Nancy Grace has revealed a catalogue of evidence in the case of Pennsylvania teacher Ellen Greenberg, whose death was controversially ruled a suicide after she suffered 20 stab wounds.
The case gained even more prominence recently when Josh Shapiro emerged as a possible running mate for Kamala Harris.
As state attorney general, Shapiro had upped the ante on the suicide ruling and blocked an attempt by Ellen’s family to have the case reinvestigated.
That has been cited as one of the reasons Harris did not select Shapiro and instead opted for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
On January 26, 2011, Ellen, 27, a first-grade teacher with a “megawatt smile,” was found dead in her Philadelphia apartment.
Ten of the twenty stab wounds were in the neck and nape of the neck.
Philadelphia Assistant Medical Examiner Marlon Osbourne initially ruled her death a homicide, but changed it to suicide after a meeting with police and prosecutors.
In his next book What happened to Ellen? An American miscarriage of justiceNancy reveals a number of reasons why she believes it should be changed back to homicide.
Ellen Greenberg, a 27-year-old elementary school student who was found with 20 stab wounds in 2011.
Ellen Greenberg’s family is fighting to overturn a medical examiner’s ruling that ruled it was suicide
A crucial fact is that an expert tells him that three of the wounds were inflicted post mortem.
And their investigation reveals that a lawyer present at the meeting with the medical examiner has been granted immunity in the case.
Last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court finally agreed to hear arguments from Ellen’s parents, Joshua and Sandee, as they attempt to gain legal standing to challenge the suicide ruling.
Nancy, who visited the Greenbergs, told Dailymail.com that they have been “through hell and back.”
Commenting on the three post-mortem wounds, Nancy said: “His heart is no longer beating and he still stabs himself, really?”
One expert also said one of the stab wounds “severed” Ellen’s spinal cord, cutting through the dura mater, the membrane that surrounds it, although she should have continued stabbing herself after that.
Additionally, Ellen was also found sitting leaning against a kitchen cabinet.
“So why is there blood running horizontally from the nose to the ear? I believe in the law of gravity,” Nancy said. “The scene was staged, her body was moved. There was a cover-up.”
This graphic shows the knife wounds Ellen suffered in her neck and chest, which pierced her brain and severed her spinal cord.
Another graphic display shows Ellen’s spinal cord being severed and her brain punctured in two severe stab wounds to the neck.
He added that Ellen would have had to stab herself with a right-hand motion, from left to right, then turn the knife and stab herself from right to left. “That did not happen,” he said.
He added that the kitchen was “extremely clean” when there should have been a “bloodbath.”
“This stinks so much. How can anyone stand it?” he said.
At the time, no fingerprints were taken from the knife still stuck in Ellen’s chest, and police did not record the scene on video.
Luminol was not used at the scene to look for signs of diluted blood.
The apartment manager was given permission to have it professionally cleaned. He recorded a before and after video, but the police “lost” the video.
Former prosecutor Nancy Grace has been investigating the case for years.
Ellen’s parents, Joshua and Sandee, have been campaigning for 13 years to overturn the suicide ruling.
Nancy said a prosecutor who was present at the meeting with the medical examiner in 2011 had been granted immunity in the case.
“Why do people get immunity? Usually, when the state believes that person has information.
“We have been told that the prosecutor who was granted immunity was at the meeting with the medical examiner,” he said.
Shapiro’s involvement has returned to the spotlight in recent weeks.
It resurfaced that Shapiro had been Pennsylvania’s attorney general when his office announced in February 2022 that it had reviewed the case and stood by the suicide ruling.
In July 2022, Shapiro recused himself from the case without offering a detailed explanation.
In a statement, his office said: “While the Attorney General’s Office has no actual conflict in this matter, circumstances beyond our control have created the appearance of a conflict and our involvement no longer serves one of the primary purposes of the District Attorney’s original referral of the conflict.”
Josh Shapiro ‘doubled down’ on suicide ruling when he was Pennsylvania attorney general
Shapiro was once the front-runner to be Kamala Harris’ running mate.
Shapiro’s “mishandling” of the case had caused “anger, pain and outrage” in Ellen’s family, Nancy said.
Things got ugly when Shapiro was on the vice presidential shortlist.
‘Instead of saying that this is totally wrong, he redoubled his efforts. He blocked a new investigation into the case and fought it tooth and nail.
“What they should have done is say that we don’t know what happened and that we should hold a hearing.”
Nancy described Ellen as a “model first grade teacher” who loved her students.
She was also a “daddy’s girl” who loved going to sporting events with her father and played softball.
He said it had been an “ordeal” for the Greenbergs as they tried to get the sentence overturned. “They tried again and again,” he said.
Ellen was found with 10 stab wounds with a 10-inch knife to the neck and back of the head, and 10 to the stomach, abdomen and chest.
Her fiancé, Sam Goldberg, told police he broke down the door, which was locked from the inside, found her and attempted CPR while she was on the phone with 911.
The Greenbergs sued the medical examiner’s office and Osborne in 2019, but were dismissed by the Commonwealth Court last September.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has not granted his appeal to hear the case as a “matter of statewide importance.”
Ellen Greenberg, 27, was discovered on the kitchen floor of a locked apartment with a 10-inch kitchen knife lodged in her chest.
Ellen died in her Philadelphia apartment on January 26, 2011.
Following that decision, Sandee told Dailymail.com: “We are smiling, we are very optimistic. I hope we can make our daughter proud. There has been a lot of frustration but we have not given up,” Sandee said.
The court will hear arguments on whether “executors and administrators of an estate have standing to challenge an erroneous finding recorded on the decedent’s death certificate.”
Nancy said she wanted the case “properly determined” as a homicide and that anything else would be “putting the cart before the horse.”
“Only then will this case proceed to a proper homicide investigation,” he said.
