True Crime with Kendall Rae - The Bizarre Death of Ellen Rae Greenberg… Featuring Family and PI

Episode Date: September 7, 2023

Ellen Rae Greenberg was a 27-year-old first grade teacher in Philadelphia when she was found stabbed to death in her home in 2011. Despite there being no suicide note, the crime scene was treated as a suicide. However, police started looking at the case differently when things weren't really adding up. GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/justice-fo... For any questions, and to send the family words of support, please go check out the Justice For Ellen Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/JusticeForEl... Sign the petition to urge the courts to reopen Ellen's case! http://bit.ly/2WCHdyo Follow them on Twitter! https://twitter.com/JusticeForEllen Donate to NCMEC through my campaign! https://give.missingkids.org/campaign/kendall-rae/c438796 This episode is sponsored by: Rocket Money PrettyLitter - promo code: kendallrae Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

At TD Small Business Banking, we know that small business takes vision and determination. And while you can small business from the office, a home, the cab of a rig, or the departure gate of an airport, it's always easier to small business with banking advice and support built around you. That's why we're ready to help you small business even better with industry and region-specific advice. Book your appointment at TD.com slash do you small business today. Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. So today's video is very exciting because it is a family involved video, which means this family contacted me through my submission form that I have

in the description box, and asked me to take a look at this case, and when I looked at it, I definitely was very intrigued and surprised that this case isn't more well-known. Today we're going to be talking about Ellen Greenberg's case, and her family has sent in a few clips for us to share today. And of course, I will still be telling the whole case as normal, you know, most of the details will come from me. However, I personally really think it helps to connect more with a victim to hear from their loved ones, from their family members, from their friends, people who knew them best. Let's go ahead and get into this case. So this is Ellen Ray Greenberg, also known as Ellie.

She was born on June 23rd, 1983 in New York City. She's the only child of Joshua who was a paradigmdist and also Sandra Greenberg who was a dental hygienist. As a child, Ellen was a little girl. She was very girlish. She was into all the girl-type things. She was very athletic. When we moved from girl is she was into all the girl type things. She was very athletic. When we moved from pentathlon to Jersey to Harrisburg and they had trials for softball and she was the second pick. She's described as an incredibly kind and nurturing soul so it was no surprise when she went into teaching as a profession. And people who knew Ellen said that she just had an incredible energy about her. Her family often talks about her beautiful smile and also her deep laugh. Ellen also grew up very close to her parents and had a very good relationship with them.

Ellen got into teaching because she loved children. She had tried to do a speech pathology masters but it wasn't for her. So she picked up her stuff, moved to Philadelphia and went to her teaching certificate, her specialty in reading, and she stood for it in Philadelphia while we were still in Harrisburg. Ellen really loved children so she naturally was good at being a teacher and her students really liked her. In fact, I even read a few online posts from people who had her as a teacher and I bet some of you out there may have even had Ellen Greenberg as a teacher and I'm so sorry for your loss because she seemed like a wonderful person.

Everyone just raped about her. Eventually Ellen met this guy named Sam who worked in the TV industry and he actually worked as a producer for NBC. So a pretty big job. After they were together for a little over three years, they decided to get engaged. And they were really, really excited, especially Ellen. She was really happy throughout this whole time of her engagement and they planned for their wedding to be in August of 2011 and Ellen was really really excited about it. Ellen did eventually find someone that she loved and they got

engaged. His name was Samuel Gober. As a father what can I say about a son-in-law? There's a term in golf called a son-in-law. A son-in-law is when I hit the bull into the rough, but I still can hit it far enough to get it on the green, so I feel it's something I can work with. When she got engaged, I was hoping she would be happy. I cannot tell you about my future son-in-law more that my daughter improved, my daughter loved her's seen he seemed to be a nice person. She was excited about the wedding.

We were gonna have a big wedding at the Hershey Hotel, which is a landmark hotel here in Central Pennsylvania. Very nice wedding was gonna be with a lot of people. So it was January 26, 2011. It was just a normal morning and while Ellen was on the way to work, she spoke to her mom and they had a pretty typical conversation. They also talked about Ellen's taxes because tax season was coming up and she just told her a few pointers and things she needs to get in line

to make sure she's all good to go for taxes. And that day was very snowy outside. A huge storm had just come in. It started to get worse and worse throughout the day and eventually the school was Disminced early for the day. So this meant Alan would be going home early that day Alan helped all her students call their parents make sure that they had it right home and then she herself Headed out on the way home. She stopped at a gas station and she filled a partink all the way and then she went back to her

