Ellen Greenberg Was Stabbed 20 Times — 10 Times in the Back of the Neck. A Decade Later, Why Is Her Death Still Being Called a Suicide?

New evidence has come to light that the supposed internet searches the AG’s office determined supported a suicide ruling in Ellen Greenberg’s 2011 death were fabricated. Is political corruption the reason AG Josh Shapiro’s office has failed to reopen the investigation into how 27-year-old Ellen Greenberg died?

PHILADELPHIA, PA. — You don’t have to be a forensics expert to know that those who intend to die by suicide typically don’t stab themselves twenty times. And they certainly don’t stab themselves ten times in the back of the neck. Indeed, any medical examiner worth their salt would recognize twenty stab wounds, some of them fatal, for what they are -- a violent and personal attack of hatred -- an act of homicide.

But that’s not how the public narrative unfolded in the case of 27-year-old Ellen Rae Greenberg, an elementary school teacher, who was found deceased by her fiancé Samuel Hankin Goldberg on January 26, 2011 in their shared sixth floor apartment in Manayunk, Pennsylvania. Ellen had been brutally and repeatedly stabbed in the chest, back, stomach, neck and scalp.

The final knife wound of twenty was delivered to Ellen’s chest; a knife from the couple’s kitchen butcher block was still protruding from her front when police found her. Despite a crime scene with all the hallmarks of a brutal homicide, investigators would ultimately rule that Ellen had died by suicide and ten years later, no one has been brought to justice for the savage death of Ellen Greenberg.

In the days leading up to her death, Ellen had sent out save-the-dates for her and Goldberg’s upcoming wedding. The day she died, Ellen had an ordinary, “pleasant” conversation with her mother, her mother reports. She even texted with friends. The police report noted Ellen’s laptop was found open to wedding planning sites. There was evidence Ellen had been in the kitchen cutting fruit before she died. There was nothing to suggest Ellen planned to take her life that day.

When police arrived on scene that late afternoon, Goldberg was flanked by friends and family members, according to the police report.

Goldberg claims he came back from the apartment building’s gym about 30 to 45 minutes after he went for a workout, and used his keys to unlock their door only to find their apartment door’s bar lock latched from the inside, at which point he sent Ellen a series of increasingly annoyed text messages. One text read: “im getting pissed.” The final one said: “u have no idea.”

**THE POLICE REPORT FROM THE DAY ELLEN GREENBERG DIED**

Goldberg says after an hour of trying to make entry, he summoned a security guard from the building, and proceeded to force open the door, at which point the two men discovered Ellen’s body. However, there is a conflict of facts in the case, according to sources, who say that security guard claims he never left his post that night, per building protocol.

Inside the apartment Goldberg allegedly found Ellen, lifeless, slumped against the kitchen cabinets.

Police initially concluded Ellen’s suspicious death was a homicide, but later recanted the findings, with the medical examiner ultimately ruling her death a suicide. (Dr. Sam Guilino, who runs the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s office, was recently placed on administrative leave over the office’s handling of remains in a separate case. )

Police were apparently convinced by Goldberg’s reports of the locked door, in conjunction with other circumstances, that Ellen had died by suicide. But the kind of door lock the couple had at the Venice Loft Apartments, if it were actually latched, could have feasibly been latched from the outside (there are numerous YouTube videos that show how to “defeat” a bar latch from the outside).

The only other entry to the couple’s apartment was a balcony, but it was quickly ruled out as a possible entry due to its height and the undisturbed fallen snow.

The other circumstantial evidence to support a finding of death by suicide included the supposed internet searches about suicide, which have since been debunked and were proven to be falsified.

Investigators also determined Ellen’s recent diagnosis of acute anxiety contributed to the finding of suicide. Anxiety is an incredibly common mental health diagnosis and the vast majority of people diagnosed with anxiety do not harm themselves. There’s no evidence to suggest Ellen had ever even had a suicidal ideation, a finding supported by the therapist Ellen had seen a handful of times prior to her death. At the time of her death, Ellen had trace amounts of her prescribed anxiety medication in her system, consistent with taking them as prescribed.

About a month before Ellen died, she told her parents she wanted to move back home, but insisted it had nothing to do with her relationship with Goldberg. Still, Ellen’s father told reporters she’d begun to change, often deferring to Goldberg when it came to making decisions, in the months before her death.

Sources have alleged that Goldberg’s family may have been able to sway the police investigation because of their deep ties within the Pennsylvania judicial system, including the prominence of Goldberg’s own uncle, Judge James C. Schwartzman, who is chair of the Ethics and Professional Responsibility Group. Judge Schwartzman was also appointed by Governor Tom Wolf to the Court of Judicial Discipline in May 2018. Sources have alleged Goldberg called Schwartzman the night of Ellen’s death, possibly before he called the police.

The medical examiner also noted that Ellen’s body had bruises in “various stages of resolution” and found marks indicative of strangulation.

Sam Goldberg, now 38, lives in the Gramercy neighborhood of New York City with his wife Caroline and their young children. He has a criminal record in Arizona, for primarily traffic violations, with at least one charge for providing liquor to minors. While living in Arizona, Goldberg was also evicted by a landlord who attempted to bring as many as nine civil judgments against him (Crime Scoop requested the records for those complaints, but was told they have been purged).

Goldberg has worked a variety of jobs since Ellen’s death, including as a producer for NBC Sports, for which he tweeted under the handle @SammyGNBC.

According to Goldberg’s 2014 wedding announcement in the New York Times, “he is the son of Mindy H. Goldberg and Richard Goldberg of Gladwyne, Pa. Until 2012, the groom’s father owned All Star Shredding, a confidential document destruction and recycling company in New Castle, Del.”

Ellen’s family continues to push for justice for the young woman, who they are convinced did not die by suicide. Independent reviews of the case by other experts have determined Ellen likely died by homicide. The case has also garnered interest on internet forums like Reddit, where armchair sleuths coalesce to pick each other’s brains and offer new perspectives on the crime.

AG Josh Shapiro, who is running for governor of Pennsylvania in 2022, has said new evidence will be required to re-open the investigation. It’s unclear whether evidence of fabricated internet searches qualifies as sufficient evidence to reopen the investigation, though family members believe it should, since the AG’s office originally said those same searches supported a finding of suicide.

Sources agree that after ten years, the failure on the part of Shapiro’s office to reopen Ellen’s case in the face of what seems like overwhelming evidence smacks of something more sinister than insufficient evidence.

“Shapiro’s office has the power to change the [cause of death],” one of Ellen’s family members told Crime Scoop. “They are the ones who seem to be blocking us at every point. We heard Josh is running for Governor of PA … and he does not want to throw the police under the bus.”

Crime Scoop is awaiting comment from AG Shapiro’s office, and following up with other sources mentioned in this piece, and will update as provided.