Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / SHOCK TWIST IN MYSTERY DEATH OF BRIDE-TO-BE AFTER SHE'S VICIOUSLY STABBED 20 TIMES, BIZARRELY RULED SUICIDE
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, a shock twist in the
- 0:08Speaker 1: mystery death of a bride to be. A beautiful young
- 0:12Speaker 1: first grade teacher bride to be after she's viciously stabbed
- 0:18Speaker 1: twenty times at least twenty times, including in the back
- 0:23Speaker 1: of the neck, the back of the head, and it's
- 0:27Speaker 1: bizarrely ruled a suicide. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
- 0:33Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us.
- 0:35Speaker 2: The parents of a young teacher stabbed twenty times and
- 0:40Speaker 2: ruled a suicide are hit with more devastating news when
- 0:45Speaker 2: the District Attorney's office places their daughter's case into an
- 0:50Speaker 2: active status. In another blow to Josh and Sandy Greenberg's
- 0:55Speaker 2: ongoing efforts to find justice for their daughter, Ellen Greenberg,
- 0:59Speaker 2: the Chester County District's Attorney's Office announces that they cannot
- 1:02Speaker 2: prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed
- 1:05Speaker 2: when their daughter, Ellen Greenberg died from twenty knife wounds
- 1:08Speaker 2: to the back of her head, neck, and chest. Due
- 1:11Speaker 2: to this, the investigation into the death of Ellen Greenberg
- 1:14Speaker 2: is now placed as inactive.
- 1:15Speaker 1: Did I mention the bruising all across her body? Did
- 1:19Speaker 1: I mention the bruising along her strap muscle, classic size
- 1:25Speaker 1: of strangulation. So wait, let me understand it. She wasn't
- 1:29Speaker 1: just stabbed dead at least twenty nine times twenty times.
- 1:33Speaker 1: I believe some of those stab wounds were overlapping. I
- 1:36Speaker 1: think she could have been stabbed more than twenty times,
- 1:38Speaker 1: but I will go with twenty twenty times, including a
- 1:42Speaker 1: slice that cut the dura of her spine, her spinal cord.
- 1:49Speaker 1: She did that to herself, are you kidding me? Bruising
- 1:52Speaker 1: about the net, even little fingernail marks around her neck.
- 1:56Speaker 1: So she not only stabbed herself, but she also strangled
- 1:59Speaker 1: her Okay, not okay? In the last days, a bizarre
- 2:08Speaker 1: twist to the case, joining me in all start peddl
- 2:12Speaker 1: including John Lucy, investigative journalists for penlive dot com. But
- 2:16Speaker 1: first to Sandy and Josh Greenberg Ellen's parents. You know
- 2:22Speaker 1: when you first learned that there's going to be an
- 2:25Speaker 1: announcement from the Chester County das you texted me went
- 2:28Speaker 1: there's announcement, and for one brief shining moment, Sandy I thought,
- 2:34Speaker 1: oh my stars, somebody is finally going to do the
- 2:38Speaker 1: right thing. When did you realize that they're saying they're
- 2:45Speaker 1: not doing a dam n thing.
- 2:49Speaker 3: I had to release the press release at least six
- 2:53Speaker 3: times and run through it over and over and over again.
- 2:58Speaker 3: And what comes to mind is when you're doing an
- 3:03Speaker 3: investigation and you're only looking through the people, that's all
- 3:08Speaker 3: you're going to see. If you open the door and
- 3:11Speaker 3: you look at everything, you see a whole lot more.
- 3:15Speaker 3: And that speaks volumes.
- 3:17Speaker 1: Yes, Sandy, and I was reading I was rereading my
- 3:21Speaker 1: text from you, and I saw it where you said,
- 3:24Speaker 1: what does this mean? What are they excited to say?
- 3:28Speaker 1: Because it was it was very circuitous to Ellen's dad
- 3:35Speaker 1: joining us. Josh Greenberg, what was your response when you
- 3:40Speaker 1: finally figured out what they were trying to say.
- 3:42Speaker 4: I'm still not sure what they're trying to say.
- 3:45Speaker 1: I think they were.
- 3:46Speaker 4: Trying to avoid saying anything for whatever reason, which I
- 3:50Speaker 4: sort of appreciate because they didn't say anything. And yes,
- 3:54Speaker 4: they made the case inactive, because I believe there's a
- 3:57Speaker 4: sentence after that saying that all homicide cases have unlimited
- 4:04Speaker 4: time for exposure if anything should come up. So it's
- 4:08Speaker 4: sort of like, well, that's right hand said, the right
- 4:10Speaker 4: hand says one thing, the left hand says something else,
- 4:13Speaker 4: but neither one is very conclusive. I think I want
- 4:17Speaker 4: to thank Chester County for doing an investigation. I wish
- 4:21Speaker 4: it was deeper and more detailed. They did give us
- 4:25Speaker 4: the chance to hear what it was said before we
- 4:27Speaker 4: before they released the press release, so we do appreciate that.
- 4:33Speaker 4: But as for the depth of the investigation, shallow is
- 4:37Speaker 4: not even a good word. There is no depth there.
- 4:40Speaker 1: Joining me is John Lucy, investigative journalists for Penlive dot
- 4:43Speaker 1: com and Patriot News Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He specializes in true
- 4:49Speaker 1: crime and cold case investigations. He's author of Kill the Story.