Love she and Sam were living in the way and then she went back to her loft. She and Sam were living in the Venice lofts in lower northwest Philadelphia. So she got home, Sam also got home and the two of them were together until 445 when Sam left the loft and went to go work out in their complex gym. So Sam went and did his workout and he was only there for about 30 minutes. Afterwards he walks back to their apartment but when he gets to the door he realized it's locked. This was really unusual. I mean he was just at the apartment, he knows that Ellen was home, he thought it was strange, and he does have a key, he can unlock it. But what was strange was that he was locked with a swing lock. And this is something that you know they only did at night to keep

himself safe, but Ellen was home and she knew that he was at their gym and that he'd be back very soon, so he thought this was weird. These days, it feels like there is a subscription for everything. It's honestly insane. I have subscriptions going for everything, for apps, for streaming services, for workout equipment, for meal kits and cleaning supplies. It's truly overwhelming. And if you're like me, I guarantee you have a subscription going that you may have forgot about. And in some cases, we end up paying twice for subscription and don't even realize it. And that's why I'm so glad I found rocket money because I was able to see all my

subscriptions in one place, see how many I have, cancel any that I don't need anymore, don't want anymore, and I can do it all through rocket money. They're able to cancel your subscriptions for you, which is otherwise tricky and time-consuming. Because of course, all those companies want to make it as hard as possible to cancel your subscription. Rocket money is a personal finance app that finds and cancels your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps you lower your bills all in one place. With rocket money, you can easily cancel the subscriptions that you don't want anymore with just a press of a button.

No more long hold times, no annoying emails with customer service, Rocket Money does all the work for you. And Rocket Money can even negotiate to lower your bills for you by up to 20%. All you have to do is take a picture of your bill and Rocket Money takes care of the rest. Rocket Money also allows you to monitor all your expenses in one place, recommends custom budgets based on your past spending, and they'll even send you notifications

when you've reached your spending limits. With over 3 million users in counting, RocketMoney customers have saved an average of $720 dollars a year. So stop wasting your money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and manage your money the easy way by going to RocketMoney.com slash Kendall Ray. That's rocketmoney.com slash Kendall Ray. Rocketmoney.com slash Kendall Ray. So he texts her. He says, Hello, open the door. What are you doing? I'm getting pissed. Hello, you better have an excuse. What the fuck? You have no idea. So eventually Sam decided that this was just incredibly unusual and he started to worry. So he went and talked to the security guard at their apartment complex who told him that, you know, I can't

let you in there. I can't unlock the door for you. That's just against policy for safety reasons. So Sam decided the only thing he could do in the situation was break in. And he actually brought the security guard with him and his name is Phil Hanton, he was 67 years old and Sam actually was the person that broke down the door. And when Sam opened that door, he was shocked to find Ellen was on the floor of their living room and clearly was dead. As soon as you walk into their apartment, their kitchen is pretty much right there. And as soon as Sam looks over, he sees that Ellen is on the floor, but she is propped up against the cabinet,

so her upper body is leaning back against the cabinet. And she's kind of slouched down with her feet displayed out in front of her. And what was strange is in Ellen's hand was a completely clean, pristinely clean, white towel. Of course, they immediately called police and Dispatch told Sam to start doing chest compressions, you know, do everything he can to save her. And he did start doing CPR however, during that process he noticed that there was a knife still launched inside of her

and so Dispatch obviously told him to stop. Sam stopped, he was totally freaked out, and when police got there, they came in and took a look at the scene and could tell. She was gone, there was nothing that could be done. And Ellen was tragically pronounced dead at 6.40 pm there in her kitchen. So pretty much right away, the police treated this as a suicide.

But whatever happened, it looked like Ellen was about to start having some fruit before it happened There was a strainer filled with blueberries that she had just washed and she had also just sliced some oranges And they were just sitting there open and there were also two completely clean knives in the sink Just lying there also after you know checking the premises and looking at all of the entry points They determined that no one had broken in and they also found no evidence that Ellen herself had tried to leave at any point. So their apartment complex has surveillance cameras at the main entrance, but they do not have any in the hallway leading up to the apartment.

And after they interviewed people that worked there, no one had noticed anything, no one had seen anyone strange coming into the apartment. They also interviewed, you know, neighbors and no one heard any type of disturbance other than Sam, loudly banging on the door to get in. And I'm sure a lot of you are already wondering what she had exactly as far as injuries. Did she have any possible defense wounds? And the answer is no. And before I go further, I just want to let you know that we will be talking about the condition of her body quite a bit. It's pretty important for this case and some of you might find it disturbing.

