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The family of a Pennsylvania woman, whose death was initially ruled a suicide in 2011, will have a lawyer representing them. The lawyer announced that during the upcoming hearing, an official is expected to testify that the woman’s body was relocated after her death.
During the recent hearing, Joseph Podraza, the lawyer for the family, revealed this information to Judge Linda Carpenter in the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. Podraza mentioned that the former Chief Medical Examiner, Sam Gulino, had informed Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Guy D’Andrea that the woman, Ellen Greenberg, was actually a victim of homicide. It was also revealed that her body had been moved subsequent to her being stabbed 20 times in her Manayunk apartment.
Podraza emphasized the significance of D’Andrea’s testimony in the civil lawsuit as he had reportedly re-evaluated Greenberg’s case file following the initial determination of suicide after her death.
Though Greenberg, 27, was reportedly found slumped over a kitchen cabinet, Gulino allegedly told D’Andrea that evidence suggests she was originally lying on her back. In light of Podraza’s revelation, Judge Carpenter approved his motion to depose D’Andrea under oath — but she limited his testimony to his conversations with Gulino and other defendants in the civil lawsuit, in addition to his knowledge of Greenberg’s death investigation file.
READ: Ellen Greenberg: Court Declines to Reopen ‘Suicide’ Investigation Into Teacher Stabbed 20 Times
Gulino resigned in 2021, amid controversy about his office keeping human remains from the 1985 MOVE bombing in a storage closet. The remains were in the closet for decades, undisclosed to their families.
The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office and State Attorney General’s Office have maintained that Greenberg’s death is not a homicide.
Discovered by her fiancé, Greenberg suffered stab wounds to her neck and back, and a kitchen knife was found lodged in her chest. Responding police officers did not treat the apartment as they treated it as a suicide, not a crime scene. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s office ruled it a homicide the next day, following an autopsy.
However, the medical examiner’s office later changed her cause of death to suicide — something her family believes was done not to contradict police’s findings.
Greenberg’s fiancé allegedly told police that he returned home from the gym and realized he was locked out, with the swing lock latched from the inside. He claimed he called and texted Greenberg several times with no luck and could not get ahold of the apartment management, so he broke the lock.
Greenberg’s fiancé said he found her slumped over in the kitchen. He claimed he was gone for 45 minutes before returning to the apartment, and investigators determined surveillance footage corroborated his claims about what happened that day.
However, neuropathologist Lyndsey Emery, who was hired by the city of Philadelphia years earlier to evaluate Greenberg’s spinal cord, told Greenberg’s family attorney that it was “significant” she had no hemorrhaging, as it strongly suggests she did not have a pulse when she was repeatedly stabbed. She went on to conclude that at least one of the 20 stab wounds on Greenberg occurred postmortem.
Greenberg’s family is suing officials for unspecified monetary damages, and they want to have Greenberg’s cause of death changed from suicide to homicide.
Podraza has until May 4 to depose D’Andrea, Gulino, and others connected to the death investigation.
Regarding Tuesday’s hearing, Greenberg’s mother told PennLive, “That’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
“Her death is obviously a murder.”
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