The Bizarre Mystery Behind Hulu's "Death In Apartment 603"

On the snowy January evening in 2011, a 27-year-old first-grade teacher was found dead, stabbed 20 times in her apartment. Her death was originally ruled a homicide, but within weeks the ruling was changed, now claiming that this young woman caused her own death. So police officers who showed up there, that your daughter stabbed herself 20 times. It's ridiculous. Ridiculous. Josh, seriously, how could they have come to that decision? Nearly every single expert that has examined the evidence in this case has all come back with the same conclusion that Ellen Ray Greenberg was brutally murdered. But even with her parents fighting, for 15 years and growing public pressure, to this very day, her case remains closed. Which has led many people to believe that there is a deep rooted conspiracy within the police department, the medical examiner's office, going all the way up to the governor of Pennsylvania to cover up this young woman's death. This is the bizarre death of Ellen Ray Greenberg. My name is Brianna and I'm hot on the case. Hello, happy Friday. Thank you so much for joining me for this week's investigation. If you've been here before, welcome back. Thanks for joining me again. But if this is your first time ever joining us for an investigation, here at Hunt the Case, we talk all things true crime every single Friday. If that's something you think you might be interested in, please make sure to subscribe on YouTube and follow along wherever you get your podcasts. The case that we're covering today is one that I've personally been following for many, many years long before I even started talking about true crime on the internet. And it's a case that from the very beginning of "Hot in the Case", I have wanted to cover. And it's always been like on my list of cases to cover, but I haven't quite gone around to it. There's been a recent new documentary, a documentary series on Hulu about this case. And I also just within the last week have gotten a case suggestion to cover this case. I'm always checking my comments for case suggestions and that's how I came up with the case for this week's episode. Before we jump into this week's investigation, I just wanted to let you guys all know that while researching for this case, I did find quite a bit of conflicting information. That's something that you see a lot in true crime cases that have a lot of public eyes on them. There is, you know, quite a bit of misinformation within the true crime online space. Like always, I did my best to compile all the information that I believe to be the most accurate for this episode, but if you believe that I got anything wrong or maybe left something significant out, please just let me and your fellow detectives know down in the comments. For legal clarity, this episode contains a discussion of alleged events and is presented as commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. "Hot in the Case" is not affirming the truth of any claims discussed in this episode. Ellen Ray Greenberg was born on June 23rd, 1983 in New York City and she was the only child born to her very loving parents, Josh and Sandy Greenberg, that she was always extremely close with. Growing up, Ellen was a kind of girl. That was a huge, girly girl, but she was also super athletic. She was also really artistic. She loved art. She loved life. She was this bubbly, social butterfly that had this kind of energy that just drew people in. Ellen had this really magnetic way of just bringing people together. She was always really easy to get along with. She was warm. She was nurturing and she just had this beautiful smile. It honestly is probably one of like the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen. In 1994, when Ellen would have been around 10, 11 years old, her family picked up and moved from New York City to Harrisburg, which is the state capital of Pennsylvania. There, she attended Susquehanna Township Middle School, where she tried out for the softball team and she was actually the second pick to make the team. Things were always just easy raising Ellen. She had a great group of friends and always had a great head on her shoulders. After high school, Ellen attended Penn State as a communications major, hoping to start a career as a speed pathologist, but eventually decided that this wasn't quite the right path for her. And instead, she wanted to go to Temple, which is a university in Philadelphia, to get her teaching degree. Everyone that knew Ellen thought that teaching would be a great fit for her. She always loved children and she was always, you know, super warm and nurturing, so she eventually did go and attend Temple in Philadelphia, leaving her parents behind in Harrisburg. Ellen worked as a teacher's aid before graduating and getting a job as a first grade teacher in northern Philadelphia. Ellen was super loved by everyone at school. She was loved by the students, her co-workers and the parents, and Ellen was in a really good place in her life. In 2011, Ellen was set up on a blind date with a man named Sam Goldberg by one of their mutual friends, and the two really hit it off right away and started dating. Sam Goldberg came from a very different upbringing than Ellen did. Sam came from a very wealthy and influential family, but according to people that knew Sam, he was the kind of guy that let his families like wealth and influence get to his head. He was a pretty grounded, humble guy, people that knew him, said that he was easygoing and he was well liked. And Sam was even described by one of his former classmates as one of the cool rich kids. And the second that Ellen and Sam met, they really hit it off and they started dating and they were definitely seen as like this golden couple, this power couple. Sam was actually a bit of a hot shot, even in his early to mid-20s. He was already a producer for NBC. People that knew them said it looked like they had a very healthy relationship. Ellen's parents really loved Sam because they saw how happy he made their daughter, and even Ellen described Sam as her knight in shining armor. In 2010, after three years of dating, Sam got down on one knee and proposed to Ellen while they were on a trip in California right there on the beach. And of course, she said yes. Ellen was really excited to marry Sam and really excited to do all the wedding planning stuff. I'm in the midst of that myself. Ellen, she went and looked at wedding dresses. She tried on some wedding dresses. She booked a venue. They were going to get married at the historic Hershey Hotel. And they even booked a wedding date. They planned to get married on August 13, 2011, a day that Ellen would tragically never see. January 26, 2011 was a Wednesday and it started out like any other typical weekday for Ellen Greenberg. Ellen got up and she got herself ready for work and she was in the car driving