Parents of Philadelphia trainer discovered useless with 20 stab wounds lose battle to overturn suicide ruling

The mother and father of a Philadelphia trainer who was discovered useless with 20 stab wounds greater than a decade in the past have misplaced their combat to overturn the ruling of suicide in her dying.

Ellen Greenberg was 27 years previous when her fiancé found her physique on the kitchen flooring of the Manayunk house they shared in January 2011.

She had 20 stab wounds to her physique, together with 10 to her again and neck. A ten-inch lengthy kitchen knife was embedded in her chest.

Greenberg’s dying was initally dominated a murder after which switched to suicide which sparked a 12-year lengthy mission by her mother and father to get justice for his or her daughter, who they imagine was murdered.

But on Wednesday, the Commonwealth Court upheld the attraction of the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office and overturned a decrease courtroom’s ruling that would have reopened her dying investigation, Penn Live reported.

The appellate panel dominated in a 2-1 resolution that Greenberg’s mother and father lacked standing of their lawsuit and stated that they had “no choice under the law” however to grant the town’s attraction to forestall the go well with from going to trial.

Joshua and Sandra of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, had filed a civil lawsuit in 2019 in opposition to the town Medical Examiner’s Office and pathologist Marlon Osbourne, in search of to have the way of their daughter’s dying modified again to murder or undetermined.

And whereas nearly all of the panel dominated in opposition to the mother and father, the panel stated they have been “acutely aware of the deeply flawed investigation of the victim’s death by the City of Philadelphia Police Department detectives, the City of Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, and the Medical Examiners Office, we have no choice under the law but to reverse and remand to the Trial Court for the entry of judgment in favor of the Medical Examiners Office.”

“The facts surrounding this matter are extremely disturbing and the Parents’ tireless efforts over the past 12 years to learn exactly what happened to their daughter on the evening of January 26, 2011, warrant our sincere sympathy,” Commonwealth Judge Ellen Ceisler wrote.

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“The experts they enlisted have all raised serious factual questions about Dr. Osbourne’s and Dr. [Sam] Gulino’s conclusions, and even the [medical examiner’s office] now concedes that there ‘is no dispute that evidence in the record could support other conclusions about the manner of death.’”

A blizzard pummeled Philadelphia on the night of 26 January 2011 when police arrived at Greenberg’s apartment after a 911 from her fiancé Sam Goldberg.

Police treated her death as a suicide because the apartment door was locked from the inside, there were no signs of an intruder, and Greenberg had no defensive wounds, according to previous police reports.

Mr Goldberg had come home to discover he was locked out of the apartment, and unable to use his keys because the apartment’s swing bar lock was engaged from the inside, according to an investigation report.

When he finally forced open the door, he found his fiancée’s body on the kitchen floor with her upper body propped against the cabinets and her legs splayed out in front of her, the report stated.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the medical examiner was told that authorities were “leaning” towards suicide and “mental issues” she might need had.

On March 7, 2011, the medical expert’s workplace reversed the ruling and altered the way of her dying to suicide.

Through the years, the household has fought to vary the ruling, by enlisting of their crew of specialists and conducting an investigation that disputed the ruling of suicide.

But the investigation hit roadblocks alongside the way in which because it was found Greenberg’s house was by no means sealed as a criminal offense scene and that it was cleaned earlier than the forensic crew may return days later.

Greenberg’s mother and father plan to attraction Wednesday’s resolution to the state’s Supreme Court, their lawyer Joseph Podraza advised native information.