WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.480 Hey everyone, welcome back to Beyond the Silence 00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:06.559 Whispers Across America. I'm Sammy and today 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:08.599 we're diving into the tangled, heartbreaking 00:00:08.599 --> 00:00:12.720 story of Ellen Greenberg. It's a story of a young 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:15.779 woman who deserved far more than a shrug from 00:00:15.779 --> 00:00:18.960 the system. A story about how quickly evidence 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:21.960 can vanish when assumptions are made too early. 00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:25.000 And a story about parents who refuse to stop 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:29.289 fighting for the truth. Now, if you haven't heard 00:00:29.289 --> 00:00:32.049 her name before, let me sketch this out for you. 00:00:32.130 --> 00:00:35.329 A 27 -year -old first grade teacher, passionate 00:00:35.329 --> 00:00:38.509 about her students, making a life in Philadelphia, 00:00:38.729 --> 00:00:42.929 newly engaged to Sam Goldberg. Ellen grew up 00:00:42.929 --> 00:00:45.229 in New York, earned her degree from Penn State, 00:00:45.429 --> 00:00:48.210 then her teaching credentials from Temple and 00:00:48.210 --> 00:00:51.170 Chestnut Hill. By all accounts, she was exactly 00:00:51.170 --> 00:00:53.469 the kind of person you'd want teaching your kids. 00:00:54.549 --> 00:00:59.100 Compassionate, bright, full of empathy. Her story. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.840 Well, there are cases where you can feel the 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:06.060 ripples spreading outward. How one single event 00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:09.260 shatters dozens of lives. Ellen's is one of those. 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:13.120 Every family I've ever spoken to in these situations 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:15.959 lives with this constant wound when answers are 00:01:15.959 --> 00:01:19.040 still missing. That's what keeps me coming back 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:21.900 to cases like Ellen's. And maybe that's what 00:01:21.900 --> 00:01:26.099 brought you here too. Alright, let's drop you 00:01:26.099 --> 00:01:30.359 into January 26, 2011. Philadelphia is blanketed 00:01:30.359 --> 00:01:33.700 by a nor 'easter. Snow comes heavy, schools dismiss 00:01:33.700 --> 00:01:36.219 early, and Ellen heads back to her apartment 00:01:36.219 --> 00:01:40.280 in Manayunk. It's a normal day, or at least it 00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:43.519 should have been. She settles in, grades some 00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:46.719 papers, and waits for her fiancé, Sam Goldberg, 00:01:46.939 --> 00:01:49.280 who leaves for a workout at the building's gym. 00:01:49.540 --> 00:01:53.879 Around 6 .30 p .m., Sam comes back. He finds 00:01:53.879 --> 00:01:56.060 the apartment door locked with the inside swing 00:01:56.060 --> 00:02:00.040 latch engaged. He texts and calls Ellen. No response. 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:03.480 He sends increasingly frustrated messages like, 00:02:03.620 --> 00:02:07.819 Hello? Open the door. When she doesn't answer, 00:02:07.900 --> 00:02:11.039 he forces the door open. What he finds is the 00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:14.840 kind of image that scars you for life. Ellen 00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:17.719 is collapsed in the kitchen, a knife still lodged 00:02:17.719 --> 00:02:21.580 in her chest, blood around her. The 911 call 00:02:21.580 --> 00:02:26.740 that follows has haunted people for years. Sam 00:02:26.740 --> 00:02:30.680 immediately says she stabbed herself, and at 00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:34.539 one point she fell on a knife. The dispatcher 00:02:34.539 --> 00:02:37.439 tells him to start CPR, and he hesitates, asking, 00:02:37.620 --> 00:02:42.860 I have to, right? Panic can make people act strangely, 00:02:43.039 --> 00:02:46.219 but even from that very first call, the phrasing 00:02:46.219 --> 00:02:48.520 raises questions that never really went away. 00:02:49.099 --> 00:02:52.819 The investigation begins and derails almost instantly. 