to school by 7 a.m. and on her way to work, Ellen called her mom. And this was very normal for the mother daughter to do when they were both on their way driving into work. They would call each other, talk on the phone while driving to work to just catch up. And it was fairly normal. The conversation didn't seem weird. Nothing seemed off at all. The call was so mundane, in fact, that the two women were talking about doing their taxes. Ellen arrived at school and started teaching her first grade class with a scheduled lesson plan for that day. But it just so happened to be very snowy in Philadelphia in the days before this particular day. And on this particular day, there was actually a blizzard starting in Philadelphia, so the school closed early. This was around 1130 in the morning, but Ellen stayed behind to make sure that all of her students were picked up and were on their way home safely before she got into her own car and started driving home. And she only stopped on her way home at the gas station to fill up her car's gas tank completely up with gas. Ellen and her fiance Sam were living in a two-bedroom luxury apartment complex called the Venice Lofs in Manianc, Philadelphia. Manianc is a super cute area of Philadelphia where a lot of up and coming young couples choose to live. Ellen got back to her apartment around 1 p.m. in that afternoon. And her fiance Sam got back to the apartment around 4 o'clock. The two hung out together for a little bit. Ellen was grading papers because the first semester grades were actually due really, really soon. And then yeah, they're just hanging out together, went around 4.50 p.m. Sam decides to go downstairs to the apartment complexes gym for a very quick workout. He was only gone for about 30 minutes, but when he got back to the apartment, the door was locked. And he was unable to get into his apartment despite having his keys because the door was actually locked from the inside with one of those switch lacked locks. And Sam definitely thought that this was extremely strange because him and Ellen only ever really locked that latch lock during the night. And Ellen knew that Sam would be back in just a few minutes. He wasn't going to be at the gym for very, very long. So according to Sam, he's knocking on the door and he's calling out to Ellen to let him in, but he doesn't hear anything back. So then he starts calling and texting Ellen. In total, Sam sent Ellen nine text messages that increasingly get more frustrated. And those text messages were, hello, open the door. What are you doing? I'm getting pissed. Hello, you better have an excuse. What the fuck? Ah, you have no idea. All of those text messages were sent within just a few minutes and they would all go unanswered. So then, according to Sam, he spent about 30 minutes trying to get into his apartment before giving up and going downstairs to the lobby to try and find an employee to let him into his own apartment. And that employee, that Sam went up and spoke to, was a man named Phil. And Phil told Sam that he actually did not have the authority to unlock residence apartment doors for security reasons, but that employee Phil joined Sam upstairs and saw with his own eyes that the door was actually locked from the inside with that switch latch. And then Sam in front of this apartment employee Phil kicked the door down to get into his apartment. And that's where he found his 27-year-old fiance lying in their kitchen in a pool of her own blood. According to Sam, he was just in such a state of shock that he really couldn't comprehend what his eyes were seeing. He just saw that there was blood everywhere and Ellen wasn't moving and she was unresponsive. Now, according to phone records, Sam made two phone calls after he was calling in texting Ellen to let him in and before calling 911. Now, whether or not these phone calls were made before after he found Ellen's body is pretty up in the air and just depends on what you believe. So, in these two phone calls that Sam made between texting Ellen and calling 911, Sam called his cousin and then he spoke with his uncle, his cousin's father. Now, what's interesting about that is both of these men, his cousin and his uncle, they're both lawyers. His uncle was actually a very prominent influential attorney in Philadelphia and Sam called his two attorney family members just 17 minutes before he called 911. At 6.33pm, Sam calls 911 and he tells the operator that he thinks his fiancee may be hit her head. He doesn't know if she's still breathing, so that's when the operator instructs Sam to perform CPR and that's when Sam sees that there's a knife plunged into Ellen's chest. First responders arrived at the scene quickly. They actually arrived within five minutes of that 911 call being made, but by the time they got there, members of Sam's family were already there, which included his lawyer uncle and his lawyer cousin. Sadly, EMTs quickly pronounced 27-year-old Ellen Ray Greenberg dead at the scene. When investigators arrived, they immediately began treating Ellen's death as a self-inflicted death. Based on the fact that the door was locked from the inside and there were no signs that anyone broke in. There was no other way other than the front door to enter or exit this apartment other than their balcony, but there was a fresh layer of snow on the balcony that was undisturbed. There were no footprints on it and even if there wasn't snow, they actually lived on the six floors, so it really wouldn't make sense either way for an attacker to exit the apartment from the balcony. On top of that, Ellen suffered zero defensive wounds that you typically see in a stabbing murder. The only DNA that was found on the knife that was still in Ellen's chest belonged to Ellen, as for fingerprints, I didn't see any information on whose fingerprints were or were not on the knife. And just the fact that the knife was still left in Ellen's chest is consistent with a self-inflicted death. Like that final stab wound was the fatal one so she would be unable to take out the knife and typically in murders, killers do not leave the murder weapon like inside of their victim. There were security surveillance cameras within the apartment complex that showed the elevator and the lobby and all the entrances and exits of the apartment, but unfortunately there were no surveillance cameras actually in the hallway, so we're unable to see who might have entered or exited Sam and Ellen's apartment. But the footage from all the doors do prove that no one unusual walked in or walked out of the Venice lofts apartment building within the time that Ellen Ray Greenberg died. So right away, police concluded that Ellen brought an end to her own life. Ellen's autopsy was done the following morning and once you hear the full list of injuries that Ellen suffered, the idea that this was a self-inflicted death starts to look impossible. Ellen had been