Ellen Greenberg’s family is still looking for answers regarding her mystery 2011 death, but they’ve met another hurdle.
On January 26, 2011, the 27-year-old teacher was discovered dead in her Philadelphia apartment. Her story is being portrayed in the Hulu docuseries Death in Apartment 603: What Happened to Ellen Greenberg. Despite having 20 stab wounds, Greenberg’s death was deemed suicide by officials.
Greenberg’s family and friends continue to believe she was murdered. According to CNN, the pathologist who performed her autopsy signed a statement in February 2025 stating that, after evaluating fresh evidence in the case, he no longer believes Greenberg committed suicide.
“We’re very excited,” Greenberg’s mother, Sandee, told the publication. “I mean, never in my wildest dreams did I think anything like this was gonna happen.”
However, after reviewing the facts relating to Greenberg’s death, Philadelphia Chief Medical Examiner Lindsay Simon concluded that her cause of death will remain suicide in October 2025.
So, what happened with Ellen Greenberg? Here’s a peek at her mysterious death.
Who was Ellen Greenberg?
Ellen Greenberg was born in New York City on June 23, 1983, to parents Josh and Sandee Greenberg. Greenberg, an only child, grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and later attended Pennsylvania State University. Her family and friends characterized her in the Hulu documentary as “joyful,” “fun-loving,” and “beautiful.”
Greenberg relocated to Philadelphia after finishing her undergraduate studies to pursue her master’s degree. She soon started dating Sam Goldberg, an NBC Sports producer at the time, and after a while, the couple became engaged.
Greenberg died at the age of 27 while working as a first-grade teacher at Juniata Park Academy.
Whatever happened to Ellen Greenberg?
On January 26, 2011, a snowstorm slammed the Philadelphia area, canceling lessons at Greenberg’s school. After leaving work early, she returned to the flat she lived with Goldberg in Philadelphia’s Manayunk district.
Then, around 4:45 p.m., Goldberg went to work out in their building’s gym. He arrived around 40 minutes later and allegedly discovered their apartment door locked from the inside. After many attempts to contact Greenberg, he kicked down the door and discovered her on the kitchen floor, covered in blood.
Goldberg contacted 911 around 6:30 p.m. and was told to perform CPR on his fiancée, when he allegedly discovered a knife poking out of her chest. He then told the operator that she “stabbed herself” or “fell on a knife,” but he wasn’t certain what happened.
Greenberg was eventually determined to have been stabbed 20 times, including ten times in the back of her neck. She also had more than ten bruises on her body that were healing at different stages.
Why was Ellen Greenberg’s death judged as suicide?
When police arrived at the couple’s flat, they treated Greenberg’s death as a suicide and did not contact the Crime Scene Unit. The following day, Dr. Marlon Osbourne performed Greenberg’s autopsy and first ruled her death a homicide, stating that she was “stabbed by another person,” according to CNN.
However, after speaking with local enforcement and learning more about the scene, including the fact that there was no indication of forced entry or a struggle, the medical examiner altered her cause of death to suicide.
By this moment, the apartment had been properly cleaned and cleared of any potential evidence. A relative of Goldberg was also allowed to remove many personal belongings from the residence, including Greenberg’s phone and computer.
Although Greenberg suffered from anxiety and despair, her parents refused to accept her death as a suicide and have spent nearly two decades pushing to have it examined as a possible murder. They’ve also engaged their own forensic pathologists, who have expressed major concerns about the case and how it was handled.
What legal action has Ellen Greenberg’s family pursued?
Greenberg’s parents filed two civil lawsuits: one in 2019 against the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office and Osbourne to change the ruling on their daughter’s death certificate, and another in 2022 against the City of Philadelphia, former Chief Medical Examiner Sam Gulino, and others involved, alleging that city officials mishandled and covered up the investigation.
In February 2025, the Greenbergs won a significant legal victory when the city settled both complaints and the Medical Examiner’s Office agreed to restart its inquiry into Greenberg’s death.
This decision occurred shortly after Dr. Osbourne filed an affidavit declaring that her death should be classified as “something other than suicide,” according to NBC Philadelphia. He said he made the decision after reviewing new information in the case and consulting with a pediatric neuropathologist.
The settlement also contained an unknown sum of money.
“I hope today we made Ellen proud of us, and we were certainly very proud of her as her parents,” Sandee told the press. “It’s monumental; for 14 years we’ve been dealing with this suicidal label.”
Following the fresh investigation, Greenberg’s death was once again deemed a suicide in October 2025.
In her report, Philadelphia Chief Medical Examiner Lindsay Simon stated that Goldberg’s DNA was “not detected on the knife used to inflict the injuries.”
“While the distribution of injuries is admittedly unusual, the fact remains that Ellen would be capable of inflicting these injuries herself,” Simon said in a report obtained by PEOPLE.
Joe Podraza, the Greenberg family’s attorney, told PEOPLE that Simon’s investigation was “deeply flawed.”
“It builds a flimsy case on the distorted portrayal of Ellen’s mental health and ignores key evidence that contradicts suicide,” he told me. “These contradictions and other unanswered questions surrounding Ellen’s death require a deeper look, which MEO Simon simply ignores and now has permanently foreclosed.”
What did Sam Goldberg say about Ellen Greenberg’s death?
Goldberg has only publicly discussed his fiancée’s death once. “When Ellen took her own life, it perplexed me,” he stated in a 2024 email to CNN. “She was a wonderful and a kind person who had everything to live for.”
He said, “When she died, a piece of me died with her. Unbelievably, in the intervening years, I have had to deal with the unspeakable death of my future bride, as well as sad and despicable attempts to defile my character and her privacy by fabricating a story that embraces lies, distortions, and falsehoods in order to avoid the truth. Mental illness is real, and there are many victims.”