00:02:53.759 --> 00:02:57.280 Police arrive and almost immediately lean toward 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:01.599 suicide. No full crime scene unit work up. The 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:03.699 very next day, the apartment is professionally 00:03:03.699 --> 00:03:07.919 cleaned. Bloodstains scrubbed, surfaces sanitized, 00:03:07.939 --> 00:03:10.740 and crucially, the chain of evidence broken. 00:03:11.879 --> 00:03:15.439 To make matters worse, Ellen's fiancé's uncle, 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:19.610 Judge James Schwartzman. A well -connected figure 00:03:19.610 --> 00:03:22.250 walks into the apartment and removes laptops, 00:03:22.569 --> 00:03:26.129 phones, credit cards. Devices gone before they 00:03:26.129 --> 00:03:29.729 were even examined. That's a hole in the record 00:03:29.729 --> 00:03:32.990 that you can't patch later. The autopsy should 00:03:32.990 --> 00:03:36.830 have been the turning point. Dr. Marlon Osborne, 00:03:37.009 --> 00:03:40.069 the assistant medical examiner, finds 20 stab 00:03:40.069 --> 00:03:42.909 wounds. Eight to the chest, one to the scalp, 00:03:43.110 --> 00:03:46.639 and ten to the back and neck. He documents 11 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:51.159 bruises, arms, abdomen, legs, at different stages 00:03:51.159 --> 00:03:55.840 of healing. He rules the case a homicide. But 00:03:55.840 --> 00:04:01.060 then, within days, that ruling flips to suicide. 00:04:01.139 --> 00:04:05.500 No clear explanation. Later, Dr. Osborne admits 00:04:05.500 --> 00:04:08.259 that police pressured him, arguing that the locked 00:04:08.259 --> 00:04:11.539 door made homicide impossible. For Ellen's parents, 00:04:11.879 --> 00:04:14.530 it's like a rug ripped out from under them. They 00:04:14.530 --> 00:04:16.610 learn about the change not from investigators 00:04:16.610 --> 00:04:20.209 but from news reports. The family refuses to 00:04:20.209 --> 00:04:23.649 accept it. They called in many independent experts. 00:04:24.529 --> 00:04:29.189 Dr. Cyril Wicht says the case is strongly suspicious 00:04:29.189 --> 00:04:34.649 of homicide. Dr. Henry Lee concludes the wound 00:04:34.649 --> 00:04:37.810 patterns and blood evidence fit homicide, not 00:04:37.810 --> 00:04:42.920 suicide. Dr. Lindsay Emery, a neuropathologist, 00:04:43.220 --> 00:04:45.939 finds evidence one wound to Ellen's spinal column 00:04:45.939 --> 00:04:49.240 happened after she was already dead. Physiologically 00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:53.459 impossible if she had done it to herself. Dr. 00:04:53.540 --> 00:04:56.720 Wayne Ross says the bruises look consistent with 00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:02.519 repeated blunt trauma, not accidents. Piece by 00:05:02.519 --> 00:05:05.879 piece, their analysis paints a picture that clashes 00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:10.220 with the official narrative. And let's not forget 00:05:10.220 --> 00:05:12.800 the locked door argument, the backbone of the 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:16.839 suicide ruling. Police said the swing latch was 00:05:16.839 --> 00:05:20.699 on. Nobody else could have entered. But the building 00:05:20.699 --> 00:05:22.980 manager later admits those latches sometimes 00:05:22.980 --> 00:05:26.779 swung closed on their own. Security footage shows 00:05:26.779 --> 00:05:30.639 Sam alone when he forced entry. No guard with 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:34.019 him, as he claimed. The very foundation of suicide 00:05:34.019 --> 00:05:38.230 by locked door starts to crumble. Even Dr. Osborne 00:05:38.230 --> 00:05:40.410 later says that if he had known the latch evidence 00:05:40.410 --> 00:05:42.750 was shaky, he would never have ruled suicide. 00:05:44.189 --> 00:05:47.310 For years, Ellen's parents fight tooth and nail. 00:05:47.470 --> 00:05:50.430 They file lawsuits, petition the courts, push 00:05:50.430 --> 00:05:54.889 for reclassification. In 2019, they sue the city 00:05:54.889 --> 00:05:57.949 of Philadelphia, arguing that the medical examiner's 00:05:57.949 --> 00:06:02.029 ruling must be changed. The city resists, insisting 00:06:02.029 --> 00:06:07.089 the ruling is final. The case drags on. But in 00:06:07.089 --> 00:06:11.430 2025, movement finally comes. The Greenbergs 00:06:11.430 --> 00:06:15.629 reach a $650 ,000 settlement with the city, and 00:06:15.629 --> 00:06:18.389 as part of that, the case will be re -examined. 