stabbed 20 times. Once in her stomach, eight times in her chest, which were the final wounds, once the back of her head that resulted in a large gash in her head that penetrated her brain and she had also been stabbed 10 times to the back of her neck. Now this does not look like any other self-inflicted death that I have ever heard about before and there are more things about this ruling that just don't make much sense. There was no note left behind which is pretty uncommon in a case like this. Evidence photos also show that Ellen was right in the middle of making herself lunch or making herself a snack when she died. There were blueberries that were in a colander right next to the sink like she was just in the middle of washing some blueberries. Right next to that was an orange that had just been cut up and Sam confirmed that it wasn't himself making himself this fruit so it had to have been Ellen. So what? She was just in the middle of making herself a fruit salad, cutting up an orange and then washing some blueberries and thought in the middle of that to grab a knife stab herself 20 times 10 times in the back of her neck and head and just the injuries that she had alone was really enough to make the medical examiner that was doing Ellen's autopsy rule that her death was a homicide and that she had been stabbed to death by another person not herself. And what is honestly so sick and I unfortunately see so often when covering cases no one from the medical examiner's office or the Philadelphia police department even contacted Ellen's parents to let them know that their daughter's death had been ruled a homicide. Instead they found out from one of their family friends that saw it reported in the media and the exact same day that the ME ruled that Ellen was murdered police allowed one of the biggest blunders in a case that I think I've ever seen. Two of Sam's relatives his lawyer cousin and his lawyer uncle called the Venice lofts to see if they could enter Sam and Ellen's apartment to get Sam one of his suits that he could wear to Ellen's funeral. The apartment complex wasn't sure if the apartment was still being secured as a crime scene so they called the police department to see if this would be allowed. Not only did the Philadelphia police departments say that Sam's family could go into the apartment only one day after Ellen died in there they told that the Venice lofts property manager that Ellen's death wasn't even a crime. Remember this is the same day that the ME ruled her death a homicide. So anyone could go into the apartment if they wanted to and they also suggested the property manager hire crime scene cleaners to go into the apartment and clean up all the blood so Sam's family wouldn't have to see it. So a cleanup crew entered the apartment and they cleaned it extensively top to bottom what was potentially a crime scene the very next day after a young woman died under very suspicious circumstances right after her autopsy concluded that her death was a murder. They cleaned that apartment before any evidence was taken or any forensic testing could be done and then after that was done Sam's lawyer cousin and lawyer uncle entered the apartment they claimed that they were only there to grab a suit for Sam to wear to Ellen's funeral but instead they left with Ellen's purse, her cell phone and both of her computers her personal and her work laptop and they held on to those items for several days before handing them over to the police. At first it was reported that Ellen's devices showed no search history for anything related to self-harm but the police would later change their story and say that there were searches for things like quick and painless methods for bringing an end to your own life. One, even if that was true and Ellen was searching for quick and painless methods to do this, stabbing yourself 20 times doesn't really line up. Does it? And two, this report was later proven false and that these searches were not actually things that Ellen was searching up herself but were actually instead what the tech world referred to as phantom searches meaning that these searches were not things that Ellen was actually googling herself and instead were like suggested searches that popped up when Ellen was searching online for possible side effects for medicine that she was prescribed in relation to like weight gain. A crime scene homicide investigation team didn't even step foot into Ellen and Sam's apartment until after it had already been cleaned and Sam's family had already been in there so any evidence that might have existed was either gone or compromised at that point. Three days after Ellen died and two days after the medical examiner ruled her death the homicide the Philadelphia police department was already trying to spin their own story about what happened to Ellen Ray Greenberg. A lieutenant for the Philadelphia Police Department said in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer that they received new information that made up more likely that Ellen took her own life, stating, "We're looking into some mental issues that Ellen might have had." And this information, this new info that they are referring to, was that Ellen had seen a psychiatrist in the months leading up to her death. Turns out, according to Ellen's parents and close friends in the months leading up to her death, Ellen changed a lot. She seemed less bubbly, less herself. And when questioned, Ellen just said that she was really stressed out with work. Being a first grade teacher definitely does not seem like a job for the week, and because first semester grades were actually coming up soon, Ellen was really stressed out the workload, and she was anxious that she wouldn't be able to get everything done in time. So in the months leading up to her death, Ellen reached out to multiple family members and multiple friends, telling them that she wanted to quit her job, move out of her apartment, and asked to go move in with them. And amongst these people were Ellen's own parents. Ellen told her parents that she wanted to quit her job, and go move in with them back in Harrisburg, which is quite a far distance away from Philadelphia where she lived with her fiance. And she had no mention if her fiance Sam would also be coming to live with them. And if anyone ever asked if everything was okay with Sam, and if he would also be needing a place to stay, Ellen apparently just wouldn't give them an answer. Ellen's parents were concerned that if she quit her first ever teaching job in the middle of the year, that she might have some trouble finding another job. So it was actually Ellen's parents idea that Ellen goes speak with a psychiatrist about the stress that she was feeling over her job. The only issue that she was having is she was complaining that she hadn't, and she was overwhelmed by the workload. That was bullshit. That was the excuse Ellen wants to