Ellen Greenberg’s fiance breaks silence on ‘despicable attempts to disgrace my reputation’

The last time the public heard from Ellen Greenberg’s live-in fiance was that his 911 call as Greenberg’s lawyers say, the story set up a death investigation that was “flawed” from the start.

“She stabbed herself,” Samuel Goldberg said on the call he made on the evening of January 26, 2011.

Nearly 14 years later, Goldberg has broken his silence about Ellen’s brutal death by 20 stab wounds inside the couple’s Manayunk apartment.

IN comments sent to CNNGoldberg reiterates that Ellen took her own life in the midst of a mental crisis. He then proceeds to lash out at them—Ellen’s superiors among them—who insist she was the victim of murder inside the supposedly locked apartment with a blizzard bearing down on Philadelphia.

“Unbelievably, over the years, I have endured the unimaginable passing of my future wife and the pathetic and despicable attempts to disgrace my reputation and her privacy by creating a narrative involving lies, distortions and lies to avoid the truth .Mental illness is very real and has many victims,” Goldberg wrote to CNN for it recently published story.

Goldberg’s comments come as Ellen’s death receives more media attention than ever. Her parents, Joshua and Sandee Greenberg, have spent $700,000 to launch its own investigation into her death, file two civil lawsuits to overturn the suicide verdict in her death and hold responsible four Philadelphia officials they say conspired to conceal evidence of murder in the case.

On the blizzard-stricken evening of January 26, 2011, Sam Goldberg returned from working out in the apartment complex’s gym, only to find the door to the apartment he shared with Ellen locked from the inside. She didn’t answer his knocks and calls. Goldberg later told police he had to break the interior door latch to get inside to find Ellen slumped and bloody on the kitchen floor, a 10-inch knife sticking out of her chest.

In response to Goldberg’s 911 call, during which he repeatedly said Ellen had “stabbed herself,” Philadelphia police also treated the case as a suicide.

At the time of her death, the 27-year-old first-grade teacher from Harrisburg was seeing a psychiatrist and receiving medical treatment for anxiety. Assuming Ellen’s death was a suicide, police did not treat the bloody apartment as a crime scene that evening. The unit at the Venice Loft Condominiums was left unsealed when investigators left, and it was cleaned and sanitized the next day.

As potential evidence in the apartment was being lost, Philadelphia pathologist Dr. Marlon Osbourne’s autopsy of Ellen, who was carted off to the city morgue with the knife still protruding from her chest. Citing “multiple stab wounds by an unknown person,” Osbourne ruled Ellen’s death a homicide on January 27.

The next day, detectives returned to the scene of Ellen’s death with a search warrant and a crime scene unit – but there was nothing to search, or evidence to process. In short, any investigation into Ellen’s murder went nowhere. That’s why the alleged cover-up began Greenberg’s lawyers say.

The first of several “secret” meetings between detectives on the case, Osbourne and his boss, doctor Sam Gulino, took place in early February. On April 4, 2001, Osbourne changed Ellen’s manner of death from murder to suicide with the stroke of a pen.

It has remained that way ever since, giving rise to one of Greenberg’s lawsuits that is expected to go before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in early 2025. Meanwhile, a judge’s decision on whether Greenberg’s second lawsuit, alleging the cover-up, can proceed to trial is pending. expires on January 31, 2025.

Goldberg’s comments come amid this backdrop. Still, they have left Ellen’s parents surprised and suspicious.

When contacted by PennLive, Sandee Greenberg was reluctant to comment on Goldberg’s comments. “I’m not going to say any comments,” she said.

But later in the conversation, as Sandee recalled staying in close contact with Goldberg for more than a year after Ellen’s death, she pondered the timing of Goldberg’s comments.

“It’s very curious. I don’t know why,” said Sandee. “Why was it suddenly time for Sam to speak up?”

Sandee added that it is up to the public and the media to decide.

Joshua Greenberg was more direct in his criticism of the comments, suggesting to a PennLive reporter that the emailed response was written for Goldberg or that he had been “coached.”

“Sandee and I don’t think he wrote it himself. We just don’t think so,” Greenberg told PennLive.

In fact, Goldberg’s email to CNN makes Ellen’s death mostly about him.

It begins like this: “When Ellen took her own life, it confused me. She was a wonderful and kind person who had everything to live for. When she died, a part of me died with her.”

And it ends with a personal plea to the CNN reporter to focus the story on mental health: “I hope and pray that you never lose someone you love like I did to a terrible disease and then be blamed by ignorant and misinformed people for causing her death. If you’re really writing a true story, dig deeper and do some good by raising mental health awareness.”

Joshua Greenberg is having none of it.

Referring to the 11 bruises in various stages of healing on Ellen’s body noted in the autopsy report — and even more of Greenberg’s statements are visible in autopsy photos — Joshua Greenberg said he believes his daughter was abused and that this is connected to her murder.

However, Greenberg was at pains to point out that neither he, his wife, nor their lawyers have ever pointed a finger at Goldberg for anything.

“We haven’t charged him with anything,” Joshua Greenberg said of Goldberg. “We wish he had shown more interest in finding out who (killed Ellen). But if he thinks she committed suicide, fine.”

The CNN article clarifies that Goldberg never agreed to an actual interview, adding that his emailed response “left most … questions unanswered” — including those about Ellen’s unexplained bruises.

Early Monday, PennLive left detailed messages seeking further comment from Goldberg on his cell phone and at his email address. As of this publication, he has not responded.

Goldberg’s comments were similar to the content of the August 2022 letter from Goldberg’s family attorney, Geoffrey R. Johnson. In response to a media story about the Greenberg case, the attorney says the Goldberg family has “maintained a respectful silence about the horrific events of that day while law enforcement has done its job and correctly concluded that Ellen’s death was a suicide…”

In his letter, Johnson adds: “Ellen Greenberg was taking a variety of powerful psychoactive drugs which unfortunately caused suicidal thoughts as a side effect.”

The Greenbergs, for their part, admitted that Ellen was “struggling with something” and had seen her psychiatrist on January 12, 17 and 19. During the course of her treatment for anxiety, Ellen had been prescribed Zoloft first, and then switched to a “low dose” of Xanax. After “no success,” she was prescribed Ambien and Klonopin. This is all according to a report compiled by the late Pennsylvania pathologist Cyril H. Wecht, who was commissioned by the Greenbergs to review Ellen’s case.

For many months after Ellen’s death, Sam Goldberg would call Sandee, but never Joshua, the Greenbergs said.

Even in those early days, long before the Greenbergs opened their own death investigation and launched two lawsuits over the suicide verdict, Sandee said she made it clear to Goldberg every time they spoke that she and Joshua would never believe that Ellen took her own life.

“He called me regularly about all kinds of things,” Sandee said of Goldberg. “He’d be at a golf tournament. We’d always have a really nice conversation, but at the end of every conversation I’d say ‘you know Sam, we know this isn’t a suicide.’

What would Goldberg say then?

Nothing turns up.

“There was going to be a long silence,” Sandee told PennLive.

It is a silence that Sam Goldberg has now broken after almost 14 years.

READ PennLive’s three-part special report on the Ellen Greenberg case:

Part One: Ellen Greenberg died of “suicide” with 20 stab wounds. Her parents are out to prove that it’s impossible

Part Two: The Greenberg’s private detective uncovers a potential bombshell that Ellen was likely dead when one of her supposed self-inflicted stab wounds was inflicted – and Philly ME officials knew this.

Part Three: The Greenberg’s investigation focuses on each of Ellen’s 20 stab wounds, along with her multiple bruises, old and new.