There were no signs on Ellen's body that she had tried to fight anyone off and there was also no blood found outside of the kitchen. Also, they tested the knife and it ended up only having Ellen's DNA on it. Also, their apartment was on the sixth floor and there was no sign that anyone had like climbed up there and broke into the apartment that way. There was no footprints in the snow. So of course, police are thinking suicide and a lot of people with the information I've given so far would think maybe this was a suicide but let's continue to go into things here. So the day after Ellen's death the medical examiner started their autopsy. So there were eight stab wounds to her chest area

and they ranged in how deep they went. Some of them only went point to centimeters while others, the one that the knife was still in went four inches deep. She also had a two inch stab wound to her stomach and she had a two and a half inch gash on her scalp. And this is what really makes it hard to believe that this was a suicide.

She had 10, 10 stab wounds to the back of her neck. There were also 11 bruises on Ellen's body that were all over the right arm, her abdomen and her right leg. Some of these bruises were new that looked like they had just been there in the last couple of days, but some of them looked older, like they had been there for a few weeks. They also noted that these bruises could have come from the physical activity that she did at her yoga class.

When the ointopsies were done, injuries, wounds were found on her body in different stages of healing. That could only have been done by abusive person. Detective said they were the wounds of a yoga or our Pilates. Ellen never took yoga Pilates. How could he possibly say that? So at the end of the autopsy,

the medical examiner actually ruled this homicide. Now, it's crazy is no one from the medical examiner's office or the police station ever contacted Ellen's family. Her parents, Josh and Sandy found out about this news that this was declared a homicide by the medical examiner from their friends who had seen it on the news. That type of thing is just so frustrating. I understand communication fails happen all the time, but with something like this, how can every single last detail not be clearly communicated to the family members of a victim? It's just, it's trash to me. Ellen's parents were just absolutely devastated by the news of Ellen's death. They just could not believe that it was even possible that she could have committed suicide. The Greenbergs,

how the Ellen's funeral in the Beth L Temple in Harrisburg. And when they were there, Josh ended up telling a bunch of their friends and family that her death had been ruled a homicide. Obviously, people hearing this, friends and family, are really, really upset, concerned, and hoping that the answers, the truth, comes out. So once this case was ruled a homicide, the Philadelphia homicide unit decided to step in and take a look at the case further. They were able to look at Sam's key fob records and track exactly where he went. They were also able to compare his timeline that he had given them to security videos that they had.

And after they did that, they said that everything that Sam had said matched up. It checked out. Also, the security videos showed that no one unauthorized exited or entered the complex during the time of Ellen's death. So then only a few days later on January 29, 2011, the police announced that even though the medical examiner had ruled this, a homicide, they were still going to be looking at this as a suicide and they were looking into Ellen's background and her mental health history. And when they looked more into her background and talked to family and friends and just kind of got an idea of what her life was like at this time, they found that a month. She was very friendly, she was very warm, but lately she was very shut down and she was very anxious. They said she always seemed to be worried

about something that she was extremely unsettled, and when they would ask what exactly was wrong, she would just say that she was stressed out about her job. So they interviewed some teachers that worked with Ellen and asked her if she seemed really stressed out with the job and everyone said that she didn't seem anymore stressed out than any other teacher in the building was. Teaching is a stressful job, but Ellen seemed to love her job. She loved the kids she worked with, so everyone at the school was really surprised. As many of you know, I have a lot of pets, 10 pets to be specific and they're all mammals, so they all create a lot of mess. Keeping our house clean and smelling fresh is really hard to stay on top of, but that's

why we're so glad we found pretty litter. Nothing beats pretty litter's ability to instantly trap odor. It's ultra absorbent, it's lightweight, it's low dust, and one six pound bag works for up to a month without clumping. That means no more wasting litter. But above all else, for me, the best thing that we get from PrettyLitter is the peace of mind, because PrettyLitter's crystals change colored indicate early signs of potential illnesses in my cats, like urinary tract infections, kidney issues, and more. I have three cats, I love them so much, but they are all over the age of 10 now, and so making sure that they're healthy is a top priority for me. But Pretty Liter is

also convenient. It ships right to your door, so I never run out. I don't have to have huge kitty litter bags taking up space, and even better, I don't have to lug those huge tubs from the store to my car, and then into my house. Pretty Liter is by far the best litter that I've ever used, and you'll love it too. Go to pretty litter.com slash kennel ray and use code kennel ray to save 20% on your first order. That's pretty litter.com slash kennel ray code kennel ray to save 20% on your first order. Pretty litter.com slash kennel ray code kennel ray terms and conditions apply see site for details. for details. She was getting up and going to work every day, functioning, but stressed.