come off, and the good old why, and she said that was the reason. But when Ellen passed, the teacher took over her position, said everything was a perfect order with Ellen's teaching and everything, and raised everything. There was no problem with her responsibility to her job, something else was happening. Ellen only saw the psychiatrist three times in the weeks leading up to her death on the 12th, 17th, and the 19th of January. And her psychiatrist said that Ellen was just dealing with some anxiety, and she prescribed Ellen ambient to sleep and colonipin for her anxiety. And these were the only substances that were found in Ellen's toxicology report. So it's only she was mixing a bunch of substances and alcohol. And after speaking with her psychiatrist and getting on this prescription medication, Ellen told her parents that she was feeling so much better. And even her psychiatrist noted that Ellen was showing significant improvement within her anxiety after taking this medication after speaking with her. So the fact that it seems like the Philadelphia police department is trying to use the fact that Ellen spoke with the psychiatrist three times as evidence that she took her own life seems a lot less plausible when you actually know the full story. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all-day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just plump, dewy hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Maybe it's Mabelie! I'd Ellen's parents are worried that they might have missed some signs that something wasn't right in their daughter's relationship with her fiance, Sam. Ellen never once mentioned that there was anything wrong in her relationship, and she only had nice things to say about Sam, to her psychiatrist during the three sessions, and just a few days before she died, Ellen actually mailed out the save the dates for her and Sam's wedding. But the fact that she was telling multiple people that she wanted to move out of her apartment with Sam and go live somewhere else with no mention if Sam would be coming with could definitely imply that there was something else going on, especially considering something else that the ME found during Ellen's autopsy. There were 11 bruises found all across Ellen's body that were in different stages of healing, which could be evidence that Ellen Ray Greenberg was being physically abused before she died. What was the anxiety coming from, do you know? I'm going to postulate, I guess, there were various injuries on her body that were indicative of bruises and healing. Okay, let's go back to it. So, their bruises all over her body and those bruises were from maybe days, weeks before she was attacked. They weren't part of that night. We're not part of that night. One of Ellen's best friends, a woman named Allison Stern, said that it seemed like Ellen's relationship with Sam was different in the months and weeks leading up to Ellen's death. And it really appeared that Sam was extremely controlling over Ellen. Ellen had always been her entire life a super strong, well-independent, confident, young lady. But leading up to her death, her friend Allison claims that Ellen would always need to ask Sam's permission for just about everything. Like, if they were out shopping and Allison wanted to grab lunch on a mimosa, Ellen would need to call Sam to make sure that was okay, stuff like that. Just four days before Ellen died, Allison said that there was something seriously bothering Ellen. They were out hanging out, trying on bridesmaid stresses for Allison's own wedding, and Allison said that her friend Ellen was on the verge of tears. But when she asked Ellen what was wrong, Ellen said nothing was wrong and she didn't want to ruin Allison's day. And Allison even claims that Allison brought up to her that she was concerned about how much she could actually share with her new psychiatrist, like she was holding something back during their sessions or was maybe even being dishonest with her psychiatrist. In Ellen's autopsy, the medical examiner ruled that there was an entry to her spinal cord, her cranial cavity, and nerves from the stab wounds to the back of her neck that would have made it that Ellen could no longer keep stabbing herself, like literally would have made it physically impossible for Ellen to move anymore. Which would be inconsistent with a self-inflicted death, considering that we know the last wounds were the ones made to Ellen's chest. The knife was literally bound still in her chest. So if the wounds to the back of her neck would have made it so she could move anymore, that would be undeniable proof that Ellen Ray Greenberg was killed by somebody other than herself. Well this is where things get really really strange. I'm not sure which of these two things happened first and I'll tell you why that is later. But the ME that performed Ellen's autopsy claims that he felt that he needed a second opinion whether or not those injuries I just told you about that would have made it physically impossible for Ellen to keep harming herself existed. So he reached out to a neuropathologist who examined Ellen's spinal cord and she concluded that the injuries that he saw weren't actually there. So Ellen could have physically been the one to stab herself the full 20 times. Now right around the time that probably the largest piece of physical, scientific evidence that Ellen was murdered was essentially thrown out the window the Philadelphia police department had a secret meeting with the medical examiner that performed Ellen's autopsy as well as other members of the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's office and the district attorney. And the Philadelphia police department said in this secret meeting allegedly that they disagreed with the ME's ruling that Ellen's man or a death was a homicide and asked him to change the ruling from homicide to suicide. Now it's already extremely unusual for a police department to disagree with a medical examiner's cause of death ruling and it's even more unusual for the police department to straight up ask the medical examiner to change their ruling. In all my years of telling true crime cases on the internet and all my years even before that like a decade plus of being interested in true crime and doing my own research in true crime cases I have never seen a police department just straight up ask a medical examiner to change their cause of death ruling in a case especially a case as controversial and complicated and bizarre as this one. Well within one week of that secret meeting between the police department and the medical examiner the examiner did change his ruling and to Ellen's cause of death ruling that Ellen Ray Greenberg's death was not a homicide and was instead a suicide. And once again, Ellen's poor loving parents that just lost their only child found out that third daughter's cause of death was changed to a