Ellen Greenberg’s parents holding up a photo of her. (ABC News Studios)
Over 14 years after Ellen Greenberg, a 27-year-old teacher, was found dead in her apartment with over 20 stab wounds, the city of Philadelphia has again ruled her death as a suicide in an autopsy report released this week.
The case, which has generated intense controversy and accusations of a police coverup, re-entered the national conversation after the city of Philadelphia entered a settlement agreement with Greenberg’s parents earlier this year.
Part of the settlement agreement was a review of Greenberg’s death. The family has been attempting to get the ruling of a suicide changed for over a decade.
The official cause of death in the case has been changed multiple times, switching from suicide to homicide before returning to a determination of suicide that was upheld by the city’s independent review preformed by the city’s chief medical examiner Dr. Lindsay Simon.
Simon wrote in her 32-page report, released Oct. 13, that Greenberg’s death is “best classified as ‘Suicide.’”
Simon added that Greenberg was suffering from anxiety, mostly stemming from her work as a teacher, and that Greenberg would have been capable of causing all 23 stab wounds found on her body.
Simon also discussed the 31 contusions that were found on Greenberg’s body in various stages of healing.
She said it was her opinion that the contusions were not from “intentional infliction,” but rather were “consistent with incidental contact sustained during activities of daily living, including her work as a first-grade teacher.”
Joe Podraza, an attorney for the Greenbergs, ripped Simon’s report in an interview with CBS News.
Podraza said, “Anybody who has looked at this case knows it’s not a suicide.”
Podraza was especially critical of the explanation for the bruising found on Greenberg’s body.
“And what does this medical examiner say? She says, ‘Well, she was a first-grade teacher, and those are bruises that happen during normal course of daily activity,’” Podraza said. “What is this full contact first grade? They’re doing essentially the Philadelphia Eagles scrimmages without pads on? The bruises exist, the explanation is silly.”
Podraza said that the family was done with Philadelphia and the only way for Greenberg to get justice was from outside of the city.
The findings were released one day before a scheduled hearing about the results of the autopsy report and came after a Philadelphia judge criticized the city for “dragging its feet” in re-examining the case, giving them until Oct. 14 to finish.