by For the past 13 years, Ellen Greenberg’s parents have been fighting to prove that she did not die by suicide, but was murdered – and now, bombshell new evidence could make her case.
In a disturbing development earlier this week during a hearing for a civil lawsuit in the brutal 2011 death of the Philadelphia teacher, the family’s attorney said a former assistant state’s attorney is to testify that her body was likely altered after after she was fatal. stabbed at least 20 times.
“It’s obviously a murder,” said Ellen’s mother, Sandra Greenberg The Independent in response to Tuesday’s hearing in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.
“You can’t make this up.”
On January 26, 2011, her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg, found Ellen dead in the kitchen of their apartment in Manayunk, Philadelphia. She was slumped against the cabinets, her legs flashed out in front of her.
The 27-year-old primary teacher had at least 20 wounds, many to the back of her head and neck. A 10 inch knife was placed in her chest.
After an autopsy at the time, pathologist Dr. Marlon Osbourne of the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s office ruled her death a homicide, citing “multiple stab wounds by an unknown person.”
But with little evidence to go on, the case came to a halt and months later, on April 11, Dr. Osbourne’s death certificate, changing the manner of death to suicide.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, The medical examiner was told that police were “pursuing” suicide and looking into possible “mental issues”, despite pushback from her family.
Records show Ellen was being treated for anxiety at the time, but experts the family hired over the years found it unlikely her medication contributed to suicidal thoughts.
“She was brutally murdered, stabbed once, twice, 20 times,” Ms. Greenberg said of her only child. “That’s rage. She didn’t do that to herself.”
Over the years, the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania couple has fought to change the ruling from suicide back to homicide or undetermined death, by enlisting their team of experts and conducting an investigation that disputed the suicide determination, and say it was changed at the insistence of the police.
“It’s been 13 years and the city has been fighting us every step of the way,” Ms. Greenberg said The Independent. “Ellen was a Philadelphia girl, she deserves better from her city.”
At Tuesday’s hearing, the Greenbergs’ attorney, Joseph Podraza, in an effort to press forward with former Assistant District Attorney Guy D’Andrea’s sworn deposition, revealed that D’Andrea had previously had an anonymous conversation with city doctors at the time. the examiner, Dr. Samuel Gulino and Gulino then that Ellen’s death was a homicide.
“D’Andrea had personal knowledge of the file and the evidence,” Mr. Podraza told the judge. “Dr. Gulino told D’Andrea, ‘this is a homicide.’”
Mr. Gulino allegedly told Mr. D’Andrea that Ellen’s body was in a “supine position for a period of time,” he continued.
This means she was flat on her back and did not fall sitting against a kitchen cabinet where she was found, according to the hearing.
Mr. Podraza said the medical examiner told Mr. D’Andrea that her body had probably been moved and they could tell how the blood had dried on Ellen’s face.
He added that there was no evidence that emergency responders were the ones who moved her body.
Ellen’s mother, who was listening to the hearing on Zoom, told The Independent that she knew that her daughter’s body had probably been moved after her death, because of the way her blood coagulated.
But she didn’t know that the medical examiner and the assistant district attorney had a conversation about it.
Ms. D’Andrea is also to claim that, according to the medical examiner, one of the stab wounds would have “immediately incapacitated” her, making it unlikely that she would have survived.
The court is allowing the Greenbergs’ attorneys to proceed with discovery and depositions in the case. Their deadline is May 6.
Ms. Greenberg said she does not want to get her hopes up after 13 years of roadblocks and disappointment, but said she was pleased with the court’s decision to allow Mr. D’Andrea to be removed from office and believes that he can bring new evidence to the investigation. .
The Greenbergs expect the civil case to go to trial this fall. By filing the lawsuit, they will be able to hold everyone accountable in a civil case.
“Every parent in America wants this for their child,” she said. “I am one of them, and I have not given up.”
After losing a recent court ruling in their attempt to change the cause of her death, the Greenbergs are now preparing to take their fight to the Pennsylvania supreme court.
“Our daughter did not kill herself – we know that. She was murdered,” Mr. Greenberg said The Independent in a previous interview. “They [the courts] They clearly said the investigation was flawed from the police, the medical examiner, the district attorney.”
“The way the authorities and politicians are handling her case is a disgrace,” Ms Greenberg added.
“I want to clear her name. What I want people to know is that Ellen was our daughter, but she could have been your daughter. She could be your mother, sister, friend. Think what you would do.”
