A CHILLING new docuseries is set to revisit one of the most controversial cases in recent memory, the death of a young teacher found with 20 stab wounds, yet ruled a suicide.
The upcoming series reopens questions that have haunted her family and baffled investigators for more than a decade.
Teacher Ellen Greenberg was found with 20 stab wounds in her Philadelphia apartment in 2011[/caption]
Her death ruled a suicide despite initial homicide findings[/caption]
Ellen’s autopsy revealed 20 stab injuries, including to the back of her neck, head, and torso[/caption]
VICIOUS INJURIES Mystery still surrounds teacher Ellen Greenburg’s brutal death after being ruled a suicide despite 20 stab wounds[/caption]
Ellen’s then fiance Sam Goldberg discovered her dead in their apartment[/caption]
Goldberg was never named a suspect and has never been charged[/caption]
The mystery began in Philadelphia on January 26, 2011, during a fierce snowstorm that shut down schools and sent Ellen Greenberg, 27, home early.
The first-grade teacher never returned to class.
Her fiance, TV producer Sam Goldberg, said he came back from the gym that afternoon to find himself locked out of their apartment.
After nearly an hour of calls and texts, he forced his way inside and found his bride to be collapsed in the kitchen, blood splattered across the cabinets.
Goldberg dialed 911 and was told to begin CPR.
That’s when he spotted the 10-inch serrated knife lodged in her chest.
“Oh my God! She stabbed herself,” Goldberg cried on the call. “She fell on a knife. I don’t know. Her knife is sticking out.”
But Ellen hadn’t suffered just one wound.
Her autopsy revealed 20 stab injuries, including to the back of her neck, head, and torso, along with 11 bruises in different stages of healing.
Given the shocking injuries, the then-assistant medical examiner Dr Marlon Osbourne at first rules her death a homicide.
But only weeks later, after meeting with Philadelphia police, he changed the manner of death to suicide – a decision that cut off any criminal investigation.
Goldberg was never named a suspect and has never been charged.
The reversal enraged Ellen’s parents, Sandee and Josh Greenberg, who have spent the last 14 years fighting to overturn the ruling.
“This is a vicious homicide,” Dr Greenberg has said, insisting their daughter could not have inflicted such injuries on herself.
TIMELINE
What has happened in Ellen Greenberg’s case since her death:
January 26, 2011
- Ellen Greenberg, 27, returns home early from teaching after Philadelphia schools close due to a blizzard.
- Fiance Sam Goldberg goes to the gym in their apartment building around 4:45 p.m.
- Unable to re-enter later, he says he texts and calls Ellen for nearly an hour before breaking down the locked door.
- He finds Ellen in the kitchen with blood on the cabinets and a knife lodged in her chest.
- 911 call captures Goldberg’s shock: “Oh my God! She stabbed herself … Her knife is sticking out.”
January 27, 2011
- Autopsy reveals Ellen was stabbed 20 times – including in her chest, abdomen, back of neck, and head – and had 11 bruises at different healing stages.
- Her manner of death is ruled a homicide by Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Marlon Osbourne.
April 4, 2011
- After a meeting with Philadelphia Police, Dr. Osbourne changes Ellen’s death ruling from homicide to suicide.
- No homicide investigation moves forward.
2019
- Ellen’s parents, Sandee and Josh Greenberg, file a civil lawsuit against Dr. Osbourne and Philadelphia officials to have the ruling overturned.
- Then-Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office reviews the case and maintains it was suicide.
December 2021 – January 2022
- Shapiro’s office again reviews the case and reaffirms the suicide finding.
- Shapiro later recuses himself after criticism over campaign donations linked to Goldberg’s family.
2022
- The Chester County District Attorney’s office reopens the investigation.
- Sandee Greenberg says, “The authorities trying to make us believe that our daughter committed suicide when she didn’t is just reprehensible to me.”
2024-2025
- Pennsylvania Supreme Court grants Ellen’s parents the right to challenge the suicide ruling.
- The Greenbergs reach a settlement in lawsuits against the City of Philadelphia and officials.
- Settlement includes monetary payment and agreement to reevaluate Ellen’s cause of death.
- Dr. Osbourne signs a statement saying he no longer believes Ellen died by suicide.
- ABC News Studios releases Death in Apartment 603: What Happened to Ellen Greenberg? on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
Sandee accused officials of trying to bury the truth.
“The authorities trying to make us believe that our daughter committed suicide when she didn’t is just reprehensible to me,” she said in 2022.
The couple filed lawsuits against city officials and the former medical examiner.
Earlier this year, they settled winning both a monetary payment and an agreement to reevaluate Ellen’s cause of death.
Dr Osbourne has since signed a statement declaring he no longer believes Ellen died by suicide.
The case has bounced across agencies, including a review by then-Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who reaffirmed the suicide ruling in 2019 and again in 2022 before recusing himself amid questions over political donations.
The Chester County District Attorney’s office has since reopened the investigation.
Ellen’s parents argue the evidence points to abuse.
Her father says bruises on her body showed a pattern of injury over time.
“There’s no way Ellen did this to herself,” he said. “Somebody didn’t want Ellen’s abuse to get out there … and that’s why she’s dead.”
Now, ABC News Studios is turning Greenbergs’ death mystery into a three-part series, Death in Apartment 603: What Happened to Ellen Greenberg?
The documentary will feature more than twenty new interviews, from Ellen’s family and friends to her students and colleagues.
Death in Apartment 603 begins streaming Monday, September 29, on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers.
Goldberg had said he came back from the gym that afternoon to find himself locked out of their apartment[/caption]
There were 11 other healing bruises on her body as well, her father says bruises on her body showed a pattern of injury over time[/caption]
14 years later her parents are still fighting to overturn the ruling[/caption]