- 4:54Speaker 1: John Lucy, thank you for being with us. Yes, both
- 4:58Speaker 1: Josh and Sandy are correct. It is very confusing. You
- 5:02Speaker 1: know what I find, John Lucy, that people himn hau
- 5:06Speaker 1: around when they don't want to just come out and
- 5:08Speaker 1: say it. What they said to my understanding is we
- 5:13Speaker 1: can't prove this beyond a reasonable doubt, and therefore we're
- 5:17Speaker 1: putting it on inactive status. In active that means it
- 5:22Speaker 1: is not an active, ongoing investigation. And at the end,
- 5:28Speaker 1: I guess they thought they were throwing Josh and Sandy
- 5:30Speaker 1: some kind of a bone. But remember there's no statute
- 5:34Speaker 1: of limitations on murder. If anybody would ever get off
- 5:37Speaker 1: their rear ends and work this case, then maybe one
- 5:41Speaker 1: day we'll get the answer basically as what they're saying.
- 5:45Speaker 1: But that person ain't going to be us. We're not
- 5:48Speaker 1: doing anything. I mean, come on, their expert has a
- 5:52Speaker 1: degree in entomology, the study of bugs.
- 5:56Speaker 5: Really well, Nancy, here's the problem. As long is it's
- 6:00Speaker 5: ruled a suicide, No DA is going to take this case.
- 6:04Speaker 5: That has been the original sin of this case. Remember
- 6:09Speaker 5: when the police were called to the crime scene on
- 6:14Speaker 5: January twenty sixth, twenty eleven, Ellen's fiance intimated on that
- 6:21Speaker 5: bizarre nine to one one call that she stabbed herself.
- 6:23Speaker 5: They treated it as a suicide, a probable suicide. The
- 6:27Speaker 5: night that they investigated the crime scene, they in fact
- 6:31Speaker 5: did not hold it as a crime scene the apartment
- 6:34Speaker 5: where she died of twenty stab wounds. The next day,
- 6:38Speaker 5: the Philadelphia Medical Examiner did rule the homicide, but that
- 6:43Speaker 5: was changed three months later, and we know that there
- 6:46Speaker 5: was secret meetings between detectives and the Medical Examiner's office
- 6:51Speaker 5: that led to that change. It's remained a suicide ever since.
- 6:55Speaker 5: And no DA, not the Attorney General of PA, who
- 6:59Speaker 5: spent four years on case is going to change that
- 7:01Speaker 5: because in Pennsylvania, the only one that can change the
- 7:06Speaker 5: ruling of a medical examiner or coroner is that medical
- 7:10Speaker 5: examiner or corner. And that's why the Greenbergs are before
- 7:15Speaker 5: the Pennsylvania Supreme Court right now trying to change that
- 7:19Speaker 5: suicide ruling, because as long as this case is branded
- 7:23Speaker 5: with that, it's not going to go forward. No DA
- 7:26Speaker 5: is going to spend time on it, because they are right,
- 7:31Speaker 5: that is reasonable doubt. You could drive a truck through
- 7:35Speaker 5: as long as it's as long as it's a suicide.
- 7:37Speaker 4: Two.
- 7:38Speaker 1: Then I now are joining me investigative reporter and co
- 7:42Speaker 1: author of What Happened to Ellen? An American Miscarriage of Justice.
- 7:48Speaker 1: All proceeds from the book What Happened To Ellen are
- 7:54Speaker 1: going to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
- 7:59Speaker 1: available two that details and nearly three hundred pages. What
- 8:05Speaker 1: you are about to hear Ben an Hour describe from
- 8:12Speaker 1: your layperson point of view, the injuries to Ellen and
- 8:18Speaker 1: why this is not and cannot be a suicide. Then
- 8:24Speaker 1: we'll bring on the death investigator hit it Beney. Alrighty.
- 8:29Speaker 6: First of all, Ellen was stabbed, as you said at
- 8:34Speaker 6: least twenty times. Some of those stabbed wounds have been
- 8:38Speaker 6: brought into question whether they were done post mortems. If
- 8:42Speaker 6: they were, then Ellen could not have been alive to
- 8:46Speaker 6: have done them. Some of them were described as being
- 8:50Speaker 6: so profoundly painful and destabilizing that one could not keep
- 8:55Speaker 6: doing to continue to do anything after them. So there
- 9:01Speaker 6: are so many questions about these wounds. They are so brutal.
- 9:07Speaker 6: The crime scene was messed with, There was not a
- 9:12Speaker 6: lot of blood at the crime scene. The crime scene
- 9:15Speaker 6: was never treated like a crime scene because of mishandling
- 9:19Speaker 6: by the police department and who allowed family members to
- 9:24Speaker 6: come in and take things, take vital things. There are
- 9:29Speaker 6: so many levels of questions, and anybody who hears this story,
- 9:35Speaker 6: including the publisher of this book, keeps coming back with no,
- 9:40Speaker 6: that's not possible, almost to the point, where are you
- 9:43Speaker 6: sure did you check your facts? Are you sure you
- 9:46Speaker 6: got this right? Because this can't be That's what we
- 9:50Speaker 6: get over and.
- 9:51Speaker 1: Over and exactly. You know, Benay, when you and I
- 9:55Speaker 1: were writing the book together, I describe how when I
- 9:59Speaker 1: fir first read about this before I met Josh and Sandy,
- 10:04Speaker 1: I kept looking for that magical fact that would make me. No, Okay,
- 10:11Speaker 1: they got it right, I'm wrong, that fact never emerged.
