Locked Room Mystery What Happened to Teacher Ellen Greenberg - True Crime Documentary - videohaat.com

Locked Room Mystery What Happened to Teacher Ellen Greenberg  True Crime Documentary - videohaat.com

Locked Room Mystery What Happened to Teacher Ellen Greenberg - True Crime Documentary - videohaat.com

welcome I'm David and this is Crimeline

Tonight we examine a case riddled with

perplexing questions conflicting

evidence and a family's relentless

decadel long battle for what they

believe is the truth In 2011 a vibrant

27-year-old first grade school teacher

Ellen Greenberg was found dead in her

Philadelphia apartment Her body bearing

multiple stab wounds a knife still

embedded in her chest

The initial finding was that her death

was self-inflicted This ruling was then

unexpectedly changed to indicate another

party was responsible by the medical

examiner only to be inexplicably

reversed once more to the original

conclusion This perplexing sequence of

events has generated considerable debate

and a desperate search for clarity by

Ellen's parents who find it difficult to

accept that their daughter could have

passed away in such a distressing and

improbable manner

This is the deeply disturbing and

unresolved case of Ellen Greenberg a

tragic death too many questions and a

fight for justice that continues to this

day Ellen Ray Greenberg was the only

child of Joshua Greenberg a

periodontist and Sandy Greenberg a

dental

hygienist The family had moved from

northern New Jersey to the Harrisburg

area of Pennsylvania in 1994 when Ellen

was still in middle school a period of

adjustment that she navigated with her

characteristic resilience Ellen was a

bright and spirited young

woman After graduating high school she

attended the renowned Penn State

University where she embraced her

studies in communications and was known

for her vibrant school spirit

Competitive by nature she loved playing

softball and golfing and always enjoyed

a good football match Following her

graduation from Penn State Ellen decided

to pursue a career in education a path

that reflected her nurturing

personality She earned her teaching

credentials at Temple University in

Philadelphia and went on to teach first

grade at Wanita Park Academy an

elementary school in the city a role she

reportedly

cherished At the age of 27 Ellen

appeared to be thriving building a life

for herself in Philadelphia She was

living in a sixthf floor apartment at

the Venice Loft Apartments in the

popular Many neighborhood a converted

mill building known for its modern units

She shared her apartment with her

fianceé 28-year-old Sam Goldberg a TV

producer with whom she had been in a

relationship for about 3

years By all outward appearances and

according to friends and family Sam was

well-liked and their relationship seemed

stable and happy as they planned their

upcoming

wedding January 26th 2011 was a day

marked by a heavy snowstorm that

blanketed the Philadelphia area bringing

much of the city to a standstill Earlier

in the day Ellen had a pleasant normal

chat on the phone with her mother Sandy

Around noon she texted back and forth

with a friend about the prospect of

leaving work early due to the

increasingly bad weather Indeed the

school day was eventually called off

because of the severe snowstorm and

Ellen found herself unexpectedly at home

around 1

[Music]

