PHILADELPHIA — The parents of a Pennsylvania woman who died as a result of 20 stab wounds to her body are taking the medical examiner’s office to court after declaring her death a suicide.
Ellen Greenberg died in January 2011 at the age of 27. Now her parents have been granted a non-jury trial in their quest. The lawsuit was filed against the coroner’s office over the ruling in her death in her Philadelphia apartment, CBS Philly reported.
“We look forward to the trial in hopes of obtaining justice for Ellen,” Sandra Greenberg, Ellen’s mother, told the new organization.
On the day of her death, Ellen had returned home to her apartment early from her job as a first-grade teacher due to a snowstorm.
Her fiance, Sam Goldberg, later discovered her dead on the kitchen floor when he returned home from the gym.
Police said the woman sustained stab wounds to her chest, neck, head and torso, New York Post reported.
Ellen Greenbreg was discovered dead on the kitchen floor by her fiance, Sam Goldberg, in 2011. (Facebook)
Since the apartment lacked forced entry, there were no defensive wounds to her body, and the absence of DNA, police initially believed her death was a suicide, the Washington Post reported.
According to the lawsuit, medical examiner Marlon Osbourne initially determined her death to be a homicide before reversing course and amending the ruling to suicide more than a month later.
“It makes no sense,” the Greenbergs’ attorney, Joseph Podraza, told the newspaper.
A team of experts hired by the Greenberg family following the woman’s death pointed out that a gash on the back of her head may have knocked her unconscious, thus she was unable to defend herself. They also pointed to an overturned knife in her apartment that suggested a possible struggle, the Post reported.
Furthermore, her family questioned why a person who wanted to take her life bothered to fill up the gas tank in her vehicle before coming home. The family also believes the absence of a suicide note indicates she had no intention of taking her life.
Podraza said the family is taking action to get to the bottom of her death.
“They want to know what happened to their daughter,” he told the Washington Post.
“The medical examiner’s determination is binding on no one. … If a prosecuting authority were convinced that Ellen Greenberg was murdered, there is no statute of limitations on homicide and they could pursue it,” the city argued in court filings.