- 10:18Speaker 1: Justice Scott Morgan is joining me, Professor Forensics said Jacksonville
- 10:21Speaker 1: State University, and what a criminal justice program they've got
- 10:27Speaker 1: going on. I was just there for the dedication of
- 10:30Speaker 1: a whole new justice program. Facility is amazing. Author of
- 10:34Speaker 1: Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, host of a hit
- 10:37Speaker 1: series Bodybags with Joseph Scott Morgan. It goes on, but
- 10:41Speaker 1: for my purposes. He is a death investigator with literally
- 10:45Speaker 1: thousands of death seeing investigations under his belt. Everything that
- 10:50Speaker 1: Benetnaur just said is true, but I want to hear
- 10:54Speaker 1: it from a medical death investigator point of view. Joe
- 10:59Speaker 1: Scott Morgan, who study this case not just for tonight,
- 11:03Speaker 1: but helped benay and helped me write the new book
- 11:09Speaker 1: What happened to Ellen? Exhaustive exhaustive research he did. Okay,
- 11:15Speaker 1: Joe Scott, you gave me so much information that Benet
- 11:19Speaker 1: and I could hardly put it in the book. Okay,
- 11:23Speaker 1: because it would be a whole other volume. But could
- 11:27Speaker 1: you explain medically speaking, forget the mishandling of the scene,
- 11:32Speaker 1: forget that. We'll come back to that, but medically speaking,
- 11:36Speaker 1: on the face of it, this is not a suicide.
- 11:40Speaker 1: Why are they doing this? Tellen, I don't get it.
- 11:44Speaker 7: I don't know, having worked self inflicted stab wounds over
- 11:48Speaker 7: the course of my career, the thought that you could
- 11:53Speaker 7: have this many with all of these pain centers firing
- 11:56Speaker 7: at one time, and layer upon layer a layer is
- 12:01Speaker 7: beyond the pale. That's what you know. And listen. They
- 12:05Speaker 7: had mentioned just a second ago about publishers and these
- 12:08Speaker 7: sorts of things that are talking about how they can't
- 12:12Speaker 7: believe it. Nancy. I've spoken with many friends of mine,
- 12:16Speaker 7: colleagues that are also forensic scientists, and they're saying that
- 12:20Speaker 7: this is something that is inexplicable, that they have never
- 12:25Speaker 7: seen a case like this that rises to this level
- 12:28Speaker 7: of violence. And I will call it violence. And I
- 12:31Speaker 7: don't think that for any two seconds anybody worth their
- 12:34Speaker 7: salt in my field would say that this is self inflicted.
- 12:37Speaker 7: I don't see how in the world you can do it.
- 12:39Speaker 7: And we talked about the biomechanics of this. What's really
- 12:43Speaker 7: kind of interesting is the idea of someone, an individual
- 12:48Speaker 7: like Ellen, being able to take this knife and essentially
- 12:51Speaker 7: assault herself. This diagram beautifully done and rendered the idea
- 12:56Speaker 7: that you could inflict these many insult to the posterior
- 13:01Speaker 7: that means on the backside, like this extending your arm
- 13:05Speaker 7: over your shoulder. It's implausible, Nancy. This defies all laws,
- 13:10Speaker 7: all laws of physical science, to be able to accomplish this.
- 13:13Speaker 7: And here's the big tell for me. You know, there
- 13:15Speaker 7: was a member of the medical examiner staff in Philly
- 13:21Speaker 7: that also gave a rendering about this case, and if
- 13:24Speaker 7: I'm not mistaken, it was done as a result of
- 13:27Speaker 7: a deposition. This individual actually stated that this blow that
- 13:31Speaker 7: took place to the back of the neck, in her
- 13:35Speaker 7: estimation at least, was an anti mortem insult or at
- 13:38Speaker 7: best a pery mortem, which means in the throes of death.
- 13:42Speaker 7: So you've got the actual autopsy where the individual, the
- 13:46Speaker 7: pathologist is say, oh no, no, no, no. This insult to
- 13:49Speaker 7: the back of the neck that clips the clips the
- 13:52Speaker 7: spinal column. There is post mortem, and you can't have
- 13:58Speaker 7: it both ways, Nancy. As you mentioned earlier, there's hemorrhage
- 14:01Speaker 7: in there, and they think that that in this physically
- 14:04Speaker 7: implausible that she could have done this on her own.
- 14:06Speaker 1: Josh and Sandy, I know that you are not numb
- 14:12Speaker 1: that this still hurts, But God willing one day you
- 14:16Speaker 1: will see this disgust in front of a jury. Joe Scott,
- 14:19Speaker 1: look at this. You've looked at it many times. But
- 14:23Speaker 1: how And Josh and Sandy Ellen was right handed? Correct
- 14:28Speaker 1: correct crime stories with Nancy Grace, Joe Scott number one
- 14:45Speaker 1: on the name. On one call, we hear that her
- 14:48Speaker 1: face is purple. I want to know why is her
- 14:49Speaker 1: face purple? Number one? Why she's cold to the touch
- 14:52Speaker 1: in that very short interval her body got completely cold
- 14:57Speaker 1: in like an hour. But these stablish That's what I
- 15:00Speaker 1: really want you to talk. How can somebody right handed
- 15:04Speaker 1: stab themselves on the left side of the neck at
- 15:07Speaker 1: an upward angle right handed? How do you take a knife?
- 15:12Speaker 1: And what okay do that? I mean, I'm having to
- 15:15Speaker 1: use my left hand to force my rent and they
- 15:17Speaker 1: were all across the back of her neck. Impossible for
- 15:22Speaker 1: a right handed person to do that.
- 15:25Speaker 7: Yeah, it is. And every time this knife and please
- 15:28Speaker 7: I beg forgiveness on the part of her parents here,
- 15:31Speaker 7: but every time this knife is inserted, you have a
- 15:36Speaker 7: pain center that fires in life. And this is almost intolerable.
- 15:40Speaker 7: And the idea that you could manipulate the knife at
- 15:43Speaker 7: these odd angles like this is implausible to me, and
- 15:48Speaker 7: over and over and over. We're not just talking about
- 15:51Speaker 7: one or two kind of passive cuts or stabs or
- 15:54Speaker 7: in sized areas. We're talking about multiple insertions of this
- 15:58Speaker 7: knife into her body. I don't see how that is possible.
