviewing the work of Dr. Marlon Osbourne, the assistant investigator who carried out the unique post-mortem.

Dr. Osbourne initially recognized the reason for demise as “a number of stab wounds” and the way of demise as “murder,” however later modified the reason for demise to “suicide.” Nevertheless, he modified his thoughts once more earlier this yr, writing to the courtroom that “it’s my skilled opinion that Ellen’s method of demise must be categorized as one thing aside from suicide.”

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A cut up picture exhibits Ellen Greenberg smiling in an undated household photograph, and a computer-generated picture based mostly on an post-mortem report exhibiting knives the place she was stabbed. (Greenberg household)

The assessment got here after years of authorized maneuvering by Greenberg’s dad and mom, Dr. Josh Greenberg and Sandee Greenberg, who requested that the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Workplace revise the official reason behind demise from suicide to undetermined.

“The foremost stab wounds on the base of the mind and deeper into the higher backbone will not be in step with being self-inflicted because of the location and related accidents,” stated Dr. Priya Banerjee, a board-certified forensic pathologist who reviewed Dr. Simon’s report.

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Based mostly on that wound, she instructed Fox Information Digital she believes Greenberg’s demise was a murder.

Learn Dr. Simon report:

“Whereas the distribution of accidents is admittedly uncommon, the very fact stays that Ellen would have been able to self-inflicting these accidents,” Dr. wrote. Simon.

Joe Podraza, an lawyer for Greenberg’s dad and mom, has stated this wound was inflicted after Greenberg’s coronary heart stopped beating. However Dr. Simon steered that the wound occurred throughout the post-mortem and never in her condominium.

“It nonetheless sounds open-ended to me at this level,” stated Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD chilly case investigator and felony justice professor at Penn State Lehigh Valley. “[Dr. Simon] tries to place collectively one thing from fourteen years in the past with paperwork, slides and images.”

She additionally needed to depend on an investigation in Philadelphia that was problematic from the beginning, he stated. A cleanup crew destroyed the crime scene earlier than police arrived with a search warrant.

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Dr. Josh and Sandee Greenberg in Philadelphia after a settlement was reached with the town of their daughter Ellen’s case. (Gavin Vis)

Fingerprint testing on a knife present in her chest, in keeping with Dr. Simon solely “two unusable prints” op. She additionally recognized three extra stab wounds and one other twenty bruises that weren’t talked about in Dr. Osbourne.

Though Greenberg was discovered with bruises on a number of elements of her physique along with the stab wounds, Dr. Simon stated she confirmed no indicators of defensive accidents. She additionally failed to think about marks on her wrists as proof that she could have been held down or tied up whereas she was being stabbed.

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Ellen Greenberg along with her dad and mom Dr. Josh and Sandee Greenberg. (Greenberg household)

“Whereas the absence of ‘defensive accidents’ doesn’t remove the potential for homicide, the absence of defensive accidents should be defined,” Dr. Simon wrote.

She recognized and dominated out 4 doable explanations: the assault was over earlier than the sufferer may defend herself, she was drunk and unable to defend herself, she was bodily restrained, or she suffered a disabling harm initially of the assault.

From an earlier research by Dr. Wayne Ross on behalf of Greenberg’s dad and mom revealed that the sufferer may have been strangled and her wrists restrained, leaving her defenseless, however Dr. Simon disagreed along with his findings.

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A pc illustration exhibiting two of Ellen Greenberg’s knife wounds to the again of her neck and cranium. (Tom Brennan)

“Though the form of the bruises on Ellen’s forearms may hypothetically be attributable to fingers, the undersigned recognized solely three bruises on Ellen’s proper forearm and three bruises on Ellen’s left forearm,” wrote Dr. Simon. “This is able to point out an incomplete grip on the forearms if the bruises had been certainly attributable to fingers. The bruises on the suitable forearm additionally resembled the undersigned of various ages.”

In response to Dr. Banerjee, nevertheless, visually figuring out the age of the bruises will be problematic and inaccurate.

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“So [they] might be the results of that one incident, or a number of or unrelated issues,” she stated.

Ellen Greenberg, left, in an undated household photograph along with her then-fiancé Sam Goldberg. (Greenberg household)

One issue that contributed to Dr. Simon, there have been a number of stories that Greenberg suffered from anxiousness and stress, primarily resulting from her work as a instructor. In response to textual content messages despatched on the day of her demise, she instructed a pal that grades had been due that night, and that she was having bother ending them by the deadline.

“I wish to scream,” she wrote.

In response to Dr. Simon’s report, the evaluation course of was apparently a serious downside for her, and he or she instructed associates and her therapist that she was contemplating quitting her job.

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“Let’s face it: Tens of millions of individuals expertise anxiousness or melancholy and by no means commit suicide,” stated John Kelly, a New Jersey-based felony profiler and psychotherapist who has adopted the case for years.

Main melancholy could be a think about suicides, however not all the time, he stated. Greenberg was in search of a remedy for anxiousness, which is cited in Dr. Simon, however she was not identified with melancholy. Resulting from stress, she had been prescribed Zoloft after which Klonopin.

Sandee Greenberg in Philadelphia after a settlement was reached with the town in her daughter Ellen’s case (Gavin Vis)

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In response to a 2025 research from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, roughly 49% of suicide victims have a documented psychological well being situation. Of those, 71.7% had been identified with melancholy, in comparison with 24% with an anxiousness dysfunction.

The identical CDC evaluation additionally examined undetermined deaths and located that 75% had precipitating situations, corresponding to a psychological well being downside, and 27.5% of these had a analysis of an anxiousness dysfunction.

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A number of exterior consultants, together with the late and famend forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht, have reviewed Greenberg’s demise through the years. Though Dr. Simon included analyzes by Dr. Wecht and others in her report, she disagreed with their conclusions that suicide was unlikely or inconsistent with the proof.

She additionally included the findings of Dr. Jonathan Arden, who agreed with the suicide designation, citing the places of the accidents, in addition to web searches discovered on Greenberg’s laptop computer relating to the phrase “suicide.”

This story is about suicide. Should you or somebody you understand is having ideas of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Disaster Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).