Chester County DA’s Office says it can’t prove the death of Ellen Greenberg was a homicide

More than two years after the Chester County District Attorney's Office was charged with reinvestigating the case of Ellen Greenberg — whose death by 20 stab wounds in 2011 was ruled homicide then switched to suicide by Philadelphia authorities — it announced Friday that "based on the current state of evidence" it can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt a crime was committed.

"Because we cannot meet our burden of proof with the information and evidence presently available, we placed this investigation in an inactive status," an emailed news release said. "There is no statute of limitations for criminal homicide in Pennsylvania, and because investigations can take new directions, we are not closing the case."

Joseph Podraza Jr., the lawyer for Greenberg's parents, Joshua and Sandra Greenberg of Harrisburg, said in an emailed statement they remain steadfast in their belief Ellen Greenberg was murdered and called the Chester County DA's investigation "extremely limited and constrained."

"The Office told us that they did not investigate the core issues which we have raised which establish Ellen was murdered, and that evidence remains unchallenged," Podraza said. "These unfortunate limitations and constraints notwithstanding, we do appreciate the District Attorney's professional courtesy of speaking with the family and candidly acknowledging all these limitations and constraints."

A civil suit filed by Greenberg's parents about whether they have the right to challenge the suicide ruling on their daughter's death certificate was taken up on appeal this year by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and remains ongoing. The Greenbergs also have a second ongoing civil suit seeking monetary damages from the city and several people involved in the investigation into their daughter's death.

In its news release, the Chester County DA's Office, which is led by District Attorney Christopher DeBarrena-Sarobe, noted that the standard of proof for a criminal investigation — beyond a reasonable doubt — is "different than other legal cases or issues that surround Ms. Greenberg's death."

Greenberg, then 27, a first-grade teacher, was discovered by her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg, in the kitchen of their locked Manayunk apartment with 20 stab wounds to her body and a 10-inch knife lodged in her chest on Jan. 26, 2011.

Investigators on the scene treated her death as a suicide because the apartment door — which Goldberg said he broke down — was locked from the inside, there were no signs of an intruder, and Greenberg had no defensive wounds, police have said .

But the next morning, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office discovered a total of 20 stab wounds to Greenberg's body — including 10 to the back of her neck — along with 11 bruises in various stages of healing, and ruled her death a homicide.

Police publicly disputed the findings and the ME's Office later changed the ruling to suicide, with no explanation to Greenberg's parents.

In the years since, the Greenbergs have retained experts who've raised questions about the suicide ruling and the investigation into the case, as first detailed in a 2019 Inquirer report .

When the Greenbergs' former attorney, Larry Krasner, became the district attorney of Philadelphia in 2018, they reached back out to see if he'd reopen the investigation into their daughter's death.

Given his conflict of interest, Krasner's office referred the case to the state Attorney General's Office, which was then helmed by now-Governor Josh Shapiro . After more than a year, the AG's Office said it found the evidence supported suicide and closed its investigation.

In 2019, the Greenbergs sued the Philadelphia ME's Office and the pathologist who conducted the autopsy, seeking to have the manner of their daughter's death changed back to homicide or undetermined, given the new information and forensic experts they obtained.

As a result of that civil suit, additional details and records about the case and the unusual investigation into it came to light. In 2021, Podraza gave that information to the AG's Office, which was still run by Shapiro, but the office stood by the suicide ruling.

The following year, theories started to swirl online about possible connections Shapiro had with family members of Greenberg's fiancé. While the AG's Office said no conflict existed, it referred the case back to the Philadelphia DA's Office due "the appearance of a conflict."

Unable to take the case due to Krasner's own conflict of interest, the Philadelphia DA's Office then referred it to the Chester County DA's Office, where it has remained since August 2022 .

According to the office's news release, detectives "pursued additional investigative steps, including but not limited to, conducting new interviews and consulting with an independent forensic expert."

In his statement, Podraza said the expert the office consulted has an undergrad degree in entomology (the study of insects) and a masters in criminal justice, but no medical or forensic pathology training.

The Chester County DA's Office said its detectives also conducted a review of the previous investigations by the Philadelphia Police Department and AG's Office.

But the validity of the police department's investigation has already been called into question by the Commonwealth Court, which called it " deeply flawed" in a 2023 ruling.

That court heard the case on appeal after the city challenged the Greenberg's first civil suit in 2019. The city argued the Greenbergs did not have standing to seek a change in their daughter's death certificate. In its 2-1 ruling last year , the Commonwealth Court said it had "no choice under the law" but to grant the city's appeal to prevent a civil suit from going to trial.

But the Greenbergs and Podraza appealed the Commonwealth Court ruling and in July, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania — the state's highest court — agreed to hear the case . The court will not rule on the manner of Greenberg's death, but will consider the issue of whether her parents have standing to challenge the listed manner of death.

A date for arguments in the Supreme Court case has not yet been set, but they are expected to be held next year.

A second civil suit the Greenbergs filed against members of the ME's Office, the police department, and the DA's Office seeking monetary damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress remains ongoing in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

"We now look forward to an upcoming trial where a full and forthright examination of the core issues surrounding Ellen's murder may be publicly conducted before an independent Judge and jury of our peers," Podraza said.