The investigation into the death of Philadelphia schoolteacher Ellen Greenberg is receiving renewed attention as federal prosecutors plan to reopen the case, according to recent reports.
Sources within law enforcement have informed the Philadelphia Inquirer that prosecutors have issued subpoenas to obtain documents from the original 2011 investigation into Greenberg’s death.
Ellen Greenberg was discovered by her fiancé, Sam Goldberg, with more than 20 stab wounds, including injuries to her heart and the back of her head. Her death was initially classified as a homicide but was later controversially changed to a suicide.
The perplexing nature of her death, alongside accusations of a ‘cover-up,’ gained renewed scrutiny last year when Philadelphia officials re-examined the case. Despite this review, they upheld the suicide ruling.
According to the sources cited by the Inquirer, the current focus of the federal prosecutors is not on re-evaluating the cause of Greenberg’s death. Instead, they are scrutinizing the actions of various agencies involved in handling the case.
This new investigation aims to determine whether any errors made by the investigators at the time could potentially rise to the level of criminal corruption, as reported by the outlet.
Greenberg’s parents have long sought answers over her death and say they do not believe that she could have inflicted the many stab wounds to herself, which included her being found with a kitchen knife sticking out of her heart.
The family’s attorney Joe Podraza told the Daily Mail at the time that the medical examiner’s conclusion was ‘tripe, an embarrassment to the City, and an insult to Ellen and her family’.
The heavily-scrutinized investigation into the death of Philadelphia schoolteacher Ellen Greenberg (seen with her then-fiancé Sam Goldberg) is set to be re-opened by federal prosecutors
Greenberg was found by her fiancé with over 20 stab wounds to her body, including to her heart and the back of her head (seen in a medical examiner analysis), and her death was initially ruled a homicide before being controversially switched to suicide
Following news of the new investigation, Podraza said in a statement to the Inquirer that Greenberg’s parents are ‘ecstatic’ that the case is being re-opened.
‘If that is in fact correct and accurate, that the federal government is going to investigate… this is exactly what we’ve wanted all along,’ he said.
‘It’s unfortunate it’s taken more than seven years to get to this point but we are really grateful and thankful to the US attorneys and, of course, are available to assist in any way we can in helping their investigation.’
When Greenberg was found stabbed to death by her then-fiancé Goldberg, investigators at the scene immediately treated the incident as a suicide because he told them the apartment was locked from the inside.
Although he said he broke down the door to get inside, police said there were no signs of a break-in when Greenberg died, and said she had no defensive wounds.
Her death was ruled a homicide the next day by then-Philadelphia Medical Examiner Marlon Osbourne, noting that she suffered knife wounds to the back of her neck, heart, and many bruises in various stages of healing.
Investigators returning the next day to the apartment found it had been professionally cleaned, and devices owned by Goldberg had been removed by Goldberg’s uncle James Schwartzman, who was at the time the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board.
In a lawsuit brought by Greenberg’s family in 2022, they alleged that errors in the handling of the investigation and evidence from the apartment was ’embarrassingly botched’ and resulted in a ‘cover up.’
Greenberg was found by her fiancé Sam Goldberg in their apartment in 2011, and a Hulu documentary last year revealed that when he called 911, he told a dispatcher she ‘fell on a knife’
In remarks to the Daily Mail, one of the first times Goldberg had spoken of the case, he said renewed scrutiny on his fiancé’s death was ‘awful’ due to a new Hulu documentary
Greenberg’s parents have long sought answers over her death and say they do not believe that she could have inflicted the many stab wounds to herself
In October last year, the case received renewed national attention in a Hulu documentary, which brought scrutiny on Goldberg and his actions at the time of Greenberg’s death.
This included the documentary revealing Goldberg’s call to 911 when he found her body, as he told dispatchers she ‘fell on a knife.’
In remarks to the Daily Mail, one of the first times Goldberg had spoken of the case, he said things had been ‘awful’ since the documentary was released.
The Daily Mail asked Goldberg, now a married father-of-two living in Manhattan, if he felt he had been ‘screwed over’ by a recent Hulu documentary exploring Greenberg’s final days.
‘Yeah I have been. It’s awful and it sucks,’ he said. ‘But I have nothing else to say,’ he added at the time.
The new investigation is set to focus on the way agencies handled the investigation, and not specifically on Greenberg’s manner of death.
Greenberg’s family said a ruling last year stating that her manner of death was suicide was ‘an embarrassment to the City, and an insult to Ellen and her family’
A spokesperson for the US Attorneys Office said it could ‘neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation’ following news that new subpoenas had been issued.
Other agencies involved in Greenberg’s case include the Philadelphia Police Department, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, the Philadelphia Law Department, and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.
In 2024, errors in the investigation were acknowledged by Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court, even as it dismissed a lawsuit brought by Greenberg’s family to change her manner of death certificate.
In a ruling, the court said it had ‘no choice under the law’ to have it changed, but admitted, ‘this court is acutely aware of the deeply flawed investigation of the victim’s death by the City of Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) detectives, the City of Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (DAO), and the MEO [Medical Examiner’s Office].’
