A Pennsylvania teacher whose death more than a decade ago from 20 stab wounds inside her locked apartment will be reexamined by the Chester County District Attorney’s Office, according to news reports.
Ellen Greenberg’s parents, who live in the Harrisburg area, have been pushing Philadelphia and state authorities to reopen the case ever since the city’s medical examiner ruled her death a suicide.
ABC 6 in Philadelphia confirmed Wednesday that the Chester County District Attorney’s Office will be re-reviewing Ellen Greenberg’s Jan. 26, 2011 death in place of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who said he had a conflict of interest from previously representing the Greenbergs.
“Our office has accepted this referral from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. We have assigned an investigator and prosecutor to review it,” the Chester County office said, according to ABC 6.
“This has taken 11 years, we want justice for our daughter, and maybe this will bring justice for others too,” Ellen Greenberg’s father, Josh Greenberg, told ABC 6.
“I’m ecstatic. I think for the first time we might get an objective assessment of the case with somebody who will honestly look at it,” said Greenberg family attorney Joe Podraza, according to the same news report.
Ellen Greenberg, 27, was found dead in 2011 in her Manayunk apartment. She was a first-grade teacher and engaged to be married, her parents previously PennLive.
During a November 2021 interview with PennLive, Ellen Greenberg’s parents said their daughter was alone in her apartment Jan. 26, 2011, home from work early because of a snowstorm.
Eventually, Ellen’s fiancé returned from the gym and was unable to get into the apartment because the door was locked, investigators said. The only other entrance was a small balcony, where the new-fallen snow was undisturbed by footprints.
The fiancé got a building employee and returned to break through the locked door, investigators said. He found Ellen inside, sitting on the floor with 20 stab wounds, including 10 to the back of her neck, police said at the time. A knife was plunged into her chest.
At first, the medical examiner’s office called it a suicide.
But several days later — moments before he was to deliver his daughter’ eulogy in Harrisburg — Josh Greenberg learned the medical examiner’s office had changed her death, classifying it as a homicide.
Three weeks later, the medical examiner reversed himself again. Her death was once more considered a suicide.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office conducted a follow-up investigation in 2018 and upheld the ruling of suicide after finding on Ellen Greenberg’s laptop that she had searched “methods of committing suicide,” “quick death” and “depression.” But in July 2022, Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office sent the case back to Philadelphia, saying:
“Unfortunately, after four years of work, new expert testimony and information has been publicly alleged but withheld from our investigators and new accusations of a conflict of interest have been made against our office ... While the Office of Attorney General does not have an actual conflict in this matter, circumstances beyond our control have created the appearance of a conflict and our involvement is no longer serving one of the primary purposes of the District Attorney’s original conflict referral.”
The Greenbergs have since been on a search for answers since their daughter’s death. Their plight has caught national attention, and was featured in Crime Stories with Nancy Grace and The Washington Post.
The Greenbergs told PennLive several years ago that Ellen was upbeat, positive and loved life.
“She was a really fun, adorable, very loving, bubbly young woman with a bright future ahead of her,” her mother said.
“We have a mission and a purpose,” Josh Greenberg said in the November 2021 interview with PennLive. “We want justice for our daughter.”
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