Stray Garfield

On January 26, 2011, a snowstorm hit Philadelphia hard enough that schools let out early. Ellen Greenberg was 27, a first grade teacher. She was engaged, planning a wedding, and living with her fiancé in an apartment in the Manayunk neighborhood. That afternoon, her fiancé went down to the building's gym. When he came back up, he couldn't get in. The apartment door was locked with the swing bar latch, the kind that can only be fastened from the inside. He called her. Texted her. Emailed her. For about half an hour. No answer. He finally forced the door open. Ellen was in the kitchen, slumped against the cabinets. A 10 inch knife was buried in her chest. She had been stabbed 20 times. Including wounds to the back of her head and neck. She also had bruises in different stages of healing. The medical examiner who did the autopsy ruled it a homicide. Then, after meeting with police, he changed it. Suicide. Police pointed to that latched door. No sign of forced entry. No sign anyone else had been there. They said she'd been under stress and anxiety in the weeks before. Her parents were devastated. How does someone stab themselves in the back of the neck? Twenty times? They spent years and hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting the ruling. Forensic experts sided with them. Even the original medical examiner later said in a sworn statement that he no longer believed it should be called a suicide. In 2025, the city settled their lawsuits and agreed to a fresh review. The new review came back in October 2025. Same answer. Suicide. Then this January, something nobody expected. Federal prosecutors started issuing subpoenas to the Philadelphia police and other agencies involved in the case. By spring, FBI agents were interviewing witnesses. Her fiancé has never been suspected of wrongdoing. Nobody has ever been charged. 15 years later, Ellen Greenberg's death is still officially a suicide. Her parents still don't believe a word of it.