- 16:02Speaker 7: There's no way that you will ever certainly convince me.
- 16:05Speaker 7: It's up to the courts as to whether or not
- 16:07Speaker 7: that they're going to well, it's up to the me
- 16:09Speaker 7: as to whether or not they're going to change a
- 16:10Speaker 7: ruling on this case. And to the discolouration in her face.
- 16:14Speaker 7: This is fascinating, isn't it. Nancy? You mentioned the strap
- 16:18Speaker 7: muscles earlier and how there were focal apparently focal areas
- 16:22Speaker 7: of hemorrhage in those areas. And where do we see that, Nancy,
- 16:26Speaker 7: you've done it.
- 16:27Speaker 1: You say focal areas of hemorrhage. You mean you can
- 16:30Speaker 1: see the bruises yescal areas of hemorrhage.
- 16:35Speaker 7: Bruiges, right, yeah, where you have these in the strap muscles.
- 16:38Speaker 7: Strap muscles are a configuration of four muscles that are
- 16:42Speaker 7: essentially latterly oriented kind of crisscross in this area and
- 16:46Speaker 7: It's something that we look for many times with a
- 16:48Speaker 7: shixeald desks or manual strangulation.
- 16:51Speaker 1: And Joe Scott, isn't it true as you point out
- 16:54Speaker 1: that there are fingernail marks around her neck?
- 16:59Speaker 7: Yeah, that has been alluded to, and I've kind of
- 17:02Speaker 7: given this primer before, but if people just kind of
- 17:05Speaker 7: think about if you look at the long axis of
- 17:08Speaker 7: your finger, look down at through your nail and you
- 17:11Speaker 7: see how it has that kind of elliptical shape, You'll
- 17:13Speaker 7: see that transferred onto the neck most of the time
- 17:16Speaker 7: when you have these nail marks, and it's quite striking,
- 17:20Speaker 7: you know when you see it. And for those of
- 17:22Speaker 7: us that have spent time in the morgue, which I
- 17:25Speaker 7: have for many many years and have work cases out
- 17:28Speaker 7: on scenes, it's glaring, you know when you see it.
- 17:31Speaker 7: And this goes again to this idea and I know
- 17:35Speaker 7: you didn't want to talk about this, but it goes
- 17:37Speaker 7: to the idea of locking the scene down and securing
- 17:40Speaker 7: the scene and processing it from the beginning. You know
- 17:43Speaker 7: when you have this implanted in your brain as an investigator,
- 17:47Speaker 7: that this is a suicide and that's the narrative you're
- 17:50Speaker 7: going to run with instead of coming in with a
- 17:52Speaker 7: clean slate and pushing everybody out of the door, working
- 17:55Speaker 7: the damn scene, locking the thing down so that you
- 17:57Speaker 7: can get everybody out there. You're behind the eight ball
- 18:01Speaker 7: at that point in time, because you've already predisposed yourself
- 18:03Speaker 7: to the way you're going to look at it from
- 18:05Speaker 7: a physical science perspective.
- 18:07Speaker 1: She was right in the middle of making a fruit salad.
- 18:09Speaker 1: In fact, her body was found with a completely clean
- 18:12Speaker 1: and pristine washrag in her left hand, and then she
- 18:17Speaker 1: suddenly decides, Oh, you know what, screw the fruit salad.
- 18:19Speaker 1: I'm killing myself right now in the most painful way
- 18:23Speaker 1: I possibly can.
- 18:25Speaker 7: Can I please interject something here real quickly?
- 18:28Speaker 1: I will I stop you?
- 18:30Speaker 7: No, you can't. So for me. I've worked two cases
- 18:34Speaker 7: in my career where an individual has died of self
- 18:37Speaker 7: inflicted stab wounds. I'm not talking about incized wounds where
- 18:41Speaker 7: the wrist is cut. I'm talking about stab wounds Nancy.
- 18:43Speaker 7: In both In both of those cases, the individual was
- 18:49Speaker 7: wildly psychotic. In both of these cases, as a matter
- 18:52Speaker 7: of fact, one guy had done it, and he was
- 18:55Speaker 7: a paranoid, schizphrenic, and he thought that he was being
- 18:58Speaker 7: listened to by the government looking for microphones in his body.
- 19:02Speaker 7: Do you understand what I'm saying here. That's the level
- 19:05Speaker 7: of pain that this extends to, that you would have
- 19:08Speaker 7: to be out of your mind. And to the best
- 19:11Speaker 7: of my knowledge, and I've talked to Sandy and to
- 19:14Speaker 7: Josh over the years since we've been covering this, there's
- 19:16Speaker 7: no indication that this was going on with Ellen, that
- 19:19Speaker 7: she was having some kind of psychotic break.
- 19:21Speaker 8: The Chester County District Attorney's Office says detectives reviewed investigations
- 19:25Speaker 8: of the case conducted by the Philadelphia Police and Attorney
- 19:28Speaker 8: General's office. The detectives also conducted new interviews and consulted
- 19:32Speaker 8: with an independent forensic expert. A spokesperson for the Chester
- 19:35Speaker 8: County DA's office says this standard of proof beyond a
- 19:38Speaker 8: reasonable doubt makes the criminal investigation different than other legal
- 19:43Speaker 8: cases or issues that surround Miss Greenberg's death.
- 19:45Speaker 1: Joining us an all star panel to make sense of
- 19:48Speaker 1: this bizarre twist and the Ellen Greenberg murder. Yes, I
- 19:53Speaker 1: said murder, because it is not a suicide. Joining me.