P Sam Goldberg was also in the apartment

that day He later told police that he

left to go to the gym at approximately

4:45

pm When Sam returned to their apartment

sometime between 5:15 and 5:30 p he

stated that he used his key to unlock

the door but found it was secured from

the inside by the swing bar lock a

secondary security latch Unable to enter

Sam said he shouted into the apartment

several times for Ellen but received no

response

He then began sending a series of text

messages to Ellen his tone reportedly

growing progressively more irritated as

he assumed she was inside and had for

some reason locked him out Why won't she

just let him in his texts implied he

also sent an email and called her

directly all to no avail As frustration

allegedly turned to

concern Sam went down to the lobby of

the apartment building to speak with

Phil the 67year-old security guard on

duty Phil however informed Sam that it

was against building policy to assist in

breaking a lock and so he would not help

him gain entry Finally according to

Sam's account he returned to the

apartment and on his own forced his way

through the doorway breaking the engaged

swing bar lock A 911 call was received

shortly thereafter logged at 6:33

p.m Inside the apartment responding

police officers found no immediate signs

of an intruder or any indication that

Ellen had tried to flee an attacker Her

body was discovered in the kitchen just

inside the front door with her head neck

and shoulders propped up against the

corner cabinets There was reportedly no

significant spillage of forensic

material beyond the immediate kitchen

area Ellen Greenberg was pronounced dead

at the scene at 640 Phune M

Despite the violent nature of her death

and the multiple stab wounds and

crucially despite the absence of any

suicide note the crime scene was from

the outset treated by the initial

responding officers as a suicide The

apartment door had indeed been locked by

the solid barred door guard which was

found pulled out and hanging by its

screws clearly having been forced by

someone presumably Sam Goldberg breaking

through from the outside

Sam remained on the scene and was

described by police as being very

helpful The apartment apart from the

immediate scene in the kitchen was noted

to be well-kept and tidy Investigators

reviewed Sam's key fob records and the

building security videos to corroborate

his timeline of leaving and returning to

the apartment and they stated that his

account matched the available data

The security videos also showed no signs

of unauthorized access or any unknown

individuals entering or exiting the

building around the time of Ellen's

death Furthermore a critical factor in

the initial suicide determination was

the report that there were no defensive

wounds found on Ellen's body which was

taken as an indication that she had not

struggled against an attacker

It wasn't until the next day January

27th when medical examiner Dr Marlon

Osborne conducted the autopsy that the

initial assessment of suicide began to

be seriously questioned at least by the

ME's office Dr D Osborne identified a

staggering 20 stab wounds on Ellen's

body labeled A through T in his report

Eight of these wounds were located in

her chest a placement that could in some

circumstances be consistent with

self-infliction Though the sheer

multiplicity of wounds was unusual

however far more disturbingly 10 of the

stab wounds were located on the back of

her neck and the back of her head Some

of these were described as superficial

nicks perhaps hesitation wounds but

others penetrated about 3 in deep into

the tissue at the base of her

skull Weighing all the physical evidence

before him Dr Pum Osborne an experienced

forensic pathologist determined that

this was no suicide He officially

recorded the manner of death as a

homicide Following this homicide ruling

police investigators returned to the

Venice Lofts apartment to conduct

another more thorough look around Yet

even after doing so the Philadelphia

Police Department reportedly refused to

reverse their initial position to align

with the medical examiner's official

conclusion They maintained that while

the circumstances were certainly

suspicious the convincing signs in their

view still pointed toward suicide

In the months leading up to her death

Ellen had reportedly not been quite

acting herself Her parents Joshua and

Sandy noted a marked change in her

demeanor from the bubbly outgoing and

confident daughter they had always known

Ellen had become anxious and unsettled

When they asked her about it she

attributed her distress primarily to

stresses at work at Wanita Park Academy

She insisted that everything was fine at

home with Sam

However a significant red flag was

raised for her parents when Ellen only

months before her planned wedding asked

if she could move back home with them

Concerned Sandy suggested she see a

therapist for her anxiety which Ellen

did According to what Ellen's

psychiatrist later told investigators

Ellen had expressed feeling overwhelmed

