A Philadelphia woman who was found with more than 20 stab wounds committed suicide, according to a new report that the woman's family called an "embarrassment."
Ellen Greenberg, 27, was found dead in the apartment she shared with her fiancé in 2011. The death was ruled a suicide, sparking a legal battle with her family, who sued the city to have the ruling changed. An independent review of the case was commissioned, but the family's hopes for a new classification were dashed in Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lindsay Simon's 32-page report that was issued this week.
"While the distribution of the wounds is admittedly unusual, the fact remains that Ellen would be capable of inflicting these wounds herself," the report states. "Many of these stab wounds would be categorized as hesitation wounds."
The report notes that no defensive wounds were found and that the fiancé's DNA was not found on the knife. Also, the report states that video evidence and keycard logs support his statements as to his whereabouts. Greenberg's fiancé had been at the gym and when he returned, he could not enter the apartment because the door was latched from the inside, something that was corroborated by witnesses including the property manager and a neighbor.
"No evidence was provided to indicate Ellen was in an abusive relationship with her fiancé," the report states. "There was no evidence of a third party being in the apartment on the day of Ellen's death."
In a statement to 6abc, the family ripped Simon's report, asserting that it ignored facts to reach a predetermined outcome.
"Shame on Dr. Simon. This report is an embarrassment to the City and an insult to Ellen and her family. Ellen's family just wanted the truth," the family said. "It is clear the truth will not come from Philadelphia's law enforcement machinery. Though Ellen's city turned its back on her, we will continue through other avenues to get justice for her murder, by any means necessary."
In the statement, the family says that evidence indicates that Greenberg could not have inflicted all of the wounds on her body herself. The family states that a 3D photogrammetry recreation showed that Greenberg could not have inflicted all of the wounds found. They also point to unexplained bruises on her body.
"Simon builds a flimsy case on distorted portrayals of Ellen's mental health, propped up by cynical distortions of Ellen's managed anxiety, a condition widely experienced daily by over 40 million Americans," the family said in the statement to 6abc.
6abc reported that the medical examiner at the time, Dr. Marlon Osbourne, initially ruled the death a homicide, only to change it to suicide two weeks later. Later, as part of the court battle between the family and the city, which was eventually settled, Osbourne said he thought that the death should be "designated as something other than suicide."
Earlier this year Hulu released a three-part documentary on the case entitled "Death in Apartment 603."