But then they found out that Ellen around this time had been telling her parents that she wanted to quit her job and she actually asked them to move back into their home with them in Harrisburg. They wanted to ask her if there was anything else that was causing her to be upset like this, but she just said she was stressed out and she wanted to ask her if there was anything else that was causing her to be upset like this, but she just said she was stressed out and she wanted

to come home. After a while she talked about coming home and leaving her job in Philadelphia as a elementary school teacher, we were very upset about that. I was upset about that because as a father, I didn't want her to walk away from a job that she could

lose and not have to deal her record that she walked away from a job. They thought this was odd, especially because she was supposed to be getting married that August. She was even working on Save the Date cards, and the wedding was going forward, and according to Ellen, everything was good with Sam. Even though she wanted to come home, Ellen was still planning to go to have the wedding. She had just sent out the holder date cards. I knew something was different in my daughter. She wasn't the same. She was just different. I can't put my foot on it.

I don't have experience in psychology or psychiatry. And I don't have enough to say. But I knew it's something had changed. Her parents were still really concerned. They said that this seemed to be a big change in Ellen, and they wanted her to see a psychiatrist. So that's when she ended up going to see Dr. Burman. So we Ellen and I made a deal. Ellen would go see a psychiatrist because I also thought things had changed in her personality. I didn't know what, but I think this whole thing

was some sort of change. And she saw Dr. Ellen Burman, I think with three visits. The progress there was making seemed good, Ellen seemed happier. Dr. Burman and her notes, which we have copies of, said that Ellen was not suicidal. We also now have Dr. Burman's diagnosis for having a adjustment disorder with anxiety. This is not something that you commit suicide over. She blamed her feelings with going to the home on her job that causing her anxiety. But after her death,

when Ellen's job was taken over by another teacher, that teacher could find nothing wrong in Ellen's lesson plans or what have you. Her book can keep everyone's immaculate. She cared about the children. Sadly, I'm sure many of you can relate to Ellen in this situation. I know myself, I have struggled with depression,

anxiety, mental health is a very hard battle to fight. And sometimes it can feel like you're fighting alone. So Dr. Burman ended up putting Ellen on a few different medications for the issues that she was experiencing. She was on the anti-anxiety drug, clonipin, a very common antidepressant called Zoloft Ambien, which is a sleep aid and Xanax, which is another anti-anxiety drug.

And these drugs do list suicidal thoughts and behaviors as possible side effects. But it should be noted that only clonipin and Ambien were found in Ellen's system at the time of her death. And there were no other drugs found in her system, nothing recreational, or anything that she was taking that wasn't prescription, nothing like that. Now some have definitely theorized. It is a big topic of conversation that maybe these drugs caused Ellen to do this.

And the biggest one that is brought up for this is definitely Zoloft. I am not a doctor. I don't feel like I should be giving any personal opinion on Zoloft. I myself have been on antidepressants, but I will say that I've heard of many, many cases where they have considered Zoloft a possibility

as to why someone did something or harmed themselves or harmed someone else. It's always brought up. Whether or not it actually is a reason why these things happen, I am not sure. I just wanted to share that information. And I also wanted to make it clear that Ellen's parents do not believe this is the case and either do the experts that you know are on their team Also, they make the point that Ellen was looking forward to her future at the time She was planning a wedding You know, she did have a lot to look forward to and she said she was happy with Sam however

We don't always know what's truly going on. And it's proven over and over again that even if someone seems okay or planning for the future or excited that sometimes they can experience suicidal thoughts or commit suicide. I'm not saying that that's the case here. I'm just saying that that is possible and I don't wanna be like, oh well,

she wasn't acting suicidal or she was planning for the future. Therefore, she definitely couldn't have committed suicide. And I'm not saying that it's true in this case. I just wanted to say that. I think it is commonly misinterpreted that if someone seems okay, then there's no way that they could have still committed suicide. You know, some people don't show signs the way that others do. Just wanted to put that out there. Also, after they looked through her phone and her personal records, they didn't find anything suspicious there, you could say. But to me, and to so many others and

to Alan's family, it's the physical evidence that makes it so hard to believe that this could have been a suicide. It's obviously very hard. I mean, the door was locked, and it was locked from the inside. It happened in a very short period of time, you know, Sam had just seen Alan alive. There's no video of someone coming in and out, so you really start to think suicide, but what gets me is the physical evidence. She has stab wounds to the back of her neck, several that are to an area that just do not seem to align with suicide. First of all, I think most people can agree that stabbing yourself in the back of your neck would be extremely difficult to do. And it is also extremely uncommon and just unlikely. I looked it up and I found that about one to three percent of suicide attempts are by stabbing.

