The Unbelievable Case of Ellen Greenberg
A woman dead with twenty stab wounds, ten of them in her back – and the police ruled it suicide?
This sounds like the plot of a far-fetched crime drama, but it’s a true story. It’s an American case that will leave you speechless.
The case unfolded in January 2011. The victim, Ellen Greenberg, was discovered by her fiancé in their shared apartment. She was only 27 years old. 
(Ellen)
A Gruesome Discovery
Ellen’s death was nothing short of horrific.
Her body was covered in bruises: one on her abdomen, three above her right knee, three on her right thigh, a large, dark bruise under her right arm, and the last three on her right forearm.
These bruises were in different stages of healing, indicating that the injuries had occurred over several weeks before her death.
The Stab Wounds: A Suicide?
Even more disturbing than the bruises were the stab wounds. The medical examiner counted twenty in total. One went through the pectoral muscle, piercing her liver. Another severed her aorta, causing massive blood loss. And yet another pierced the dura mater, directly damaging her spine.
Ten stab wounds were found on her chest and abdomen. Ten more were on her neck and the back of her head. The knife that killed her was left embedded in her heart.
(The murder weapon in the case)
From Homicide to Suicide: A Dubious Shift
The day after Ellen’s death, medical examiner Dr. Osborne concluded that Ellen had been murdered. He declared it a homicide.
However, he quickly changed his conclusion following suggestions from police investigators. He gave a judgement that baffled Ellen’s parents, friends, and countless people online. He stated that Ellen had committed suicide.
Why Suicide? The Authority’s Reasoning
The authorities presented their reasons for believing that Ellen took her own life.
Ellen’s apartment was located in a quiet neighborhood with very low crime rates. There were only two possible ways to enter her home. One was through the apartment’s balcony. However, it had snowed heavily that day, leaving no footprints on the balcony.
That left the front door as the only option.
(The apartment where Ellen lived)
Could the Killer Have Entered Through the Front Door?
The answer was no. According to the police report received by Dr. Osborne, Ellen’s body was discovered only after her fiancé and an apartment employee forced the door open. This means that the door was locked from the inside.
Let’s sum it up from the police perspective: Ellen was alone in the apartment. The door was locked from the inside. There was no sign of forced entry and nothing seemed out of place. Therefore, she must have committed suicide.
After all, reality isn’t like a detective novel. There aren’t so many locked-room murders.
(Photo of the front door of Ellen’s apartment)
Mental State
The police also stated that Ellen’s mental state had been very poor.
The police claimed that Ellen had been under a lot of work stress before her death. She didn’t want to be in photos. She wanted to move, but wouldn’t say why. She had seen a psychologist. The doctor diagnosed her with adjustment disorder and anxiety. Ellen’s mother felt that Ellen was hiding something from her.
The morning of her death, Ellen made one last call to her father. She told him, “I love you,” as if she was saying goodbye.
Wasn’t that enough proof that she had taken her own life?
(Ellen with her parents)
The Baffling Evidence
But what about the bloodstains, the wounds, and the bruises?
The police stated that reality is stranger than detective stories. They’d once found a man’s body that died from blunt force trauma and there was blood everywhere. They initially believed it was murder.
Then they found security footage showing the man simply fell, injured himself, and died. There was no killer, just a strange accident.
Perhaps Ellen’s case was similar. Perhaps Ellen committed suicide, and something went wrong, leading to the bizarre scene…Case closed.
(Ellen’s apartment building reflected in the nearby lake)
A Mother and Father’s Fight
So, in 2011, the authorities made their ruling. But Ellen’s parents refused to believe that Ellen had committed suicide. They decided to fight to find out how their daughter died.
Over the next decade, the parents spent over $700,000. They hired forensic pathology experts to analyze crime scene photos and autopsy results. They found a crime scene expert to investigate. They worked with a retired police investigator to find potential witnesses.
Legal Battle
They filed two lawsuits. One sought to change the ruling of suicide. The other accused local police of covering up a murder. The local police department, medical examiner’s office, district attorney, and even the state’s (Pennsylvania) Attorney General were accused.
By the way, the Attorney General was named Josh Shapiro. He was thought to be a strong candidate to become Kamala Harris’s running mate after Biden announced he wouldn’t run again. However, this case put him under scrutiny. This may have played a role in why he was ultimately not selected.
(Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro)
A New Investigation
The couple’s persistence paid off. In 2023, a local lower court determined that the official investigation into Ellen’s death had significant flaws. A few months ago, the Pennsylvania Superior Court granted the parents’ appeal to reopen the investigation into Ellen’s death.
Only when the parents submitted their collected evidence did people realize that there really might be a mystery behind this case.
A Complex Case
The expert hired by Ellen’s parents was named Wayne Ross. He is a forensic pathologist who has performed over 13,000 autopsies. He challenged the original medical examiner’s findings.
Ross’s Findings
Ten years ago, the medical examiner stated that Ellen had no defensive wounds (cuts on the arms that victims suffer when resisting a knife attack). So, she committed suicide. Wayne stated that if Ellen had lost consciousness before being stabbed, she wouldn’t have been able to defend herself with her hands. Therefore, she wouldn’t have defensive wounds.
How did she lose consciousness? Wayne pointed to a bruise on Ellen’s neck. He said that this indicated that someone had choked her.
(Bruise on Ellen’s neck)
This bruise hadn’t appeared in the original autopsy report from ten years ago. Regarding this “oversight,” Dr. Osborne stated that he didn’t believe that Ellen had been strangled. He saw no signs of a broken hyoid bone or bleeding in her eyes/face.
Strange Crime Scene
Another point of contention was the crime scene.
Police had taken photos of the scene. Ellen was sitting on the kitchen floor, leaning against a cabinet. Her left hand was holding a white towel that was almost spotless.