- 19:57Speaker 1: In addition to Ellen's parents, who devoted their time, their energy, years,
- 20:04Speaker 1: their life savings, they just sold their house to seek
- 20:08Speaker 1: justice with a fleet of experts to John Lucy joining
- 20:13Speaker 1: me in addition to Josh and Sandy Greenberg. John, the
- 20:17Speaker 1: expert that the state used consulted with is actually a
- 20:23Speaker 1: guy that has an undergrad degree. Hey, I got an
- 20:27Speaker 1: undergrad degree in Shakespeare studies, but I am not an
- 20:30Speaker 1: expert that said, really, that's what they're hanging their hat on.
- 20:37Speaker 5: Well, I have to agree with Ellen Ellen's parents here
- 20:42Speaker 5: where this investigation was shallow at best. And I certainly
- 20:47Speaker 5: agree with all your experts on this panel who point
- 20:51Speaker 5: up all the reasons forensically why this is a homicide
- 20:57Speaker 5: not a suicide. But you know your intro talked about
- 21:01Speaker 5: in Pennsylvania, medical examiners and corners are right even when
- 21:06Speaker 5: they are wrong under Pennsylvania law. And that is the
- 21:09Speaker 5: real problem with this case. It's fighting, it's fighting the law,
- 21:15Speaker 5: not the evidence. And that's where we're at in Pennsylvania
- 21:19Speaker 5: Supreme Court, fighting the law not the evidence. And that's
- 21:23Speaker 5: really the problem why pretty much any investigation based on
- 21:31Speaker 5: whether this whether there was a crime committee is kind
- 21:34Speaker 5: of a non starter as long as it's branded with
- 21:36Speaker 5: that suicide ruling, which I think that has to be changed.
- 21:42Speaker 5: First for all the other stuff that we wanted to
- 21:44Speaker 5: happen to go forward.
- 21:46Speaker 1: Tom Brennan joining me now, private investigator who has been
- 21:50Speaker 1: working on this case with the Greenbergs from the get go.
- 21:54Speaker 1: Tom Brennan, we keep saying it's a suicide ruling. It's
- 21:57Speaker 1: a suicide ruling. B s. It was originally named within
- 22:03Speaker 1: twenty four hours this is a homicide, which it is,
- 22:07Speaker 1: And then which we have documented, there was a secret
- 22:12Speaker 1: meeting between the medical examiner that called it a homicide,
- 22:18Speaker 1: a member from the DA's office who has now been
- 22:20Speaker 1: given immunity so she can't be prosecuted for this high immunity,
- 22:27Speaker 1: and people from the police department. And in that meeting,
- 22:31Speaker 1: which nobody will tell us what happened. Oh hell no.
- 22:34Speaker 1: In that meeting them actually says I was what would
- 22:42Speaker 1: you say, would you say coerced? No, I was persuaded
- 22:47Speaker 1: to change my ruling from a homicide to suicide. It's
- 22:53Speaker 1: total bs. It stinks to high heaven. What is wrong
- 22:56Speaker 1: with the Chester District Attorney? Do they not have any
- 23:00Speaker 1: balls at all?
- 23:01Speaker 9: What you have to understand, okay, with this case. It
- 23:07Speaker 9: was in the Attorney General's office. The folks in the
- 23:10Speaker 9: Attorney General's office. Were the same folks that were in
- 23:13Speaker 9: the DA's office when this crime occurred. Okay, so now they're.
- 23:17Speaker 1: Reviewing that, they're sticking to their story, right right, forty
- 23:25Speaker 1: six one.
- 23:26Speaker 10: Spider Rock Road, please Herry, Yeah, I just I went
- 23:34Speaker 10: downstairs to go work out. I came back up the
- 23:36Speaker 10: door and the lash my face inside.
- 23:39Speaker 11: She wasn't she wasn't answering.
- 23:40Speaker 10: So after about a half hour, I decided to break
- 23:43Speaker 10: it down. I see her now it's on the floor before.
- 23:46Speaker 10: She's not she's not responding. Okay, keep breathing. I can
- 23:51Speaker 10: look at her test.
- 23:52Speaker 6: I needing to calm down.
- 23:53Speaker 3: I need to test, Okay, I really.
- 23:58Speaker 10: Someone going away, look her chest, bet on bank, We'll
- 24:03Speaker 10: get her test and tell me. And just going to
- 24:04Speaker 10: open out, open down.
- 24:06Speaker 1: I don't see her moving just she wasn't exactly on
- 24:09Speaker 1: her back?
- 24:09Speaker 7: Why she no, she wasn't. She was not on her back.
- 24:14Speaker 7: And you know that that's something that has you know,
- 24:17Speaker 7: gotten into the narrative of this, which is quite fascinating
- 24:21Speaker 7: to me. And there's one other thing that kind of
- 24:23Speaker 7: really stands out about this call what's missing as far
- 24:27Speaker 7: as information goes relative to this, and it comes up
- 24:30Speaker 7: a little bit later. I'm not trying to bury the lead.
- 24:32Speaker 7: But what about the knife?
- 24:34Speaker 1: Yeah, I know I've embedded in her chest. Listen to
- 24:36Speaker 1: more than nine to one one.
- 24:37Speaker 10: Okay, you know.
- 24:38Speaker 2: How is this CBR?
- 24:39Speaker 10: I go, okay, I'm gonna tell you what to do
- 24:42Speaker 10: until they get here.
- 24:46Speaker 1: Ye.
- 24:46Speaker 10: Well the CDR with me over.
- 24:48Speaker 5: The Okay, so you know her bank for her chest bag.
- 24:53Speaker 6: Over for sure?
- 24:54Speaker 12: All okay, yeeld me.
- 24:57Speaker 6: Out by her side.
- 24:59Speaker 4: Merger.
- 25:00Speaker 10: Please you can't freak out. Okay, I'm trying. I'm trying to.
