Ellen Greenberg: Family attorney calls medical examiner's report 'total rubbish'

PHILADELPHIA - Joseph Podraza, the attorney for Ellen Greenberg's family, refuted a controversial report from the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office that concluded the 27-year-old teacher's stabbing death was a suicide.

The backstory:

Philadelphia's Chief Medical Examiner Lindsay Simon released an ‘independent and unbiased’ review of Greenberg's 2011 stabbing death at her Manyunk apartment.

The review sought to answer whether Greenberg’s manner of death should be changed from its current ruling of suicide to ‘could not be determined’ or homicide.

Greenberg's fiancé claims he found her dead inside their apartment on Jan. 26, 2011. The first-grade teacher had been stabbed 20 times, according to investigators.

Her death was originally ruled a homicide following an autopsy, and later changed to a suicide by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office.

Police considered her death a suicide because her apartment door was locked from the inside and her boyfriend — who said he found her after breaking down the door — had no defensive wounds.

Philadelphia Medical Examiner Marlon Osbourne initially ruled her death a homicide, noting the large number of stab wounds, including 10 to the back of her neck. After police publicly challenged the findings, Osbourne switched the ruling to suicide without explanation.

That change has been the center of controversy and legal battles over the years, including a lawsuit Greenberg’s family filed against the city’s Medical Examiner’s Office in 2021 to have her cause of death changed to homicide or ‘undecided.’

Philadelphia medical examiner issues new ruling

In her report, Simon says she reviewed electronic, paper, and photographic records in the Medical Examiner’s case file, as well as the Philadelphia police file. Simon also reviewed transcripts of depositions from previous examiners who worked on the case - including Marlon Osbourne. She also viewed their consultative reports. 

The 30-page report walks through the investigative process immediately following and years after Greenberg’s death. 

In her final analysis of Greenberg’s manner of death, Simon acknowledges the ‘unusual’ nature of Greenberg’s injuries, but ultimately determined that she would have been capable of inflicting the wounds on herself. Simon says many of the wounds would be best categorized as ‘hesitation wounds.’ 

Simon noted that Greenberg did not appear to have sustained defensive wounds, and that no other DNA, including her fiancé’s, was found on the knife. 

"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.’ All opinions stated in this report are expressed with a reasonable degree of medical certainty," Simon writes in closing. 

What they're saying:

Attorney Joseph Podraza refuted the medical examiner's new report on Good Day Philadelphia, calling it ‘rubbish’ and continuing to ask for a new investigation.

"This report has simply taken the view of a one-sided approach where, pre-ordained that it should be suicide and then, of course, just focuses on facts that the medical examiner contends supports suicide and ignores other facts that are staring the medical examiner right in the face," he said. 

The controversial report comes on the heels of a popular Hulu documentary that brought the 13-year-old case into the national spotlight. ‘Death in Apartment 603: What Happened to Ellen Greenberg?' was cited in the medical examiner's new report. 

Among the findings shared in the new report, the medical examiner found more stab wounds and bruises than originally thought. Podraza suggests that these findings should motivate investigators to take another look at the case. 

"There are other parts of the report that are simply not true, such as the bald conclusion that Ellen could have self-inflicted all of these wounds," said Podraza, who added that a recreation done by Greenberg's defense found that it would have been "impossible that Ellen could have self-inflicted."

Podraza disputes the claim that nearly a dozen bruises found on Ellen's body in ‘various stages of heeling’ were evidence of self-harm, instead saying that "it raises the prospects she was physically abused before Jan. 26." 

Greenberg's fiancé's DNA was not found on the knife used in the incident, and the medical examiner's report corroborated his self-reported timeline and movements before Ellen's death.

"The report seems to be focusing on vindicating the fiancé, we've never accused the fiancé of murder," Podraza said. "The evidence points to Ellen having been murdered by someone, and this report goes off and says ‘I’m concluding that I don't think the fiancé did it'…right – doesn't mean she wasn't murdered."

The report also asserted that a recent change in Ellen's anxiety medication may have given her "an increase in energy to act on her anxious thoughts." Podraza, meanwhile, believes the medical examiner's office has tried to use Ellen's mental health struggles to smear her. 

"There are over 50 million Americas who have anxiety and are treating with prescription drugs," he said. "That doesn't make every single one of them want to go and do something as bizzare as, according to this medical examiner, stab themselves 20 times for their painless death."

Podraza said he has "no idea" why investigators have refused to reopen the case, and continued to blame the Philadelphia Police Department and other agencies for a "botched investigation."

The other side:

The City of Philadelphia provided a statement after a Tuesday afternoon hearing on the controversial report.

"The Medical Examiner’s Office completed its report and provided it to the plaintiffs pursuant to the obligations under the settlement agreement.  We have no further comment, as a matter of policy."