Medical examiner reverses ruling in Ellen Greenberg case

Posted at 11:01 AM, February 4, 2025

PHILADELPHIA (Court TV) — Fifteen years after ruling her death a suicide, a former Philadelphia medical examiner has changed his opinion and now says Ellen Greenberg was killed.

Greenberg, a first-grade teacher, was found dead inside her home after she was stabbed 20 times on Jan. 26, 2011. Dr. Marlon Osbourne performed her autopsy the next day and initially determined the death to be a homicide. But four months later, on April 4, Osbourne changed his ruling and listed Greenberg’s death as suicide after further evaluation of the case file and information from the Philadelphia Police Department and a neuropathologist.

The initial switch from homicide to suicide came after the police publicly challenged Osbourne’s ruling of homicide, The Associated Press reported. Despite ten of the stab wounds being to the back of Greenberg’s neck, police said they considered the death a suicide because her apartment door had been locked from the inside and her boyfriend, who reported finding her, had no defensive wounds.

Now, Osbourne said he has come into additional information that calls into question his decision to call Greenberg’s death a suicide. “I am now aware that information exists which draws into question, for example, whether Ellen’s fiancé was witnessed entering the apartment before placing the 911 call … whether the door was forced open as reported; whether Ellen’s body was moved by someone else inside the apartment at or near the time of her death” and the findings of a doctor who examined a portion of her spine.

The reversal never sat well with Greenberg’s parents, who hired multiple experts and pushed for their daughter’s case to be reopened. Osbourne’s filing came as jury selection began in the family’s civil lawsuit against the city in which they claimed emotional distress for mishandling their daughter’s death investigation, WPVI reported. Before the jury was seated, both sides settled. Part of the settlement includes another look at the case by the current medical examiner.