suicide in the media. Ellen's parents were absolutely devastated by this, and for not one second that they actually ever believe that Ellen would do this to herself. So our parents decided that they would do their own investigation. Over the past decade and a half, her parents have spent nearly if not over $1 million. Hiring their own private investigators, forensic experts, their own multiple forensic pathologists, and what they have uncovered in their investigation has been astounding. And as led many people to believe, they're not only was Ellen murdered. But the Emmy, the Philadelphia Police Department, and even the governor of Pennsylvania, are all a part of an elaborate, deep-rooted conspiracy to cover up her murder. Every single forensic expert forensic pathologist has looked into the reports, the evidence, even after being told by her parents, please find us evidence that makes this suicide ruling make sense, have all independently come back with the exact same conclusion that all of the evidence is consistent with only a homicide. So not only is stabbing yourself an extremely uncommon method for taking your own life, with only about between one and three percent of all completed suicides being by stabbing, but within that already very small percentage, suicidal stab wounds can very rarely actually be like multiple. And in Ellen's case, the stab wounds the back of her head and neck, they're all coming from different directions. Which I mean if you just think about it, absolutely does not line up with self-inflicted wounds. Just think how hard it would be both physically and mentally to stab yourself 20 times. One of those stab wounds, the back of Ellen's head, penetrated her brain. And then we're supposed to believe that she stabbed herself in additional nine times in her torso after that. Tom Brennan, a private attorney with over 25 years of experience in law enforcement, offered his services to the Greenberg family for free. They're hearing about the absurdities in this case and the investigation or the lack thereof of an investigation. And he heavily criticized the Philadelphia Police Department for their rather botched investigation or again, lack of investigation. Noting that in his entire career, over 25 years working in law enforcement, he has never once seen a police report, include a cause of death before an autopsy was even done. But in Ellen's case, those investigators noted that her cause of death was a self-inflicted death before any testing or any autopsy was even done. It really seems like for whatever reason, investigators got like tunnel vision in this case. And a lot of people have theorized that they have buried a lot of evidence that Ellen was actually murdered in like a conspiracy to cover up the fact that they completely botched this case because they would make them look terrible that after this poor woman was brutally attacked and murdered her apartment, that they just let a crime scene clean up crew into the apartment and then let what a lot of people theorize could potentially be a person of interest's family members into the apartment to just take a bunch of her belongings like her laptops and her computers. It has actually come out that the first responding paramedics on the scene and the ones that actually declared Ellen dead at the scene spoke amongst themselves after walking into this scene, a scene that they believed to be a homicide and said amongst themselves that they had to rush back to the station because they thought that homicide investigators would want to question them, but those EMTs have never been questioned. There's actually some evidence that might prove that Ellen's body was even moved or staged after she died. When Ellen's body was found in her left hand was a white towel that was completely clean. Now, if we're to believe the Philadelphia Police Department that Ellen caused these injuries to herself, which resulted in a lot of blood at the scene, wouldn't you expect this white towel in her hand to at least have a single drop of blood on it? Also when Ellen was found, she was sitting on the kitchen floor in like an upright position with her back up against the kitchen counters, and then her head was slightly slumped over. But there was a trail of blood, blood coming out of her nose and going horizontally across her face to her ear, which would make sense if she was laying on the ground on her side or maybe even on her back, but if she was sitting upright, wouldn't you expect the blood to be dripping down her face? How does it make sense that she's sitting upright? Blood is trailing and going horizontally across her face. Unfortunately, because the apartment was cleaned from head to toe after Ellen died, there's no way that they can go in there now and see if there's any evidence that Ellen's body was moved or see if there's any evidence that there was blood that might have been cleaned up in the apartment. There are a few pieces of key evidence that the Philadelphia Police Department points to they say prove that there's no way that Ellen was killed by anyone other than herself. And I'm going to tell you each of these pieces of evidence and then for the sake of argument, I'm going to attempt to debunk each of them. First, being the lack of defensive wounds that were found on Ellen's body that you typically see when somebody is killed by a knife-wielding killer. Will Tom Brennan, the PI that's working for Ellen's parents, says that this could easily be explained if Ellen was attacked from behind. And she wasn't expecting it in like a blitz attack. And this makes sense considering that the first wounds that Ellen suffered were to the back of her neck and head. So let's say, just speculating, that Ellen was in her apartment and she's having a disagreement with someone. She steps into the kitchen and she has her back to the rest of the kitchen because she's washing some blueberries and she's cutting that orange. When someone comes up behind her and attacks her, this definitely could make sense because that fruit that was found on the kitchen counter that Ellen was right in the middle of preparing for herself when she died is actually right above where Ellen was found in the kitchen. It has been determined that the knife that was used to kill Ellen Greenberg was a knife from her own kitchen. It was actually in the knife block that was sitting on her kitchen counter. That knife block was actually knocked over, which could possibly indicate a struggle. And the killer could have easily grabbed that knife while Ellen had her back turned washing blueberries or perhaps the killer grabbed the knife that was already out on the kitchen counter that Ellen used to cut up her orange. The next piece of evidence is that the medical examiner got a second opinion from a neuro pathologist that concluded that there wasn't any injuries to Ellen's spinal cord, her cranial cavity or to her nerves that