And normally, the actual mortality rate for these types of suicide attempts is very low. I think we could all agree that it's just a bizarre way to end your life if that's really what happened. And it seems weird to stab yourself multiple times. I hate to be graphic, but wouldn't you just stab yourself in an area that you knew was for sure gonna do it, not torture yourself? It doesn't make sense, but the police believe that it was a suicide,

and even after the Medical Examiner's report, they said this is a suicide, and they believe that these smaller, shallower puncture wounds were just tests by Owens. So detective John McNeighney suggested hiring an outside neuropathologist to review a portion of Alan's spinal cord to determine if it was damaged by any of the wounds to the back of her neck. And this is important because if the wounds to the back of the neck

damaged her spinal cord to a certain point, she would not have been able to make the final stab into her chest, was they determined that that was the one that killed her. And the neuropathologist who conducted this exam told the police that the spinal cord was hit, but that the cord was not severed. So they essentially came with the conclusion that this caused out to go numb, which makes the idea of her stabbing herself in other areas more believable. This could have allowed her to repeatedly stab herself without

feeling as much of the pain, and because of the latest findings and the police report, medical examiners ended up reversing her manner of death and changed it to a suicide. And again, Ellen's poor family found out about this through the media, the police didn't even bother to call them. I just don't understand how that can happen. And they were absolutely shocked and devastated by this and they still believed there was just no way that Ellen did this to herself, that she stabbed herself in the back of the neck, that she stabbed herself so many times. I neck, that she stabbed herself so many times. I mean, if she really did this, that means she stabbed herself 20 times. So her family doesn't

believe it, and I completely understand why they feel that way. So after thinking about it for months and after, you know, just processing their grief, the Gringbergs decided that they needed to fight for their daughter, and they launched their own quest for answers. They ended up purchasing Ellen's autopsy, which I didn't really see even had to purchase an autopsy, but they also purchased photos from the autopsy and photos that they took of her body at the scene and photos from the medical examiners' report. And they sent everything to a man named Cyral Weck. And he's a forensic pathologist in Pittsburgh who is known as the one who challenged the single bullet theory of the John F. Kennedy assassination, which is very, very interesting that they went to him. I've

heard his name before. And when he looked over all the reports, he was shocked to find that Ellen had so many stab wounds. I mean, that's just the craziest part. It's one thing to stab yourself. That is very rare. But to have so many stab wounds, I mean, that's just the craziest part. It's one thing to stab yourself. That is very rare. But to have so many stab wounds, including the ones on the back of your neck, that's what really struck him as incredibly odd. And after looking at everything, he just said, I don't understand how they could have ruled this a suicide. And that's how I feel. Maybe it's possible that it's a suicide. Yes, I agree that it's possible, but I don't think you can say without a doubt that that's what it was.

One disadvantage that they had is the detectives wouldn't allow him to have a copy of their files. So who knows what other information could have been useful for him in there. And the Greenbergs also hired a private attorney who had experienced working with police being difficult. He's a civil rights lawyer named Larry Krasner and he believes that there are substantial questions

that remain unanswered in Ellen's death. And in May of 2012, he organized a meeting with the Greenbergs, with the police and also with the representatives from the District Attorney's Office in an effort to get the investigation reopened. But sadly, nothing came out of this meeting. They just kept going in circles and could not seem to agree. The family was mostly frustrated because they really wanted to at least have the records that the police had. I don't understand. My families

don't just get everything that is available. They should. But their family had to file a public records request to get her files. And at first, they were turned down, which is incredibly disappointing, but eventually the police did allow them to look at the facts. What was so frustrating is they didn't allow them to make any copies. They had one chance to sit down and look at it. They couldn't take any pictures. They couldn't write anything down. You know, they had to just absorb as much as they can. Medical Examiner and his office and the police to just absorb as much as they can. Medical examiner and his office and the police and the district attorney at the time

and the attorney general have fought us to get to the truth about my daughter. I have a special place for the attorney general because I feel he had let us down. But as the father of a victim of a homicide, I think he will always wear the stain of this terrible conclusion that he's drawn and he's putting it up to the public that he did a thorough examination and this was a homicide.