at work but she never voiced any

suicidal thoughts or ideations

Furthermore the psychiatrist recalled

that Ellen had nothing but good things

to say about her fianceé Sam Goldberg

smiling when she spoke of him and

explicitly denying that any verbal or

physical abuse had ever taken place in

their relationship Ellen attended three

therapy sessions and was prescribed the

anti-anxiety drug clonopin

clonazipam as well as ambiencem to help

her sleep

It is a known though rare side effect

that both of these medications can in

some individuals lead to suicidal

thoughts or behaviors These were the

only drugs found in Ellen's system when

she

died The homicide sergeant who

supervised the initial investigation

along with other assigned detectives

believed the information they developed

only strengthened the case for suicide

Ellen was anxious and on medication with

potential moodaltering side effects She

was found in an apartment that was

locked from the

inside There was they asserted no

evidence of a struggle and neighbors

reportedly told police that aside from

Sam banging on the door trying to get in

there had been no sounds of a

disturbance or altercation from the

apartment that evening Crucially they

reported that no DNA other than Ellens

was found on the knife that was still

embedded in her chest nor on its

handle Detectives proposed a theory that

the multiple superficial marks found on

her body were hesitation marks

suggesting she may have contemplated

fatally harming herself with a sharp

instrument Additionally an examination

of Ellen's laptop reportedly revealed a

history of internet searches related to

methods of ending one's life These

alleged searches reportedly included

inquiries into various ways to cause

self-inflicted death the means to do so

and information on rapid

methods And so based on this

accumulation of factors the initial

homicide ruling by Dr Osborne was

overturned by his superiors in the

Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office

and the official manner of death was

controversially and for many

inexplicably changed back to

suicide Ellen's parents Joshua and Sandy

Greenberg were devastated and utterly

unconvinced They simply could not

reconcile the official suicide ruling

with the daughter they knew and the

violent improbable manner of her death

In the days leading up to her death

Ellen had been actively planning her

future She had sent out save the date

cards for her upcoming wedding to Sam On

the very day she died she had had an

ordinary pleasant conversation with her

mother She had been texting with her

friends There were absolutely no overt

signs of acute distress or suicidal

intent in any of her recent

communications The police report itself

noted that Ellen's laptop when found was

open to wedding planning websites There

was even evidence in the kitchen

suggesting that Ellen had been in the

process of cutting fruit just before she

died a mundane everyday activity

There was simply no outward indication

to suggest that Ellen Greenberg a

beloved teacher with a fiance and a

wedding to look forward to planned to

take her own life that day let alone in

such a brutal and torturous

manner The horrifying facts were not

adding up for the grieving Greenberg

family The fact that Ellen's computer

Googled painless suicide and she's

stabbed to death And I have experts that

say it's suspicious of homicide What am

I supposed to say joshua Greenberg has

stated articulating the family's

profound disbelief and

frustration Determined to find what they

believe to be the true cause of their

daughter's death Joshua and Sandy

Greenberg decided to take the

investigation into their own hands They

hired a series of independent experts

pathologists crime scene

reconstructionists and legal counsel to

re-examine all the available evidence

and hopefully begin to answer some of

the deeply troubling questions that

plagued

them The Greenbergs retained attorney

Joseph Pedza to pursue new angles in the

case Pedrazza in turn located a

technology expert to re-examine Ellen's

laptop and her internet search history

This expert found that the supposedly

damning suicide related searches

highlighted by the original

investigation were not in fact performed

directly by Ellen at all

They were instead determined to be

phantom searches search results that can

appear in browse history due to data

analytics prefetching by browsers or

other indirect software activity without

the user ever having actually clicked on

or intentionally accessed those specific

links

When Ellen's true direct browse history

was contrasted with these phantom

results it became clear that she had

actually been looking for information

relating to her new medications

researching common side effects such as

weight gain and sleepiness Perfectly

normal behavior for someone starting new

prescriptions The laptop this expert

concluded did not reveal an obsession

with suicide as the original 2011 police

investigation had erroneously

concluded The Greenbergs also sought the

