Family of woman found dead with 20 stab wounds in 2011 can take Philly gov to court after officials ruled it suicide, judge rules

The case has grown to be controversial when then-Greenberg's fiancé Samuel Goldberg claimed that her death was a suicide rather than a homicide. The city ruled the case a suicide and Greenberg's parents have accused the city of falsely labeling it as such to cover up a botched homicide investigation, according to NBC Philadelphia.

The jury selection in the trial will begin on Monday after the judge ruled on Friday that the case will go to trial. “I’m hoping we’re going to prove that Ellen did not commit suicide," Josh Greenberg, Ellen's father, told the outlet. “That’s what this is all about. Justice for Ellen.”

Ellen Greenberg was found with 20 stab wounds to her front and back on Jan. 26, 2011, at the age of 27. Goldberg, who was her fiancé at the time, claims that he found her dead and has maintained that Greenberg took her own life due to mental illness.

The case was originally ruled to be a homicide by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner Marlon Osbourne, however, it was later changed to be a suicide without a proper explanation at the time. Josh Shapiro, now the governor of Pennsylvania, but the Attorney General at the time, backed up the ruling that it was a suicide, and the case has partly made its way back into headlines due to his profile being heightened during the 2024 presidential election. Shapiro was a potential VP pick for then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The case was inactive for years.

On January 26, 2011, Goldberg called 911 around 6:31 pm to report that Greenberg was on the floor with "blood everywhere." Goldberg told investigators that he had left for the gym about 45 minutes earlier, and when he returned, the door was locked. He claimed he couldn’t reach Ellen by phone, so he broke down the door and found her body.

However, Goldberg had called his cousin, Kamian Schwartzman, at 6:14 pm for about five minutes and missed several calls from his uncle, James Schwartzman, before answering at 6:26 pm. Both his cousin and uncle, who are lawyers, arrived at the apartment building as early as 6:34 pm, before first responders, though they later claimed to have reached the building closer to 7:30 pm, according to a letter cited by reporter Gavin Fish.

In 2024, PennLive reported that Ellen's body was found slumped against a kitchen cabinet in a seated position, but an attorney representing Ellen's parents stated in court that her body had been moved. James Schwartzman, who was connected politically and socially with then-AG Shapiro and came from the same neighborhood, visited the apartment the day after Ellen's death, despite it being a crime scene. At the time, Schwartzman took her laptop, work laptop, and cellphone. The police recovered the devices two days later.