I can't believe this. I find it very difficult and I will never forget that he did that. So at this point the greenbergs are feeling incredibly frustrated. The whole community behind the greenberg family is just feeling like maybe there's no hope, but then luckily they ended up finding someone else to work with. This is Tom Brennan, I'm the lead investigator in the Eleanor Ray Greenberg case. And he is a retired 25 year state police veteran and former chief and he decided to work for the case for free.

So he looked at everything and one thing that he brought up that was very interesting was it's not a done deal when someone doesn't have any defense wounds. It doesn't mean that it is definitely suicide. He brought up that he had worked on several cases or had even heard of other cases where someone was stabbed to death but they did not have any defense wounds whatsoever. He said it's specifically known as something called a blitz attack, which is where you attack the victim with such surprise and so fast that they barely see it coming, they barely know what's happening. Someone comes up to you, it comes up to you, and

says, Stabby, it stabs you from behind, and you can't defend yourself. And I think the police term for that is a blitz attack. That's what our consultant, Tom Brennan, called to us the name of it was, and he's a former state trooper, well-decorated, consultant, Tom Brennan, called the tallest name of it was, and he's a former state troublemaker, well-decorated, and in fact, he's called the legend here in Central Pennsylvania. And the legend here in Central Pennsylvania. is home to your personal podcast library. Subscribe today and get your first four months free on the Series XM app.

Enjoy hundreds of expertly curated podcasts, including Series XM exclusives ready to be explored. Tales of True Crime, A-List's Liberty Hosts shows devoted to health and wellness and popular podcasts from top providers and there's so much more. You'll find something to binge on every day of the week. Download the Series XM app and subscribe now providers and there's so much more, you'll find something to binge on every day of the week.

Download the SiriusXM app and subscribe now to dive into the SiriusXM podcast universe and hear what's possible. Visit SiriusXM.ca for offer details. SiriusXM, everything you want to hear, lives here. If you want to drop the references, they will get you referenced. The SiriusXM app is home to your personal podcast library. Subscribe today and get your first four months free on the Sirius XM app. Enjoy hundreds of expertly curated podcasts including Sirius XM exclusives ready to be explored.

Tales of True Crime, A Less Celebrity Hosts, and so much more. You'll find something to binge on every day of the week. Visit SiriusXM.ca for offer details. SeriousXM. Everything you want to hear lives here. Also, the crime scene photos showed a stream of blood running horizontally down Ellen's cheek. This was actually going from the side of her nose down her left cheek to her ear, but if you remember her body was found

Sitting upwards. She was leaned up against the cabinet. So how would that motion happen? It would mean that she would have had to be lined down at some point. In 2015 a Philadelphia homicide prosecutor named Guidee Andrea Philadelphia homicide prosecutor named Guidee Andrea, reviewed Ellen's entire case file. And when he looked through the file, he said that he could not find a neuro pathology report. So he requested one from the police and the medical examiner's office and get this. They said it either couldn't be found, we just lost it, or it just doesn't exist, meaning we didn't do it. Now this was extremely disappointing for everybody because this is a very important report. I am he enters down private practice

and he has reviewed the case. And if you go to oxygen or you talk to guy, you'll find out what he thought was wrong with the case. Also, they found out that the medical examiner did not even have one on staff at the time of Alan's death, but they did have someone that could work on the spine, but there was no request for them to look over Ellen's spinal columns at all. So there's still the question of whether or not the stab wounds to the back of Ellen's neck severed or damaged

her spinal cord. And even though the prior medical examiner said that they didn't, which would allow Ellen to keep functioning, possibly continuing to stab herself while she's numb. Ellen's family just has a really hard time believing them. So then Tom Brennan, that place officer that was working for them for free, ended up finding out that they had a piece of Ellen's spinal cord saved at the medical examiner's office. So he got in contact with forensic pathologist Wayne Ross to examine it, and he concluded something completely different than the first pathologist. He said that one of the stab wounds penetrated Ellen's cranial cavity and severed the cranial nerves and brain, and as a result she would experience severe pain, and she would have been impaired severely if not completely have lost her consciousness at that point.

