Philadelphia Medical Examiner re-rules Ellen Greenberg's 2011 death by 20 stab wounds a suicide

The 2011 stabbing death of Philadelphia school teacher Ellen Greenberg has again been ruled a suicide by the city's Medical Examiner, after years of her parents advocating for authorities to take a closer look. Greenberg was 27 years old when she was stabbed 20 times, including 10 times in the back of the neck and head.

Greenberg was found deceased in the Manayunk apartment she shared with her fiance Sam Goldberg, and the wounds were ruled to have been self-inflicted. A kitchen knife with a 10-inch blade was found sticking out of her chest.

Greenberg's parents have fought for 14 years to have their daughter's death reexamined and after the case was reopened, "Philadelphia's Chief Medical Examiner Lindsay Simon announced she is standing by the city's controversial ruling," The Daily Mail reports.

Simon claims that because there were no signs of struggle or defensive wounds, Greenberg could have stabbed herself 20 times. "While the distribution of injuries is admittedly unusual, the fact remains that Ellen would be capable of inflicting these injuries herself," Simon said.

She said that there were hesitation wounds and that Greenberg was not "incapacitated" when she suffered the wounds. Simon also said there was no domestic abuse in Greenberg and Goldberg's home and there was no other DNA than Greenberg's on the knife.

Simon cited Greenberg's anxiety, her new insomnia meds that led to "an increase in energy to act on her anxious thoughts." This led Simon to write that "With all of this information considered, it is the opinion of the undersigned that the manner of Ellen Greenberg's death is best classified as 'suicide.'"

This is despite multiple independent assessments from experts who have asserted that her body was moved, that one of the wounds was inflicted after her death, and that the discovery of her body, as was attested to by Goldberg, did not happen in the way that he said it did.

In February 2025, the pathologist who undertook her autopsy back in 2011 reversed course and said that now he does not believe Greenberg stabbed herself 20 times.

Attorney for Greenberg's parents Joe Podraza said that the report was an "embarrassment to the City, and an insult to Ellen and her family."

"It includes false claims - like the assertion that a stab wound in Ellen's spinal column was made during autopsy, a theory rejected by every credible expert, including the City's own neuropathologist," he said.

"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.," he went on to say. "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. Shame on you Simon."