00:06:18.990 --> 00:06:22.889 Even bigger, Dr. Osborne, the very medical examiner 00:06:22.889 --> 00:06:26.290 who once changed the ruling, signs a sworn statement 00:06:26.290 --> 00:06:29.310 saying he now believes Ellen's death should never 00:06:29.310 --> 00:06:33.420 have been ruled suicide. However, the Chester 00:06:33.420 --> 00:06:35.860 County District Attorney's Office, which had 00:06:35.860 --> 00:06:38.060 been brought in to avoid conflicts of interest, 00:06:38.379 --> 00:06:41.480 announced that the case would be placed on inactive 00:06:41.480 --> 00:06:45.920 status. They said the evidence available today 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:48.579 doesn't meet the burden of proof for homicide, 00:06:48.860 --> 00:06:53.019 and in recent developments, the case continues 00:06:53.019 --> 00:06:58.759 to spark debate. In October 2025, the Philadelphia 00:06:58.759 --> 00:07:01.660 Medical Examiner's Office reaffirmed that Ellen's 00:07:01.660 --> 00:07:05.100 death is officially ruled a suicide, citing no 00:07:05.100 --> 00:07:08.139 evidence of forced entry and stating she could 00:07:08.139 --> 00:07:11.560 have inflicted the wounds herself. Her family 00:07:11.560 --> 00:07:15.000 strongly disputes this conclusion, calling the 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:18.079 report deeply flawed and pointing out missing 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:21.480 surveillance, unexplained bruises, and forensic 00:07:21.480 --> 00:07:24.939 inconsistencies. While the case was reopened 00:07:24.939 --> 00:07:28.220 earlier in 2025 as part of a settlement with 00:07:28.220 --> 00:07:31.560 the city, the fight for clarity and justice is 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:35.259 far from over. Ellen's story remains a stark 00:07:35.259 --> 00:07:38.060 reminder of how contested evidence and official 00:07:38.060 --> 00:07:40.600 rulings can leave families searching for answers 00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:44.939 for years. Meanwhile, this case doesn't just 00:07:44.939 --> 00:07:48.279 live in courtrooms. It explodes online. A Hulu 00:07:48.279 --> 00:07:52.699 doc series, Death in Apartment 603. Podcasts, 00:07:52.699 --> 00:07:56.759 YouTube investigations, FOIA document dumps. 00:07:56.759 --> 00:08:01.079 It all fuels public pressure. Over 160 ,000 people 00:08:01.079 --> 00:08:03.879 signed petitions demanding justice for Ellen. 00:08:04.620 --> 00:08:07.120 Advocacy in the digital age keeps the case alive 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:10.720 in a way the system might have buried. And so 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:14.519 here we are, 14. Years later. Ellen's parents, 00:08:14.779 --> 00:08:17.319 Josh and Sandy Greenberg, have spent every ounce 00:08:17.319 --> 00:08:19.560 of energy making sure their daughter isn't forgotten 00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:22.860 or mislabeled. They've won some moral victories, 00:08:23.019 --> 00:08:27.439 but the official record hasn't changed. And as 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:30.120 the years pass, the questions only grow louder. 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:34.139 How could a young woman with 20 stab wounds, 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:37.659 10 to her chest, 10 to the back of her head, 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:42.980 be labeled a suicide? How could evidence so contested 00:08:42.980 --> 00:08:46.000 leave a family without closure? Ellen's story 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:49.019 has become more than a case file. It's a symbol 00:08:49.019 --> 00:08:52.220 of how justice can stall, how answers can be 00:08:52.220 --> 00:08:54.899 buried, and how persistence from ordinary people 00:08:54.899 --> 00:08:59.340 can keep the truth alive. That's it for today's 00:08:59.340 --> 00:09:02.220 episode. The questions remain and the search 00:09:02.220 --> 00:09:05.659 continues, because every lost soul deserves answers, 00:09:05.759 --> 00:09:09.100 and every story deserves to be heard. What are 00:09:09.100 --> 00:09:11.840 your thoughts? What do you believe happened? 00:09:12.440 --> 00:09:15.100 Share your voice because sometimes the smallest 00:09:15.100 --> 00:09:18.899 detail can spark the biggest breakthrough. I'm 00:09:18.899 --> 00:09:21.519 Sammy and this is Beyond the Silence, Whispers 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:24.919 Across America. Thank you for listening. Stay 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:26.679 safe and I'll see you next time.