And he also reported that there were signs of strangulation. There was a stab wound in her an upward direction into her skull. It severed her spine and damaged her brain, which would make her unable to do these things. Twenty stab wounds, 10 to the back, one of which severed her spinal column in an upward trajectory. Imagine how hard it would be, not just from a mental standpoint, but a physical standpoint to thrust a knife into your body. The knife that was found in her chest was with her left hand, how it was right handed. In addition to this, Henry Lee, who testified for the defense at O.J. Simpsons murder trial,

also reviewed the medical examiner's files. And he concluded that the number and types of wounds and bloodstained patterns observed are consistent with a homicide scene. But of course, that leaves us with the question of if this was homicide, how did the door and dutch like that? This was a big latch that you can only latch from the inside. It's so confusing. However, Tom Brennan brought up the fact that there are tons of videos online showing various methods of manipulating swing bar locks from the outside so it's possible for someone

to be able to lock the door from the outside. Also, her stab wounds were through her clothes, which is not typical from people that do take their own lives through stabbing. Normally they will lift the clothing item up. However, one thing that I have to note here and is crazy that the medical examiner missed this at first. They were the ones that said that there was nothing on her phone or her computer that was concerning or a red flag. But there definitely was. They ended up having some computer forensic experts look at her computer and they found some pretty disturbing things. They found the search terms, quick suicide, painless suicide, and suicide methods. The only evidence that I can think of that

can say this was a suicide was apparently on Ellen's computers. There were searches for painless suicide. In fact, that was the main basis of the attorney general when the case was thrown up there. When the attorney general got the case, I as being represented by former attorney general, number one, they had a meeting in the attorney general's people who were former people in Philadelphia. So they're just reexamining their own case, which I'm sure would have a bias. Number two, they said things that were impossible that they examined the computers.

Well, they came on a case in 2018, and the computers were locked up from 2015. And when the police were asked to know how they could have missed something like that, they basically said that they didn't find the analysis in the DA's file. So they cannot say if anyone, police or prosecutor ever even looked at it.

So basically the green berks are dealing with incredibly bad police work. I don't trust the Philadelphia police at all. I don't think very much of them. I think they have fought us every which way to prevent us from getting to the truth or what I think is the truth Or was there original truth by that?

I mean the original medical examiner diagnosis of the math cause a matter of death was a homicide We did or for the attorney general Josh Shapiro All of the mountain of evidence of experts. We had an evidence We had to show that this was a homicide he declined declined. He declined. He even speak to the experts about this. They also looked into Ellen's texts and Ellen had texted her mom on January 8th saying, I'm starting the med. I know you don't

understand, but I can't keep living with feeling this way. Nine days later, Ellen also texted her mom and said, Kalanipin helped. Thank God. Her mom said, so happy for you. She said, me too. Oh my God. And the day before Ellen's death,

Sandra texted her and said, you need to see a professional. And Ellen replied, okay, I'm trying. Just scared a bit for everything. So as time went on, the family still got no definitive answers on pretty much all of their questions. In October of 2019, the family filed a civil lawsuit against the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's office and the pathologist that conducted that first autopsy and they were hoping to get the medical

Examiner's office to change their rolling from undetermined to homicide They also believe that the medical examiner's office was basically pressured into agreeing with the police and changing their finding to undetermined. The police coerced Dr. Osborne to change that to a suicide, but that is not the police's job. The job of the medical examiner is to determine the cause of a matter of death. And even the journalist covering this story commented in the paper that this is a rare occurrence when the police do not support the medical examiner's opinion. To this day, their lawyers and everyone on their team, and of course their family just says,

it's not possible that Ellen gave herself 20 stab wounds to them. And I think to so many others, this just does not make sense. Also, one thing that they pointed out in their lawsuit is it turns out that Ellen had two types of wounds from knives. Some of them are from a smooth knife and some are from a serrated knife. Experts on the case argue that especially the wound on her head seems to definitely be from a serrated knife and the rest are from the smooth knife. So they think that there were two knives involved. So there's just plenty of questions that need to be answered.

They argue that since that other knife is not anywhere to be found, that someone could have disposed of the knife. And of course we have the question of Sam. I'm sure a lot of you are wondering, what do they think of Sam? Well, the family really likes Sam. They really liked him in the beginning.

They had to get impressions of him. They have still talked to him and Sandy actually said she is brought it up to him. And she's never straight up accused of anything, but every time she ends her conversation with him, she says, I know my daughter's death was not a suicide. And she said there's always this awkward moment of silence. Also, Sam has never done any interviews. He really has stayed very quiet. And I'm in no way blaming Sam or saying that it's him. All are innocent until proven guilty, of course, and he has not considered a suspect. But recently in May of 2020, some more details have come out about Sam and how he reacted to everything on the day of. As I said earlier, Sam claimed that when he was kicking down the door that the security

guard Phil was with him. However, it turns out Phil said he never left his desk that day. He was not with Sam when he kicked down the door. And another thing that Phil ended up telling the police was that Sam was wearing boots that day, not sneakers, which is weird because he supposedly had just come from the gym. He said he went to the gym. He said, who do you know that goes to the gym with Timberland-type boots on? It was also discovered that Sam had called two other numbers before he called 911.