would have made it impossible for her to inflict all 20 wounds to herself. While that neuro pathologist was later interviewed and she claims that she never examined Ellen Greenberg's body or her spinal cord. She even went back into her own records just in case this examination just slipped her mind and she found zero records, zero reports or bills or invoices that this examination ever took place. Now that is just bizarre. Why would the medical examiner that performed Ellen Greenberg's autopsy, that originally determined that there was an injury that would have made it impossible for Ellen to inflict all 20 wounds to herself, lie and say that this neuro pathologist claimed that this wound did not exist. Maybe it has something to do with that secret meeting that the police had with this ME urging him to change his cause of death ruling in Ellen Greenberg's case. And after this lie that this neuro pathologist claimed that there wasn't an injury and after the secret meeting, allegedly, the medical examiner did change his ruling from homicide to suicide. Now all of this speculation means absolutely nothing. If that switch latch lock was locked from the inside and both Ellen's fiancee Sam and the apartment employee Phil both confirmed that the lock was locked from the inside. So if Ellen was the only person in the apartment once she died and we have two party confirmation that the lock was locked from the inside, then it's case closed. Well, you can actually find dozens and dozens and dozens of tutorials on Google and on YouTube on how to lock this exact kind of lock from the outside. But not only that, there's actually zero concrete proof that the lock was even locked from the inside when Ellen died because Sam was completely alone when he found Ellen's body. That apartment employee Phil has never once claimed that he was there when Sam found Ellen's body. He actually absolutely denies that he was there and that claim has only ever been made by Ellen's fiancee Sam and by the Philadelphia Police Department. So Balanced footage even proves that Sam did, in fact, go downstairs and spoke with Phil, but Sam went back upstairs alone and Phil was there in the lobby of the apartment the entire time. So why would somebody make something like that up? There's about a 20 to 30 minute window where we have no idea what Sam Goldberg was doing. From the time he stopped calling and texting Ellen to the time that he made that 911 call. that time is just completely unaccounted for. We do know during that time Sam made two phone calls, one two is cousin who was a lawyer, and one two is uncle who was also a lawyer. And those calls happened just 17 minutes before Sam called 911. And whatever Sam said to his attorney family members on those phone calls was enough for his family members to rush over to the apartment and get there before the paramedics even got there. And remember the paramedics got there pretty quickly within five minutes of the 911 call. And speaking of that 911 call, we now have to dissect Sam's 911 call. And I'm going to play this call for you twice. First time I want you to listen to it and try to form your own opinions of it. And then I'm going to tell you my opinions on this 911 call, as someone that has easily listened to it over a dozen times at this point. And then I'm going to play it for you a second time to see if you can hear what I'm hearing. 46-01 flat rock road, please Harry. 46-01 flat rock. Yes, it's wrong. I just went downstairs to go work out. I came back up the door was last. Mike's fiance is inside. She wasn't answering. So after about half an hour I decided to break it down. I see her now, she's on the floor, she's not responding. Okay, she breathing. Look at her chest. I need you to calm down. I need you to look at her chest. I don't think she, I really don't think she is. Listen to me, someone's on the way. Look at her chest. Is she flat on her back? She on her back, do I play her? Look at her chest and tell me if it's going up and down, up and down. I don't see her moving. Okay, do you know how to do CPR? I don't. Okay, I can tell you what to do. Okay, and so they get there. I want you to keep her feeling. Oh, God. Hello. Yeah. Hi. Okay. I'm willing to do CPR with me over the phone until they, I get, I have to, right? Okay. So get her flat on her back, wear her chest. Say, you want to rip her shirt off. Oh, shit. Okay, you can deal down by her side. Oh, my god. Ali, please. Listen, you can't freak out, sir. Okay, I'm trying not to. I'm trying not to. Her shirt won't come off. It's a zipper. Oh, my god. She stabbed herself. Where? She's going to night. Well, no. Her night's sticking out. How? What? There's a night's sticking out of her hunter. Oh, she stabbed herself. I guess. So I don't know where she's going. I don't know. Okay. Well, don't touch it. Okay. So I'm just about to let her know. You're not. I mean, what do I do? No. I mean, you can't, if the knife is at her chest, it's going to be kind of hard for you to do CPR at this time. Oh, no. Oh, my goodness. Okay. Police with operator. Is someone coming here? Yes, they are. Are you saying 46-0-1 flat right? Yes. Okay. Someone's on the way in the knife is still inside. Is there what? The knife is still inside of her. Yeah. I didn't take it out. Look at her chest or air. It looks like it's right. It looks like it's right in her heart. Okay. Someone's on the way out there. Okay. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, she's 27. 27. Is no sign of life at all. No. No. Please don't be. What? Been trying to her arm. It's not me. She responds to pain. She's Ellie. She's nice. Not her arm. Her hand is still warm. I don't know if that means, but it's blood. I mean, I know, but you can't. And the knife is still inside of her. How far can you see how far it went in? It looks pretty deep. Okay. It looks three. It's the long knife. Don't touch anything. I'm not touching anything. I can't believe this. No way. It was just you there with her. We yeah. We're the only ones here. And she ran in the door. You said, "Lancet shut." No, no. I went downstairs to work out. When I came back up, the door was latched. It was, you know, it was, you know, it was locked from the inside. And I'm yelling. And I saw him. No, no, no, no, no. So it's most kind of a break in? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, there will be when you get here because I had to break the latch, but to get in. Okay. 46-0-1 flat rock. And this is the house, right? It's an apartment. Five record, apartment 603. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, my God. Oh, my God. