Ellen Greenberg case: Chester County DA ‘unable to move forward’ with criminal charges
First-grade teacher Ellen Greenberg was found dead in her Philadelphia apartment back in 2011. (Family Handout)
PHILADELPHIA - The Chester County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday that their investigation into Ellen Greenberg’s death in 2011 has moved into inactive status as they determined they were unable to move forward with criminal charges.
The announcement came more than two years after the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office turned the case over to Chester County.
27-year-old Ellen Greenberg was found dead in her Philadelphia apartment by her fiancé on January 26, 2011. The first-grade teacher had been stabbed 20 times, according to investigators.
After an autopsy the following day, her death was ruled a homicide, before that ruling was later changed to suicide by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office.
Police considered her death a suicide because her apartment door was locked from the inside and her boyfriend — who said he found her after breaking down the door — had no defensive wounds.
Philadelphia Medical Examiner Marlon Osbourne initially ruled her death a homicide, noting the large number of stab wounds, including 10 to the back of her neck. After police publicly challenged the findings, Osbourne switched the ruling to suicide without explanation.
That change has been the center of controversy and legal battles over the years, including a lawsuit Greenberg’s family filed against the city’s Medical Examiner’s Office in 2021 to have Ellen's cause of death changed to homicide or ‘undecided.’
Since receiving the case, Chester County officials say investigators first worked to determine if there was enough evidence to reopen the investigation by reviewing previous investigations conducted by Philadelphia Police and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.
Chester County investigators also conducted new interviews and consulted with an independent forensic expert.
After their review, the Chester County District Attorney’s Office says they determined, based on the current state of evidence, that they ‘cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed.
"This standard of proof—beyond a reasonable doubt—makes the criminal investigation different than other legal cases or issues that surround Ms. Greenberg’s death. Because we cannot meet our burden of proof with the information and evidence presently available, we placed this investigation in an inactive status," read a statement from the Chester County DA’s Office.
Chester County says that because there is no statute of limitations for criminal homicide in Pennsylvania, and because investigations can take new directions, they opted not to close the case.