- 25:06Speaker 10: Her shirt won't come off as a zipper. She stabbed
- 25:09Speaker 10: herself where her nice sticking out the nice sticking out
- 25:16Speaker 10: of her hunter does he stands herself? I guess. So
- 25:20Speaker 10: I don't know where she's felling it. I don't know. Okay, Well,
- 25:22Speaker 10: don't take it.
- 25:23Speaker 1: And there in the nine on one call. That is
- 25:27Speaker 1: the first time suicide or accident is stated. O MG.
- 25:38Speaker 1: She stabbed herself, then later she fell on a nine.
- 25:44Speaker 1: Joining me is Matthew Mangino, high profile lawyer and author
- 25:49Speaker 1: of the Executioner's Toll. Matthew uh former prosecutor in Lawrence
- 25:57Speaker 1: County in Pennsylvania. Matthew me Gino. That's where we first here,
- 26:05Speaker 1: she stabbed herself or there was an accent that she
- 26:07Speaker 1: fell on the knife twenty times Matthew, Why is it
- 26:12Speaker 1: that when a medical examiner admits he was pressured by
- 26:17Speaker 1: police to change his ruling, and I believe Guillino, who
- 26:24Speaker 1: was his supervisor, later said he would change if he could,
- 26:28Speaker 1: he would change the medical examiner decision. But why is
- 26:33Speaker 1: it when it's so obviously wrong, that that cannot be challenged?
- 26:37Speaker 12: Matt Well, you know that's the law in Pennsylvania, that's
- 26:41Speaker 12: the manner in which the legislature approached this issue.
- 26:45Speaker 11: I don't agree with it.
- 26:47Speaker 1: You know.
- 26:48Speaker 11: My impression about this is that you have a botched
- 26:51Speaker 11: investigation and then you have a cover up, and that
- 26:56Speaker 11: cover up by the DA's office the police ultimately led
- 27:02Speaker 11: to the Attorney General reviewing this and Chester County, And
- 27:05Speaker 11: I think you have to sort of read between the lines.
- 27:08Speaker 12: With regard to Chester County. They're saying, hey, there's problems
- 27:11Speaker 12: here and we don't think we can prove this case.
- 27:15Speaker 12: But you know, there may be you know, light at
- 27:18Speaker 12: the end of the tunnel if this was properly investigated.
- 27:21Speaker 12: Because there's no statutical limitations in Pennsylvania.
- 27:25Speaker 1: Would it could have, should have man Gino if it
- 27:27Speaker 1: was properly investigated. Isn't it their duty to properly investigate it?
- 27:32Speaker 1: Why have Josh and Sandy had to spend their life
- 27:36Speaker 1: savings and sell their home to investigate this case. Why
- 27:40Speaker 1: doesn't the district attorney get off his rear end and
- 27:43Speaker 1: do something. Yeah, they can't prove it beyond a reasonable
- 27:46Speaker 1: doubt unless they get up and try.
- 27:49Speaker 12: And I think that's one thing that they didn't count
- 27:52Speaker 12: on in the situation when when they when they botched
- 27:55Speaker 12: the investigation and then they tried to cover it up
- 27:58Speaker 12: by putting pressure on the medical examiner. They never contemplated
- 28:03Speaker 12: that the Greenberg family would not give up on this,
- 28:07Speaker 12: that they would continue to fight and fight year after
- 28:11Speaker 12: year after year, and ultimately, I think because of their efforts,
- 28:15Speaker 12: this matter can still be put on the front burner
- 28:20Speaker 12: and properly investigated and brought before a jury to bring
- 28:25Speaker 12: some justice to Ellen into her family.
- 28:27Speaker 1: Just can't believe it's gone on so long, and isn't
- 28:30Speaker 1: it true? Been an Hour who extensively investigated the case herself,
- 28:34Speaker 1: co author of What Happened to Ellen All proceeds going
- 28:39Speaker 1: to National Center Missing Exploited Children, Repeat all proceeds, Beney.
- 28:45Speaker 1: Isn't it true that doctor Osborne's supervisor, the medical examiner,
- 28:54Speaker 1: said that he would change the ruling if he could,
- 28:59Speaker 1: that to homicide or at least to undetermined.
- 29:03Speaker 6: Absolutely. Absolutely. There has been no even signal that anybody
- 29:11Speaker 6: is willing to change a single thing. It just makes
- 29:15Speaker 6: everything feel messier, more questionable, more like a possible cover up.
- 29:21Speaker 6: Everybody is.
- 29:24Speaker 1: I disagree. I disagree because John Lucy Gillino, who was
- 29:30Speaker 1: Osborne who made the ruling boss, says he would change
- 29:34Speaker 1: the ruling. Osbourne admits he thought it was a homicide
- 29:38Speaker 1: until police and the district attorney assist. A district attorney
- 29:42Speaker 1: pressured him to change it to suicide. Well, what else
- 29:46Speaker 1: is there? That's all I need to hear.
- 29:48Speaker 5: Well, my answer is someone needs to stroke a pen
- 29:51Speaker 5: on the dotted line and change it. Then verbally doesn't
- 29:56Speaker 5: get it done, They have to sign the document changing
- 29:59Speaker 5: it back to homicide where it was the twenty four
- 30:03Speaker 5: hours after her death.
- 30:11Speaker 2: Ellen Greenberg's parents want to know why the judge, uncle
- 30:16Speaker 2: to Ellen's fiance, was allowed to remove items from the
- 30:20Speaker 2: scene before the police searched.
- 30:25Speaker 10: I went away off here. Oh my god, Oh my god,
- 30:32Speaker 10: all her arm at least she was about to pay.
- 30:42Speaker 2: Y's.