(Photo of the crime scene)
Wayne stated that the crime scene photo was very strange. There was a dried blood streak on Ellen’s cheek, going horizontally from her nose to her ear.
That didn’t make sense. Given Ellen’s sitting position, the blood should have been flowing downwards. A blood streak like that only appears when someone has been lying down for a long time. This didn’t match the scene photos.
Another oddity was that Ellen’s left hand was holding a clean towel. However, there was clearly a pool of blood near her left hand in the photo. How could the towel have remained so clean?
Evidence
Another photo showed Ellen’s hair scattered on the floor.
Wayne explained: “See the hair? When you’re strangled, or when someone stabs you, the killer grabs your hair.”
Lastly, a company created a 3D model of Ellen’s stab wounds. Even though the police only found Ellen’s DNA on the knife, the model shows just how difficult it would have been for Ellen to inflict so many stab wounds on herself.
(3D model of Ellen’s stab wounds)
They had a female officer, who had a similar build as Ellen, try to imitate Ellen’s suicide. She really couldn’t do it.
Remember, Ellen’s left hand was clean. She only used her right hand to stab herself twenty times, both in front and in back. Was that possible?
(Two stab wounds on the back of Ellen’s neck. It’s very hard to reach them with just the right hand)
An Inside Job?
But the police said that no one else had entered the room. So, how did the killer get out?
This brings up another issue – the police’s investigation results were flawed!
I mentioned earlier that Dr. Osborne received word from the police. He was told that a security guard from the apartment building had accompanied Ellen’s boyfriend upstairs that day. However, that security guard has submitted an application stating that he did not accompany the boyfriend upstairs that day.
If Dr. Osborne wasn’t lying, that means that the police had intentionally given him false information in order to make the case look like a suicide.
Additionally, a neighbor did hear Ellen’s boyfriend knocking on the door. The property manager stated that it’s possible Ellen didn’t lock the door herself. This building had poor construction, and if you closed a door too hard, the loose bolt could lock automatically.
She herself had accidentally locked herself out. All the elderly residents knew about that.
(Apartment door)
Ellen Would Never Have Taken Her Own Life
Ellen’s parents and friends all stated that Ellen would never have taken her own life. She knew that she had a mental issue, but she was actively seeking help. She had decided to quit her job and move back in with her parents to recover. The parents were more than willing to take her in.
According to the police, they found that Ellen had searched for “painless methods of suicide” on her computer. However, when the FBI did a second check, they found no suicide-related search records.
This raises even more questions. Where did Ellen’s “painless suicide” search records go? Even if she wanted to commit suicide, why would she choose to stab herself over twenty times?
(Photo of Ellen when she was alive)
The Fiancé and Key Suspect
After the incident, the media interviewed nine of Ellen’s friends and family. No one believed the story about Ellen committing suicide. Only one person was certain that Ellen had committed suicide – her fiancé, Sam Goldberg, who had been the first to discover the body.
(Ellen and Sam’s photo)
Sam was the person who found the body. Normally, as the boyfriend and the first person to find her, he would be the most suspected. However, he was never charged with anything.
Ellen’s friends and family initially thought Sam was a good kid. He came from a wealthy family, was chubby, and had a harmless smile. Many friends said that he was like a teddy bear.
However, people later realized that Sam wasn’t so simple. Sam and Ellen were once planning to get married. They intended to hold their wedding in August 2011. However, Ellen’s friends found that Ellen didn’t love Sam. She was afraid of him.
They said that Ellen became more and more respectful to Sam as the wedding day neared. When making plans, Ellen needed to ask for Sam’s ideas. She would follow Sam around like a puppy. She was no longer the confident, independent girl that she had once been.
Ellen’s bruises seem to have been the result of long-term domestic violence by Sam. At the time, the psychologist had asked Ellen about abuse. Ellen denied any verbal or physical conflicts. She only dared to “praise” Sam.
(Ellen and Sam with friends)
Sam’s Story
Sam’s actions were also very strange on the day of Ellen’s death. His text messages show that he had been locked out of the apartment by Ellen before her death was discovered. Here are the contents of the text messages Sam sent at the time:
“Hello” “Open the door” “What are you doing?” “I’m angry” “You better have an excuse” “What the hell are you doing!” “You’re done”
Thirty minutes later, Sam called 911. He said that he had just walked into the apartment. Then he discovered that his fiancé had committed suicide and there was blood everywhere.
Sam seemed very panicked. The operator told him four times to check if Ellen’s chest was rising. Sam said it wasn’t. However, there was a knife inserted into Ellen’s back. It was sticking out of her chest. But Sam didn’t mention it.
Two minutes later, the operator told him to give Ellen artificial respiration. It seems that Sam only then realized the existence of the knife.
(Ellen and Sam’s photo)
The investigators who are now questioning Sam state that they don’t understand why Sam didn’t seem afraid at all when he called.
Ellen’s state clearly indicated that she had been murdered. But Sam never considered that someone had killed Ellen. He didn’t consider the possibility that the killer was hiding in the room: “Even if you didn’t think about it right away, you’d still think about it, right? Did you search the apartment? Are you sure you’re safe?”
But the police officer who was responsible for the case didn’t think about any of these questions at the time. Sam was released without any questioning or investigation.
Three years later, Sam got married to the wealthy daughter of a real estate agent.
A Decade of Doubt
For more than a decade, more and more issues have resurfaced due to the investigations by Ellen’s parents. These unanswered questions weigh on the parents’ hearts like giant stones.
Ten years have passed. Now, the court has finally approved the parents’ appeal. The case investigation is about to restart. We don’t know what the final outcome will be. We can only hope that the truth of that day can be restored.