expertise of Tom Brennan name noted as

Tom Brean in transcript source but

widely reported as Brennan a respected

retired state police veteran and former

detective chief to review the case

Brennan meticulously studied the crime

scene photos and the medical examiner's

reports He determined that the reported

absence of defensive wounds on Ellen's

body does not necessarily mean that her

death was a

suicide He proposed what is known in

criminology as a blitz attack a sudden

swift and overwhelmingly violent assault

that occurs so quickly and unexpectedly

that the victim is afforded no time to

react or defend themselves

Tom Brennan also took significant issue

with the reported position and condition

of Ellen's body when she was found Crime

scene photos showed Ellen with a stream

of dried blood running horizontally

across her cheek from the side of her

nose toward her left

ear Yet her body was described as being

slumped in an upright e seated position

against the kitchen cabinets when she

was discovered The original police

investigation had proposed that she was

standing during the alleged

self-inflicted attack and then slid down

to the floor However this scenario

Brennan argued would not account for a

horizontal stream of blood Gravity would

have caused it to run

vertically Common sense would indicate

what leading experts would confirm The

Greenberg team asserted this stream of

blood defies gravity Either she moved

herself after sustaining those wounds or

someone moved

her In 2017 the Greenbergs commissioned

another independent report that also

addressed significant issues with the

medical examiner's flip-flopping on the

manner of death A central point of

contention was the possible damage to

Ellen's spinal cord from the stab wounds

to the back of her neck an injury that

could potentially have left her

incapacitated and utterly unable to

inflict the subsequent wounds upon

herself particularly those to her

chest The original autopsy report the

one that ultimately ruled her death a

suicide contained only a single brief

line relating to this potentially

critical injury It read "Nuropathologist

Dr Lucy Ror examined the spinal cord and

concluded there is no defect of the

spinal

cord However when contacted directly

years later by the Greenberg's

investigators Dr

Ror a wellrespected and now retired

neuropathologist stated that she had

absolutely no record no bill no report

no invoice no memory to indicate that

she had ever consulted on Ellen

Greenberg's case back in 2011 While she

admitted a remote possibility that she

might have been informally consulted

without generating a formal record she

had no recollection of it whatsoever

This discrepancy cast further serious

doubt on the thoroughess and integrity

of the original suicide ruling which

seemed to hinge at least in part on this

unverified one-s sentence assertion

about the spinal cord According to a

detective from the original

investigation the police had been told

that while the sheath around Ellen's

spinal cord had been hit by a stab wound

the cord itself was not severed

They were allegedly told that as a

result of this Ellen most likely went

numb thus somehow allowing or enabling

her to stab herself repeatedly a

scenario many outside experts found

highly improbable An expert pathologist

consulted by the Greenbergs in 2017

strongly disagreed with this

assessment Ellen's injuries particularly

the deep stab wounds to the back of her

neck penetrating towards the brain stem

and spinal cord this report stated would

have caused Ellen severe pain cranial

nerve dysfunction and traumatic brain

injury signs These injuries were not

enabling They were this expert argued

far more arguably incapacitating

Newer technology unavailable at the time

of the original 2011

investigation has also been sought out

by the Greenbergs in their relentless

pursuit of answers A sophisticated

process called photoggramometry which

uses photographs to create precise 3D

models allowed their legal team to

meticulously recreate Ellen's anatomical

and physiological attributes from the

autopsy photos and data A company called

Biomax took the detailed information

from

Dr Osborne's original autopsy report and

recreated the precise depth and angle of

each of the 20 stab wounds From this

highly detailed 3D recreation two very

severe wounds are clearly visible in the

back of Ellen's head wounds that the

Greenberg's experts argue would have

been virtually impossible for Ellen to

inflict upon herself with the force and

angles indicated especially after

already sustaining other debilitating

injuries So what did Joshua and Sandy

Greenberg believe really happened to

their daughter how could she have been

the victim of such brutal foul play

while seemingly alone in a locked

apartment the only other potential way

into the Venice Loft's apartment was via

the balcony but it was on the sixth

floor And on the day of a heavy

snowstorm the fallen snow on the balcony

had been found completely undisturbed

ruling out entry or exit from that route