- 30:46Speaker 10: Her hands are so warm me. I know, but you
- 30:50Speaker 10: can't in the nicest fill my sad. How far can
- 30:52Speaker 10: you see? How far I win?
- 30:53Speaker 1: Is it?
- 30:54Speaker 10: Look okay?
- 30:57Speaker 11: Warmer so qushing is anything.
- 31:02Speaker 2: I can't believe?
- 31:03Speaker 1: Matthew Mangino joining US high profile lawyer who prosecuted and
- 31:07Speaker 1: defense in Pennsylvania, this jurisdiction, Matthew Mangino in a nutshell?
- 31:13Speaker 1: Don't there any Latin phrases at me? What if anything
- 31:17Speaker 1: can be done? Now? The age who works for the governor,
- 31:23Speaker 1: who is Shapiro, who earlier shirked his duty on this case,
- 31:29Speaker 1: he's not going to confess to that now, What if
- 31:32Speaker 1: anything can be done? Matthew, Well, I.
- 31:35Speaker 12: Think, just like any cold case, this investigation can be
- 31:39Speaker 12: you know, reinstituted. You know, the detectives can take another
- 31:43Speaker 12: look at it. They can look at the evidence that
- 31:47Speaker 12: was found there. Although we know there's a sort of
- 31:49Speaker 12: contaminated crime. They can begin to question in canvas and
- 31:54Speaker 12: go back and interview people to find out more about
- 31:57Speaker 12: the dynamics of this relationship. As well, I.
- 32:00Speaker 1: Guess what I'm asking Tom Brennan, even on the case
- 32:02Speaker 1: from the very beginning, is say what he just said,
- 32:05Speaker 1: in an ideal world would be true. But we know
- 32:08Speaker 1: that's not happening. They're not reinvestigating it. So practically speaking, Tom,
- 32:14Speaker 1: what can be done? Now?
- 32:15Speaker 9: Did they reinterview Phil Hamton okay, who who was working
- 32:21Speaker 9: in the lobby.
- 32:22Speaker 6: No?
- 32:23Speaker 9: Did they ever reinterview Melissa ware, the property manager.
- 32:28Speaker 3: No?
- 32:29Speaker 9: Did they ever reinterview doctor Lucy Rourke who in the
- 32:35Speaker 9: autopsy report she's quoted as saying that the stab wounds
- 32:41Speaker 9: are such that are not that grave and the victim
- 32:45Speaker 9: could continue to harm herself. And Lucy Rourke says, no,
- 32:48Speaker 9: I never was involved in the case. Did they reinterview
- 32:52Speaker 9: any of those people?
- 32:53Speaker 2: No?
- 32:54Speaker 9: Why not? If you're doing a complete, thorough investigation, why
- 32:59Speaker 9: don't you interview those people.
- 33:02Speaker 1: So we know that. My question is what recourse is there?
- 33:06Speaker 7: Now?
- 33:06Speaker 1: That's what I keep asking, and I'm not getting an answer, John, Lucy,
- 33:11Speaker 1: is there anything that can be done now? As Brennan
- 33:16Speaker 1: and man Gina just said, yeah, they could do blah
- 33:19Speaker 1: blah blah. Yeah, that's all true, but they're not they're
- 33:23Speaker 1: not investigating this case. They're not uncovering the wrongdoing that
- 33:29Speaker 1: was done at the scene when it was just taken
- 33:31Speaker 1: for granted. Oh yeah, this is a suicide case. Closed,
- 33:35Speaker 1: let's go home. They authorized and even suggested a pro
- 33:39Speaker 1: cleaner to clean the crime scene, getting rid of all
- 33:43Speaker 1: the evidence. They said, sure, family members, not the Greenberg's
- 33:50Speaker 1: family members or others can take items. Sure they can
- 33:53Speaker 1: take the laptop and all of the recent searches and
- 33:57Speaker 1: the contact with Yeah, sure take it. The police did that.
- 34:02Speaker 1: But most disturbingly is that secret meeting where the medical
- 34:07Speaker 1: examiner was told change this from homicide to suicide and
- 34:12Speaker 1: he did it that. Why can't that be investigated?
- 34:19Speaker 5: Well, I think what can be done are what Josh
- 34:22Speaker 5: and Sandy are doing. They are suing the Philadelphia Medical
- 34:27Speaker 5: Examiner and the detectives involved in the case, alleging a conspiracy.
- 34:31Speaker 5: They're challenging the suicide ruling at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court,
- 34:36Speaker 5: and they are winning because of Tom's team and all
- 34:41Speaker 5: the evidence they've amassed over ten years. They are winning
- 34:44Speaker 5: in the court of public opinion. So they're doing everything
- 34:49Speaker 5: that they can to put these guys under oath and
- 34:53Speaker 5: depositions and find out what really happened at that secret meeting.
- 34:57Speaker 1: They're doing that.
- 34:59Speaker 5: They're trying to get this law in Pennsylvania. They're trying
- 35:05Speaker 5: to find a hole in that law so that they
- 35:07Speaker 5: can change the suicide ruling or vacate it. And they
- 35:11Speaker 5: are putting all the evidence that they've amassed out there
- 35:15Speaker 5: in the court of public opinion, and they are opening
- 35:18Speaker 5: eyes again and again, and the more that people hear
- 35:21Speaker 5: about this case, the more it sticks.
- 35:24Speaker 8: Forensic pathologist doctor Wayne k Ross is commissioned by the
- 35:27Speaker 8: Greenbergs to review the case. Doctor Ross says there's evidence
- 35:30Speaker 8: of strangulation. Ross says there's a mark over the front
- 35:33Speaker 8: of the neck and in the strap muscles over the
- 35:35Speaker 8: right side of the neck, claiming these patterns are compatible
- 35:38Speaker 8: with a manual strangulation. Ross also points out the number
- 35:41Speaker 8: of bruises over different parts of Greenberg's body are consistent
- 35:44Speaker 8: with the repeated beatings. He writes, it is my opinion
- 35:47Speaker 8: that the investigating authorities should pursue this case as a homicide.
