A fresh review of the death of Philadelphia educator Ellen Greenberg, which was famously declared a suicide despite the presence of 23 stab wounds in 2011, has upheld the original conclusion. However, experts continue to express that the facts suggest an alternative explanation.
Dr. Lindsay Simon, who serves as the city’s chief medical examiner, was assigned the task of examining the work of Dr. Marlon Osbourne. He was the assistant medical examiner responsible for performing the initial autopsy.
Dr. Osbourne initially attributed the death to “multiple stab wounds” and labeled it a “homicide.” Nevertheless, he later modified the classification to “suicide.” Yet, he changed his stance once more earlier in the year, communicating to the court that, in his “professional opinion, Ellen’s manner of death should be classified as something other than suicide.”
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This evaluation occurred following extensive legal actions taken by Greenberg’s parents, Dr. Josh Greenberg and Sandee Greenberg, who had urged the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office to amend the official cause of death from suicide to undetermined.
“The key stab wounds located at the base of the brain and extending deeper into the upper spinal column are not consistent with a self-inflicted act due to their placement and the resulting damage,” stated Dr. Priya Banerjee, a certified forensic pathologist who assessed Dr. Simon’s report.
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Based on the nature of that particular wound, she informed Fox News Digital that she is convinced Greenberg’s death was a case of homicide.
Read Dr. Simon’s report:
“While the arrangement of injuries is undeniably unusual, the truth remains that Ellen had the capacity to cause these injuries to herself,” Dr. Simon noted.
Joe Podraza, the legal representative for Greenberg’s parents, has indicated that this specific wound was inflicted after Greenberg’s heart had ceased to function. However, Dr. Simon proposed that the wound may have occurred during the autopsy process, rather than in her residence.
“To me, it still feels undetermined at this stage,” commented Joseph Giacalone, a former cold case investigator with the NYPD and a criminal justice professor at Penn State Lehigh Valley. “[Dr. Simon] is attempting to assemble a narrative based on documents, slides, and photographs from 14 years in the past.”
He added that she was also required to depend on a Philadelphia investigation that had faced complications from its very beginning. A cleaning crew compromised the integrity of the crime scene before law enforcement officials arrived with a search warrant.
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Fingerprint analysis conducted on a knife discovered in her chest yielded only “two unusable prints,” according to Dr. Simon’s report. Additionally, she identified three additional stab wounds and an additional 20 bruises that were not documented in Dr. Osbourne’s initial findings.
Even though Greenberg was discovered with bruises on various areas of her body, in addition to the stab wounds, Dr. Simon stated that there were no indications of defensive wounds. She also dismissed marks observed on her wrists as evidence that she might have been restrained or held during the stabbing.
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“Even though the absence of ‘defensive injuries’ does not rule out the possibility of homicide, it is necessary to account for their absence,” Dr. Simon explained.
She identified and refuted four possible explanations: the assault concluded before the victim could defend herself, she was under the influence of intoxicants and unable to defend herself, she was physically restricted, or she sustained a disabling injury early in the assault.
An earlier assessment by Dr. Wayne Ross on behalf of Greenberg’s parents suggested evidence that the victim might have been strangled and had her wrists restrained, which would have left her defenseless. However, Dr. Simon disagreed with his interpretations.
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“While it is conceivable that the contours of the contusions on Ellen’s forearms were caused by fingers, the undersigned noted only three contusions on Ellen’s right forearm and three contusions on Ellen’s left forearm,” Dr. Simon wrote. “This would imply an incomplete grasp on the forearms if the contusions were indeed caused by fingers. Moreover, the contusions on the right forearm appeared to the undersigned to be of varying ages.”
Nonetheless, according to Dr. Banerjee, it can be problematic and imprecise to ascertain the age of bruises through visual inspection.
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“So [they] could stem from that single occurrence, or from several or unrelated incidents,” she clarified.
A factor that influenced Dr. Simon’s conclusions was numerous reports indicating Greenberg was dealing with anxiety and stress, largely due to her position as a school teacher. According to text messages exchanged on the day of her death, she mentioned to a friend that grades were due that evening and that she was struggling to complete them by the deadline.
“I want to scream,” she texted.
The grading process was seemingly a significant source of difficulty for her, according to Dr. Simon’s report, and she informed both friends and her therapist that she was contemplating resigning from her job.
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“The reality is that millions of individuals experience anxiety or depression at some point in their lives but never resort to suicide,” noted John Kelly, a criminal profiler and psychotherapist based in New Jersey who has been tracking the case for several years.
He stated that while severe depression can contribute to suicides, it is not always the case. Greenberg had been undergoing treatment for anxiety, which is mentioned in Dr. Simon’s report, but she had not been diagnosed with depression. She had been prescribed Zoloft and then Klonopin for stress.
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According to a 2025 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 49% of suicide victims have a documented mental health condition. Among those, 71.7% had received a diagnosis of depression, whereas 24% had been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
The same CDC analysis also explored undetermined deaths, revealing that 75% involved contributing factors, such as a mental health issue, and 27.5% of those included a diagnosis of anxiety disorder.
Over the years, numerous external experts, including the late and esteemed forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht, have reviewed Greenberg’s death. While Dr. Simon incorporated analyses from Dr. Wecht and others in her report, she did not agree with their assessments that suicide was improbable or unsupported by the evidence.
She also included the findings of Dr. Jonathan Arden, who concurred with the suicide determination, pointing to the locations of the injuries and internet searches on Greenberg’s laptop related to the term “suicide.”