The front door latch the swing bar had

been forced open from the outside by Sam

Goldberg which in theory would prove

that Ellen was in the apartment alone

when he arrived However the Greenberg

team has argued that there are multiple

videos and instructions available online

explaining how to manipulate and

re-engage a swing bar lock from the

outside suggesting the locked room

scenario might not be as definitive as

it first appeared

Furthermore there is reason to believe

that the relationship between Sam

Goldberg and Ellen Greenberg was perhaps

less joyful and more troubled than she

had let onto her friends and family in

the months leading up to her death The

medical examiner had noted in the

autopsy report that Ellen's body had

bruises in various stages of resolution

meaning some were older some newer and

also found marks indicative of possible

strangulation

These injuries have never been

adequately explained by the suicide

ruling There has also been considerable

speculation though unconfirmed that Sam

Goldberg's family may have been able to

exert some influence over the police

investigation due to their connections

Sam's uncle a prominent lawyer at the

time who is now a judge was reportedly

granted access to the apartment to

collect Ellen's belongings following the

police's departure from the scene

Sources have stated though it has not

been officially confirmed that on the

evening of Ellen's death Sam Goldberg

called his uncle Possibly it is believed

by some even before he phoned 911

According to investigator Tom Brennan

the crime scene including Ellen's

computer and cell phone was left

unsecured with the property owner and

the building security manager present in

the apartment until the medical examiner

finally

arrived Then the apartment was

reportedly promptly deep cleananed and

it was Sam's uncle who was allowed

entrance to retrieve Ellen's cell phone

her work laptop and her personal laptop

He did not promptly return these items

to Ellen's grieving family at her

funeral as they had requested and

expected What he did manage to do

according to Tom Brennan was potentially

spoil the chain of evidence and

contaminate elements of the crime

scene All is not lost for the Greenbergs

However they filed a civil lawsuit based

on what they contend constitutes

significant new evidence to compel the

Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office

to officially alter Ellen's manner of

death on her death certificate once

again This time to either undetermined

or ideally back to homicide In October

2021 the case was heard in court Dr

Marlon Osborne the original medical

examiner who had initially ruled it a

homicide was

deposed When asked if he would agree

that the manner of death as suicide

would be improper or incorrect if it

could be proven that one or more of the

wounds Ellen sustained could not have

been

self-inflicted Dr Osborne reportedly had

to agree The Greenbergs also brought in

a new medical expert whose deposition

was shown in court The city hired

neuropathologist

[Music]

Dr Lindseay Emory After reviewing the

evidence including microscopic slides of

tissue from Ellen's deepest wounds

determined that Ellen could not have

been alone when many of the stab wounds

took place Specifically she noted a lack

of hemorrhage bleeding in some of the

deepest spinal wounds which in her

expert opinion indicated that Ellen may

have already been deceased or at least

had no pulse at the time those

particular traumas were administered

People without pulses

doctor Emory starkly stated do not stab

themselves repeatedly Based on these

hearings and the compelling new expert

testimony a judge has allowed the

Greenberg's lawsuit to go forward to a

non-jury trial though no date for that

trial has yet been set

In response to the family's persistent

pleas and the mounting new evidence the

Pennsylvania Attorney General's office

continues to maintain that they do not

have what they consider to be legitimate

new evidence and therefore see no reason

to formally reinvestigate Ellen's death

as a criminal matter If the Greenbergs

are ultimately successful in their civil

suit and have the manner of death

changed a full criminal reinvestigation

could and many believe should be

launched Ellen's fiance Sam Goldberg now

lives in New York City and is reportedly

married with young children He has

consistently maintained his innocence

through his attorney and has not spoken

publicly about the case in detail

The tragic story of Ellen Greenberg is a

haunting reminder of the complexities

that can surround a death investigation

the fallibility of initial conclusions

and the enduring power of a family's

love and determination in the pursuit of

truth and justice for a life cut

tragically short Too many questions

indeed

remain Thank you for joining me on

Crimeline This case is a testament to

the fact that sometimes the fight for

answers can be as arduous and painful as

the loss itself We will continue to

follow any developments until next time