The parents of a Philadelphia teacher found dead in 2011 with 20 stab wounds in an apparent suicide have won the right to challenge the ruling for the chance of changing it to a homicide, according to a report.
The family of Ellen Greenberg had fought for more than a decade to overturn the city’s ruling over the death of the teacher — whose body was found riddled with stab wounds, including 10 to the back of the head and neck in her Philadelphia apartment during a blizzard on Jan. 26, 2011.
But last week, Greenberg’s parents, Joshua and Sandee, finally broke ground when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted their appeal to hear the case, according to WHP-TV.
“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court only takes cases which it decides are significant enough from a social standpoint for it to consider,” the Greenberg’s family attorney, Joe Podraza, told the outlet Tuesday.
While investigating Greenberg’s death in 2011, police initially suspected the 27-year-old teacher had committed suicide, noting the lack of forced entry, defensive wounds, or DNA on her body that wasn’t hers.
Medical examiner Marlon Osbourne determined the first-grade teacher’s death to be a homicide but reversed course and amended the ruling to suicide more than a month later.
Greenberg’s family hired a team of experts in the aftermath of her death who pointed out that a knife in her apartment was overturned, possibly suggesting that she had been involved in a struggle, and a gash on the back of her head may have rendered her unconscious and unable to defend herself.
Podraza also previously claimed that the evidence showed that at least two of the 20 stab wounds were inflicted after Greenberg’s heart had already stopped beating.
They sued the Medical examiner’s office and Osborne in 2019, but an appellate court panel upheld the ruling for her death last September.
“Ellen stabbing herself 20 times before dying is bulls–t,” Joshua Greenberg, the young teacher’s father, told the DailyMail.com Sunday. “She died from a very vicious, very painful knife attack.”
Despite last year’s ruling, judges acknowledged the “deeply flawed investigation” of Greenberg by the Philadelphia Police, the DA, and the Medical Examiner’s Office.
The PA Supreme Court will now address the crucial issue of whether executors and administrators of an estate should have the legal standing to contest a finding on a death certificate.
This finding can significantly impact an individual’s ability to seek victim’s compensation, receive restitution from a wrongful death suit, or pursue a criminal complaint.
Podraza said the discussion will allow the courts to examine if “coroners and medical examiners have absolute power, or can they be challenged when the evidence shows they are not only mistaken but grossly mistaken.”
“For every citizen in this commonwealth this case could potentially have a bearing in their lives or the lives of their family members,” the lawyer told WHP-TV.
Podraza, like his clients, says he is 100% sure Greenberg did not commit suicide.
“We have proven psychologically that all the wounds could not have been inflicted by Ellen,” he told the outlet.
The case will now be on a briefing schedule, and attorneys will start filing documents and making their arguments.
However, the process could take more than a year to play out.
“There are cases where issues arise which are strange, and they should not be pushed or brushed under the rug. And they should be looked at closely because everybody deserves justice under our system,” Podraza said.
“All I can hope for is we ultimately get justice.”
Aside from the new developments with the Supreme Court’s involvement, the investigation has been transferred to the Chester County DA’s Office due to conflicts in Philadelphia and with the state attorney general.
The family is pursuing a separate civil lawsuit alleging a cover-up over her death.
“What they’re covering up, I don’t know. Are they covering up police inadequacy and mistakes? Are they covering up some other personality or person?” Joshua Greenberg told the DailyMail.com.
“I don’t know, but it’s a cover-up. There’s a mistake somewhere here, a big f–king mistake.”
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