- 35:50Speaker 8: It is further my opinion, to a reasonable degree of
- 35:52Speaker 8: medical certainty, that the manner of death is a homicide.
- 35:55Speaker 8: The scene findings were indicative of a homicide to Josh.
- 35:58Speaker 1: And Sandy green who We've spent years fighting this completely
- 36:05Speaker 1: erroneous ruling of suicide. I don't understand why everyone within
- 36:13Speaker 1: that government has teamed up to cover up the sloppy investigation.
- 36:19Speaker 1: There are forces that I do not understand, but I
- 36:22Speaker 1: can tell you this was not suicide to you, Sandy,
- 36:28Speaker 1: How do you find the strength to keep fighting?
- 36:31Speaker 3: It's part of my constitution. When you love your child
- 36:36Speaker 3: and you love your family, this is what you do.
- 36:40Speaker 3: We've made sacrifices, and we have our own feelings about
- 36:46Speaker 3: the direction we want to go in. The more they
- 36:50Speaker 3: perpetuate the lies, and it's in the public forum, it's
- 36:58Speaker 3: in the universe Philadelphia. I cannot understand how the public
- 37:07Speaker 3: in Philadelphia tolerates this type of behavior. But the longer
- 37:12Speaker 3: it goes on, the more we find out, and the
- 37:15Speaker 3: more their lives get deeper and deeper. And I'm not
- 37:19Speaker 3: going away, and I don't know. I think they expected
- 37:26Speaker 3: us to die by now, but unfortunately, where fortunately that's
- 37:31Speaker 3: not the case. We're stronger than ever and I'm not
- 37:37Speaker 3: going to rest until we have resolved.
- 37:39Speaker 1: You know, Josh Greenberg. Whenever I feel like I've done
- 37:44Speaker 1: something wrong. I feel hot all over. I think about
- 37:48Speaker 1: it over and over and over and rehash it in
- 37:51Speaker 1: my mind. I don't know how they can live with
- 37:54Speaker 1: themselves knowing that this was ruled a homicide, and it
- 37:58Speaker 1: only after a secret meeting with an Ada Assistant district
- 38:03Speaker 1: attorney and law enforcement. The medical examiner says he was
- 38:08Speaker 1: pressured to rule it a suicide. I mean, I don't
- 38:13Speaker 1: understand how they can live with this lie because.
- 38:15Speaker 4: They're not good people. There are people in this world
- 38:19Speaker 4: who are not good people, who are just bad, bad people.
- 38:23Speaker 4: I hope every time these people look at a girl
- 38:26Speaker 4: or a twenty seven year old woman, they see my daughter,
- 38:30Speaker 4: because that's what they're putting away. That's who they're chastising,
- 38:34Speaker 4: that's who they're torturing, and that's who they're not giving
- 38:37Speaker 4: justice to.
- 38:37Speaker 1: When you think of Ellen, Josh, what is your most
- 38:44Speaker 1: vivid memory?
- 38:45Speaker 4: Ellen getting hit in the face by a soft ball
- 38:48Speaker 4: and me hopping over a fence to help her because
- 38:51Speaker 4: nobody else there could do it. And I put ice
- 38:53Speaker 4: on her and she wouldn't go to school and her
- 38:55Speaker 4: face swelled up and the only one she had there
- 38:57Speaker 4: was me.
- 38:58Speaker 1: You know, Josh, I just wish that right now you
- 39:01Speaker 1: could hop over a fence and fix everything like you
- 39:04Speaker 1: did then.
- 39:06Speaker 4: I'm trying.
- 39:07Speaker 1: You sure are sandy when you think of Ellen. When
- 39:12Speaker 1: you fall asleep at night and you think of Ellen,
- 39:16Speaker 1: what is your most vivid memory.
- 39:20Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 39:20Speaker 9: My head.
- 39:22Speaker 1: My head is no.
- 39:25Speaker 3: I'm kind of worn out. Like as long as I
- 39:29Speaker 3: still want to fight, which I am, it is very
- 39:33Speaker 3: emotionally taxing, taxing to the point where I'm in physical
- 39:38Speaker 3: pain in my shoulders. I can't raise my arms up
- 39:43Speaker 3: comfortably because I have so much tension. Yet I put
- 39:49Speaker 3: one foot in front of the other. I try to
- 39:51Speaker 3: get my rest, I try to take my supplements. I
- 39:54Speaker 3: try to live a wholesome life. And I feel that
- 40:00Speaker 3: justice will prevail. And there's a lot of people that
- 40:05Speaker 3: can rotten Hell.
- 40:06Speaker 1: I pray that we get justice. I pray, I've been praying,
- 40:14Speaker 1: I've been trying. I just pray that we can all
- 40:19Speaker 1: hold on and somehow the tide will turn for Ellen.
- 40:26Speaker 1: There is a court hearing December eleven, and if you
- 40:33Speaker 1: can hear our voices, we ask you to lift up
- 40:38Speaker 1: your prayers, your good thoughts for Ellen Greenberg on this
- 40:44Speaker 1: hearing December eleven. We wait and pray as justice unfolds.
- 40:54Speaker 1: Thank you to Josh and Sandy for joining us and
- 40:58Speaker 1: all of our guests, especially to you for being with
- 41:01Speaker 1: us and keeping Ellen's cause alive. Nancy Grace signing off,
- 41:09Speaker 1: goodbye friend,