The suspicious death of Philadelphia teacher Ellen Greenberg has again been ruled a suicide after a new examination.
“While the distribution of injuries is admittedly unusual, the fact remains that Ellen would be capable of inflicting these injuries herself,” Philadelphia Chief Medical Examiner Lindsay Simon wrote in her report, which was obtained Monday by People magazine.
“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,’” she concluded.
Greenberg, a 27-year-old first-grade teacher, was found dead in her apartment on Jan. 26, 2011. She was suffering from around 20 stab wounds, according to authorities.
Her fiancé, Sam Goldberg, was the one who found her dead, and she was the only one in the apartment. Goldberg told police that their front door was locked and he had to break down the door to get in, only to find Greenberg dead with a knife sticking out of her chest.
The original medical examiner, Dr. Marlon Osbourne, initially ruled Greenberg’s death a homicide due to the numerous stab wounds. But after consulting with police, the manner of death was changed to suicide, and no criminal investigation was ever conducted.
“She’s the only one found in the apartment, with nothing disturbed, nothing out of place, no other way of getting in there, it doesn’t lend to the fact that someone else was there to do it,” Osbourne later said in a deposition.
However, Greenberg’s parents contested the finding and filed multiple lawsuits against the medical examiners and officials. Additionally, they sought opinions from other experts who questioned the suicide ruling.
Earlier this year, one of the family’s lawsuits was settled, which involved Osbourne changing his mind and saying he believed Greenberg did not die by suicide.
The settlement also required the city’s medical examiner’s office to conduct a new examination, which was led by Simon. However, the examination reached the same conclusion and ruled Greenberg’s death a suicide.
The case was the subject of a Hulu documentary, “Death in Apartment 603: What Happened to Ellen Greenberg,” which was released in September.