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Now, there's a lot to dissect in this 911 call. First, there are quite a few inconsistencies in it. Sam confirms twice that Ellen was lying on her back when we know for certain that she was found sitting upright against the kitchen counters. There's also a lot of things in this 911 call that are just pretty odd. Doing what I do, I have heard countless frantic panicked 911 calls of family members or loved ones tragically finding their loved ones deceased. And they almost always start the exact same way with these people crying, screaming to these 911 operators to come quick. They're loved ones in pain, they're, you know, bleeding, they're dead. But you don't have that in this 911 call. Sam Goldberg does not immediately jump into this call, letting them know that his fiance is on the ground covered in blood and needs help. Instead, he waits for the operator to speak to him first and ask for his address. And then Sam gives the address. Sam Goldberg then makes sure to mention that he went down for a workout in his apartment's gym. He came back upstairs, but his door was locked. He was trying to get his fiancee to come answer the door, but she wasn't answering. So then he broke the door down and then he finally mentions that his fiance is unresponsive and covered in blood. That is just way too many details that are unnecessary in a situation like this. It almost seems like Sam is trying to establish an alibi more than he's actually trying to immediately get help for his fiance. In this call, Sam claims that he has no idea what happened to Ellen at first and originally assumes that maybe she hit her head. It wasn't until the operator asks Sam to perform CPR, something that he almost sounds unwilling to do. And then when it's assumed that Sam would be close enough to Ellen's chest, that's when he just belirts out that there's a knife in her chest and she must have stabbed herself or fell on the knife. Now during my research for this investigation, I am very sad to say that while I was on the Reddit forum for Ellen Greenberg's case, I unfortunately came across a crime scene photo of Ellen's body and what Ellen looked like. I absolutely do not suggest any of you going out and searching and trying to seek out this photo, but for the sake of this retelling, I do think it's important to describe parts of what I saw. This photo was taken from quite a bit away from Ellen's body and is extremely obvious that there's a knife sticking out of her chest. In my opinion, there is no reasonable explanation that anyone that saw Ellen's body wouldn't have immediately seen this knife sticking out of her chest. Now I'll just say for the sake of argument that Sam didn't see the knife at first. I find it extremely odd that his immediate, his immediate assumption, he barely even takes a breath after he finds the knife before saying that she must have stabbed herself or fell on the knife. Not once in that entire call, the same even consider that Ellen was killed and the killer might still be in the apartment and he might still be in danger, which I personally think would be any other person's immediate thought. Holy shit, my fiance's covered in blood with a knife she's been stabbed to death. I might be in danger. There might be a killer in this apartment. A lot of people that I've heard this time on one call also agree with me that there's a certain lack of emotion with the way that Sam says certain things during this time on one call and it also sounds like he's acting or playing a part during the call. I also kind of hear and you please let me know if you also hear the same thing. It almost sounds like Sam is like chuckling or laughing slightly when he says certain things during this time on one call which I find extremely odd considering what he's saying he just came across. Now that you've heard my opinions on this time on one call I'm going to play it again for you. Let me know if your opinions have changed since the first time you just heard it. Let me know if you hear the same things that I told you. I heard and also let me know if there's anything that you hear or think about this time on one call that I haven't already mentioned. 46-01 flat rock road please Harry. 46-01 flat rock? Yes. I came back up the door and the last mic's fiance's inside so it wasn't she wasn't answering so after about a half hour I decided to break it down. I see her now just on the floor but what? She's not responding. Okay she breathing. Look at her chest. I need you to look at her chest as well. I don't think she I really don't think she is. Listen to me. Someone's on the way. Look at her chest. She's on her back so I play her back. Okay do you know how to do CPR? I don't. Okay I can tell you what to do okay until they get there. I want you to keep her safe. Oh god. Hello. Yeah. Hi. Okay. Well, I need to see you are with me over the phone. So they I get I have to right? Okay, so get her flat on her back. We're her chest. Okay, my ripper shirt off. You'll down by her side. Oh my god, Ali, please. Listen, you can't freak out sir. Okay. I'm trying not to try that. It's a zippercut. She stabbed herself. Where? She's throwing a knife. Well, no, her knife's sticking out. How what? There's a knife sticking out of her heart. I guess so. I don't know where she's going. I don't know. Okay. Okay, so I just put this letter down here now. No, I mean you can't if the knife is at her chest is going to be kind of hard for you to do CPR at this time. Oh no. Oh my goodness. Okay. Police operator. Is someone calling her? Yes, they are. You say 46.01 flat right? Right? Yes. Okay. The knife is still inside. What's her? What? Yes, I didn't take it off. Look at her chest or what air is it? Okay, someone's on the way out here. Okay, just get. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. 27. 27. No, no, no, please don't be what's been trying to her arm. It's not me. Ellie. She's nice. Not her arm. Okay, it's three minutes to long night. No way. We. Yeah, we're the only ones here. You say late to shut. No, no, I went downstairs to work out. And when I came back up the door was latched. I was, you know, it wasn't like it was, you know, it was locked on the inside. And I'm yelling. And I was talking to. No, no, no, no, no, no. No sign of a breaking. No, no time of breaking it off. There will be when you get here because I had to break the latch, but to get in. Okay, forty six or one flat rock. It's an apartment, five record apartment six or three. Oh my god. Oh my god. All right. Thank you. Like I've already said, Ellen's loving parents have spent the last 15 years investigating their daughter's death. And during that investigation, they have hired multiple of their own forensic pathologists, not only do these forensic experts conclude that there was in fact an injury to Ellen's spinal cord, cranial cavity, and that there were nerves severed, which would have likely knocked Ellen unconscious. And if it hadn't knocked her unconscious, then these injuries would have made it. So she lost her motor skills and would have made it impossible for her to inflict all 20 wounds to herself. They also found evidence that some of these stab wounds were