Blue city faces calls for corruption probe in teacher's 'suicide' by 20 stab wounds case

Fox News

16-02-2025

The former Pennsylvania state trooper and private investigator who spent more than a decade digging into the suspicious death of Philadelphia teacher Ellen Greenberg wants President Donald Trump's Justice Department to launch a corruption probe into Philadelphia as he slammed Gov. Josh Shapiro over his involvement in the controversial case.
The remarks come shortly after the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy finally abandoned his highly disputed finding that her death from 20 stab wounds was a suicide.
Half of them came from behind, including one that experts say was likely inflicted after she was already dead. Dr. Marlon Osbourne, a former member of the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office who has since moved to Florida, initially ruled her death a homicide but changed his finding to suicide days later, after a closed-door meeting with police, according to court records. Details about that meeting have never been made public, and the lawyer for Greenberg's parents said no record of who took part from the police department or what was discussed inside exists.
That meeting alone is enough for a federal corruption probe, according to Tom Brennan, the family's private investigator for nearly a decade and a former Pennsylvania state trooper.
Greenberg's parents have demanded a new investigation for years. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, citing a conflict of interest due to a past attorney-client relationship with the family, kicked the case up to the state attorney general's office headed by Shapiro at the time.
Nothing happened for years under Shapiro's office, according to Brennan.
"I can't stand a lying politician," he told Fox News Digital.
Brennan spent 25 years with the state police, including eight as an undercover detective investigating white-collar crime in Philadelphia.
"Don't tell me about corruption in Philadelphia," he said. "These people are foul. They are really foul."
As recently as last week, Shapiro said his office's investigation "pointed toward a suicide" in an interview with WHTM-TV.
In July 2022, an independent journalist named Gavin Fish posted a YouTube video alleging that AG Shapiro had "a clear conflict of interest" in the case and that Greenberg's fiancé's family was among his campaign donors. The AG's recusal from the case was announced three days later. He denied having "an actual conflict" but acknowledging the "appearance" of one.
On top of that, he had hired a former Philadelphia prosecutor who had overseen Greenberg's case in the city and assumed leadership of it in his office, Brennan said, another conflict when she was tasked with reviewing her own work.
But the alleged motivation to do nothing with the case may have been as simple as winning votes, Brennan said.
"Who needed the Philadelphia police and the Philadelphia vote in order to get into the governor's office? Attorney General Shapiro," Brennan said. "This guy puts politics above everything."
Despite offering public sympathy to Greenberg's parents, Brennan said Shapiro has never had a conversation with them or their investigative team about the case.
The case ultimately went to investigators from the Chester County District Attorney's Office, who spent two years reexamining it under Democratic DA Deb Ryan. They ultimately said they did not have enough evidence to bring criminal charges against anyone.
Much of the physical evidence was destroyed by a crime scene cleanup crew before police arrived at the apartment with a search warrant. Digital evidence may have been tainted after it was removed from the crime scene by prominent Pennsylvania Judge James Schwartzman, the uncle of Greenberg's fiancé.
"This guy's a judge and an attorney. He disciplines attorneys for doing things wrong," Brennan said. "What the hell was he thinking of?"
Neither Goldberg nor Schwartzman have been accused of any wrongdoing, but multiple judges have slammed the handling of the crime scene and the forensic investigation as part of the parents' two lawsuits.
Greenberg died Jan. 26, 2011, after Goldberg called 911 and said he found her dead in the kitchen of their Philadelphia apartment during a snowstorm. There was a half-prepared fruit salad on the countertop above her, she had just sent out save-the-date notices for their expected wedding and friends and family said she had not seemed suicidal.
Goldberg said he found her after returning from the gym in their building. However, according to Brennan, the first responders who arrived found him wearing different clothes than the athletic wear he had on in surveillance video downstairs.
WATCH: Sam Goldberg, fiancé of Ellen Greenberg at the time, seen in 2011 surveillance footage
The 27-year-old teacher was covered in bruises at various stages of healing, and half of her 20 stab wounds had been inflicted from behind. There was evidence that at least one wound was inflicted after her death, the scene had been staged and that her body had been moved, according to Brennan. He said dried blood would not have dripped sideways across her face if she'd died in the position she was found. And an outside autopsy found signs of manual strangulation on top of the other injuries.
"Reviewing the file and the crime scene photographs and the medical examiner's photographs, I don't know how you come to that conclusion [of suicide]," Guy D'Andrea, a former homicide prosecutor with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, told Fox News Digital previously.
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Police have been heavily criticized for their handling of the crime scene, which was left unsecured and cleaned up by a crew called in by building management before they returned with a search warrant.
After more than a decade of trauma for the parents and a pair of lawsuits, Dr. Osbourne finally walked back the controversial suicide finding in a letter to a Pennsylvania court last month.
"It is my professional opinion Ellen's manner of death should be designated as something other than suicide," he wrote. "Since issuing the amended death certificate, I have become aware of additional information I did not have at the time of issuing the amended death certificate which may have impacted my opinion."
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Days later, the City of Philadelphia settled a lawsuit with Greenberg's parents, Dr. Josh and Sandee Greenberg, that accused local officials and the medical examiner's office, including Osbourne, of participating in a "concealed conspiracy for the purpose of disguising Ellen's homicide as a suicide," according to legal documents.
Brennan is calling for a federal probe into the investigation and city officials by President Donald Trump's new Justice Department.
"You have people who are actually trying to hide a homicide," he told Fox News Digital. "Don't you think the federal government would be interested in the corruption?
"I hope, and I pray that Trump appoints a Republican U.S. attorney in Philadelphia."
Shapiro's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.