PHILADELPHIA (Court TV) — Less than a year after reopening the investigation into the death of Ellen Greenberg, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office has declared her death a suicide.
Ellen Greenberg shows off her engagement ring in a photo. (ABC News/Hulu)
Greenberg was found stabbed to death on Jan. 26, 2011, with more than 20 stab wounds to her body. Those wounds included 10 on her back; the knife was found plunged into her heart. Assistant medical examiner Dr. Marion Osbourne initially ruled Greenberg’s death a homicide, but changed that to suicide after a closed-door meeting with Philadelphia police and members of the district attorney’s office four days later.
In Feb. 2025, Osbourne again changed his ruling, saying he now believes Greenberg was murdered. The Office of the Medical Examiner agreed to re-examine the case after increasing pressure from Greenberg’s family, who hired multiple experts who also concluded she was the victim of a homicide.
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After months of consideration, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office released a 32-page review that ultimately concluded, “while the distribution of injuries is admittedly unusual, the fact remains that Ellen would be capable of inflicting these injuries herself.”
Philadelphia Chief Medical Examiner Lindsay Simon authored the report, which noted that Greenberg’s fiancé’s DNA was not found on the knife used and that there was no evidence of an abusive relationship. Greenberg’s fiancé, who called police after finding her body, has never been named a person of interest or a suspect in the case.
Simon’s report pointed to Greenberg’s stress and anxiety over the grades she was giving her students. The report notes that Greenberg’s anxiety and insomnia were “severe enough to become a topic of conversation with several of Ellen’s family members and friends in her text messages.”
Referring to a “defect” in Greenberg’s spinal cord, Simon said that “the preponderance of the evidence suggests the defect was an artifact from the autopsy,” rather than an injury inflicted by the knife at the scene of her death.
Following Simon’s determination, a Philadelphia judge closed the case into Greenberg’s death at a brief hearing on Oct. 14.