actually post mortem, meaning that Ellen was already dead when some of these injuries were inflicted. They also believe that they see signs in her autopsy that suggests that Ellen was strangled before she died. They believe that they can see bruises on her neck that resemble fingers, like someone strangled Ellen with their bare hands. A lot of experts also argue that Ellen wasn't showing the common signs that you typically see when someone is contemplating taking their own life, with the most common sign being not making plans for the future. There are so many instances that Ellen was making plans for her future. Just a few days before she died, she mailed out the saved the dates for her and Sam's wedding. Why would she take the time to mail out these saved the dates if she knew that she was never going to get married? On the morning that she died, she called her mom and was talking about doing her taxes. On her way home from work, she filled up her gas tank completely. Why would she take the time to talk about doing her taxes if she knew she wasn't going to be there to do her taxes? Why would she take the time to completely fill up her car with gas if she knew she was never going to drive her car again? And just the fact that it was obvious that Ellen was in the middle of making herself this fruit to eat, and then in the middle of washing these blueberries and cutting up this orange, she just decides that she's going to stab herself 20 times. Ellen's parents have filed multiple lawsuits I've gone nowhere. They've petitioned the court multiple times in the fight to have Ellen's case reopened and thoroughly investigated by an unbiased team. And I've thought to have her cause of death changed to a homicide or at the very least changed to undetermined, but all of this fighting has just led nowhere. In October of 2022, they filed yet another lawsuit claiming that the botched investigation done by the Philadelphia Police Department and the Philadelphia Examiner's office was all a part of a cover-up. In October of 2022, they filed yet another lawsuit against the Philadelphia Police Department and the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's office claiming that this botched investigation was a part of an elaborate cover-up. In July of 2024, the Supreme Court granted their petition to review the challenges to Ellen's cause of death. And in December, the court heard from Ellen Greenberg's parents attorney who alleges that there is a conspiracy within the Philadelphia Police Department and Medical Examiner's office to essentially hide a homicide to cover up their botched investigation. But still, nothing has been done in terms of reopening the case and having her cause of death changed. In 2002, Ellen's parents begged the then attorney general to take on the case, but he refused, stating that there was a lack of evidence. And the reason that this is significant is because the then attorney general is actually the now Governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro. And I've already told you that Sam came from a very wealthy and very influential family. Well, there has been allegations that the Governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro is actually family friends with Sam's uncle, the same prominent uncle that was a very influential prominent lawyer in Philadelphia, the same lawyer uncle that Sam called 17 minutes before he called 911. The same lawyer uncle that then went into Ellen and Sam's apartment under the guise of getting a suit for Sam to wear to Ellen's funeral, but instead left with her computer as well as her cell phone and other personal belongings and then took days to hand those belongings over to the police. And if it is true that Josh Shapiro does have connections to Sam Goldberg's family and a lot of people do think this is true, there's allegedly photos of them together. Then that is super sketchy and is definitely a conflict of interest. I want to make it clear that I am in no way accusing Sam Goldberg of murdering his fiance Ellen Ray Greenberg. Sam Goldberg has never been listed as a suspect or a person of interest and has never been charged in anything in relation to Ellen's death. I'm just theorizing on this case based on publicly available information and it is of my opinion that there's something else going on in this case. I believe that there's a lot of suspicious things and a lot of sketchy things in this case and I definitely think that there is something more to it. I'm just not quite sure what that is. Sam Goldberg has remained silent for a very long time, but in late 2024 he did speak to CNN where he said, "When Ellen took her own life, it left me bewildered. She was a wonderful and kind person who had everything to live for. When she died, a part of me died with her. Unimaginably, in the years I've passed, I've had to endure the unimaginable passing of my future wife and the pathetic and despicable attempts to desecrate my reputation and her privacy by creating a narrative that embraces lies, distortions, and falsehoods in order to avoid the truth. Mental illness is very real and has many victims. I hope and pray that you never lose someone you love like I did to a terrible disease and then be accused by ignorant and misinformed people of causing her death, unquote. Ellen Greenberg's parents refuse to stop fighting for their daughter and fighting for the truth about their daughter's death to finally come out. Despite growing public pressure, the case into Ellen Greenberg's death remains closed and her official cause of death remains a suicide. I'm aware that this is a very controversial and complicated and bizarre case and I always welcome people to theorize and speculate with me in the comments section. But please just remember to be respectful, Ellen's parents are very much online and they do look at different YouTube videos and podcasts on their daughter's death. And the last thing I would want to happen is for their parents that have fought for 15 years for their daughter to come into my YouTube channel or my podcast and see my audience being disrespectful to them or their daughter. So just please always remember that these are real people that we're talking about these aren't characters in a movie or a TV show. These are very real people, very real tragedies and these people are quite literally going through the worst things at any part of the world. and could ever go through in their entire lives. I'm really interested, though, to hear what you believe. Do you think that Ellen Greenberg took her own life and stabbed herself 20 times? Or do you believe that there is a killer still on the loose today? I will also include a justice for Ellen Greenberg petition in the description if that's something you would like to check out as well. And that is all I have for this week's investigation. I will see you guys all next Friday when we are hot in the case once again.