He had called his parents and he also called his uncle, who is an attorney. And they were on their way to the scene before emergency services even were, which, oh my gosh, I can't believe that. That's a huge red flag to me. And that reminds me of the Christian andriaccio case. Also there are reports that during the 911 call Sam was incredibly calm, which I'm not saying that is the reason that someone is guilty.

Some people do act calm or they're in shock and they seem calm. But also when Sam was asked to start CPR, he said, do I have to? And when he realized that there was a knife inside of her, he said, hmm, she must have fallen on it. And once the death was ruled a suicide, they really weren't able to make him come in and do any more interviews or make him participate in anything because it's a suicide. Another thing that they recently have put out is that there was blood on Ellen's egg boots that day, which makes them believe that she was standing when she was first attacked. Also, they believe that since there was such little blood

at the crime scene, that maybe someone had tried to clean the crime scene before the police arrived. And what's so frustrating is there was never aluminum in all tests performed. So we have no way of knowing what blood could have been wiped up or cleaned. Also, it was found and announced recently that the door was not actually kicked down.

In fact, the only damage that was found on the door and lock was a missing screw on the lock and some would damage to the door where the lock is screwed in. Also, this screw was never found and there were no wood pieces from the door found either. So a lot of people think that someone picked up the screw and picked up the other wood pieces. And it was also discovered that Sam's uncle and his cousin returned to the crime scene the day after.

They came back after they'd already been there the day up. And they grabbed Ellen's personal laptop, Sam's laptop, Ellen's work laptop, and her cell phone before police had their hands on it. The computers are probably not good evidence. The computers were removed from Ellen's apartment by the fiance's uncle. Sam is now in his late 30s. He's actually gotten remarried.

And he's a father of two now. He lives in New York. And like I said, he remained in contact with the family for a year or so following Ellen's death. But eventually that communication completely dropped off. His last communication with Ellen's parents was that he had moved on and that he was getting married. So right now the family is waiting on the state to hand over the file on Ellen's death

and they are also trying to get their hands on the surveillance footage from the apartment complex. Like I said earlier, you'd think it'd be so much easier for families to get these things. You should have a right to these things. And another thing they haven't gotten their hands on is Sam's 911 call, which I feel I could really tell them a lot. I mean, if it was public, it could tell all of us a lot. Alan's family is so heart broken. Her parents just want answers so bad. And I can't imagine not knowing what happened in a situation like this.

I mean, the difference between suicide and homicide is so huge and I just can't imagine being them. I have so much sympathy and I feel so badly for her parents having to wonder what happened to their daughter to feel like they're not getting support from Sam who was supposed to be her life partner. It's just all incredibly sad and their family feels like the case just hasn't

gotten enough attention. So if you are able to go and follow their Facebook page, that is one thing that they have really asked for. They need more attention. They need support and especially around this time of the year, it's hard, you know, they're coming

up again on the anniversary just having the holidays without her, I'm sure, is beyond difficult. It's almost 10 years since she's been gone. No more birthdays, no more thanks-givings, no more July 4th, no more anniversaries. In the interest of supporting Ellen, you can follow us on Facebook at Justice for Ellen. I want the core matter and cause of death changed to homicide. We're trying to work through the justice system and you can't imagine the amount of pushback we have gotten every step of the way. We're asking for the authorities to look at the evidence.

Just look at the facts. Also, they have a petition that they would love for you to sign, so I will link that below as well. I know a lot of you guys are going to have different opinions. I know there are plenty of people that believe that this was a suicide. And you know, you have your right to that opinion. I just, of course, want to remind you that when expressing that, please be kind, please think about the family that this is someone's daughter

that regardless of what happens, it's beyond tragic and heartbreaking for them. I just want to see nothing but support and love for her family in my comment section and I hope you guys will be of course like I said kind when you express your thoughts on this. That is gonna be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really does help me out.

If you wanna watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendal Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. Subscribe today and get your first four months free on the Sirius XM app. Enjoy hundreds of expertly curated podcasts, including Sirius XM Exclusives, ready to be explored. Tales of True Crime, A-List's Liberty Hosts, shows devoted to health and wellness and popular podcasts from top providers, and there's so much more. You'll find something to binge on every day of the week.

Download the Sirius XM app and subscribe now to dive into the Sirius XM podcast universe and hear what's possible. Visit SiriusXM.ca for offer details. SiriusXM, everything you want to hear lives here.