Original subtitles

[wind blowing]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[line trilling]

[breathing heavily]

DISPATCHER: Philadelphia police...

SAMUEL: Help. I... I need... I need...

I just... I just walked into my apartment.

My fiancée's on the floor with blood everywhere.

DISPATCHER: Is this a house or apartment?

SAMUEL: Oh, no.

Oh, no.

REPORTER: It was January of 2011 when Greenberg was

discovered dead by her fiancé

in their locked Manayunk apartment.

She suffered more than 20 stab wounds.

The Philadelphia medical examiner

initially ruled Greenberg's death a homicide

before switching it to suicide.

PERSON: Philadelphia is calling this a suicide?

Just does not add up.

D'MICHELLE: I have investigated stabbing suicides

in my career.

But I've never seen anyone stab themselves in the back.

CAITLIN: Ellen was infatuated with the dream

of what a partner would be, what her life would be like.

I knew I couldn't believe the suicide.

ALYSON: The media really began to pick up the case.

Everyone realized how strange and twisted Ellen's case was.

JOSH: I was Ellen's father.

I still am Ellen's father.

I'm gonna find out what happened.

PERSON: If you want to get away with a homicide,

have it declared a suicide.

♪ ♪

[tense music]

♪ ♪

ALYSON: All right.

You gotta tell what day it is and what we're doing.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's... happy Valentine's Day.

Alyson's my valentine.

ALYSON: To be around Ellen, you felt like you belonged.

I think Ellen wanted to please people.

Look at Mommy.

ALYSON: She gave her time and energy

to everybody around her

and did it without wanting anything in return.

Attention, seniors.

Class pictures will be taken...

Junior/senior prom will be held on April 21st.

This is Ellen Greenberg reporting for WHIP-TV 5.

SANDEE: We were very proud of her.

She was so joyful and fun-loving.

I couldn't wait to get up in the morning and be her mom.

I would have loved to have had more children,

but unfortunately, it didn't work out.

But one healthy child is...

is a blessing.

ELLEN: Graduation's gonna be here before you know it.

A big part about finding out what's next

is discovering the real you.

♪ ♪

[mysterious music]

♪ ♪

ALYSON: Ellen was beautiful, had a gorgeous smile,

had, you know, killer hair.

She was, you know, gorgeous.

But she was just as kind and generous.

She was my absolute best friend.

She was my person.

We went through pretty much every phase of life together,

from our middle school days into high school

and then off to Penn State into our young adult lives

living in the Philadelphia area.

♪ ♪

SANDEE: After college, she moved to Philadelphia,

and she got an apartment in Manayunk,

which is where a lot of young students live,

and it's just a really cool place.

Sandee called me and said, hey, Ellen's moving to Philly.

It's their only child, and they were so far away.

And I was like, I've got her.

SANDEE: Ellen, of course, loved Philadelphia.

It was all about the social life,

dating and meeting people.

ALYSON: You know, at that point in our lives,

we had a lot of friends who were starting

to get engaged and married.

CAITLIN: We had a lot of discussions

at that time in our lives just about love.

You know, I was in love, and she wanted to find love.

I remember a conversation she and I had

in her apartment in Manayunk.

I was sitting on her bed.

Her room was always immaculately clean.

And she was looking at a ring on my hand,

saying, oh, this is so beautiful.

I can't wait to find love.

Do you guys want to, you know, have kids?

When did you know that you loved him?

All she wanted was to be in love.

All she wanted was to have a family.

She was ready to start her life.

And you couldn't help but want that for her.

[soft music]

DEBBIE: Someone fixed Ellen up on a blind date with Sam,

and I remember her calling me,

asking me if I knew who he was.

And I didn't know him personally,

but I knew his family.

His grandmother and his aunt, they were friends of mine.

So I was like, yes, like, oh, my God, Sam, he's...

like, such a nice family.

And you should definitely go out on a date with him.

ALYSON: Sam and Ellen's first date

was kind of exciting for all of us, I would say.

He was in Charleston, South Carolina,

on a work trip for the Golf Channel.

They had been talking on FaceTime for...

I don't know if it was a month or so.

And he said he would fly her down.

DEBBIE: Ellen getting on a plane

and going to meet someone she had never met before

was completely out of character for Ellen.

She's like, what do you think I should do?

And I was like, you should go.

I mean, it'll either be a great story

for your grandchildren or it's not gonna work.

And she went for the weekend, she came home,

and she was like, wow.

Like, she really liked him.

And after that, like, they were a couple.

[dinging]

♪ ♪

ALYSON: Sam checked a ton of boxes for her.

I mean, you know, he was cute.

He was from this area.

He's Jewish.

SANDEE: He was very charming,

very charismatic, very respectful.

In the morning, when it was cold outside,

he would go out and turn her car on

and warm it up and bring her her coffee.

And he was very, very attentive.

And, you know, I thought that was really sweet.

From everything that I could tell,

our daughter was happy.

He's gotta be doing something right.

They'd been together for three years when he proposed,

and she was just over the moon.

I don't know if fathers always have

reservations about their daughter getting engaged,

but she was happy.

That's what was most important to me.

She was ready to get married

and start a life together and plan for a future.

And I was all in.

I love my fiancée, Ellen Greenberg, so much

because she's my best friend in the whole wide world,

and she makes me so happy whenever I think about her.

I love her.

-[Ellen laughs] -Mwah, honey.

[foreboding music]

♪ ♪

DEBBIE: The week of January 26th,

I heard on the news there was, like, a nor'easter coming

to Philadelphia, and in those days, like, it snowed,

and, like, you didn't leave your house for days.

REPORTER: The storm came in with a vengeance.

It's moving fast, of course,

and now heading into Philly.

This will be one to two inches per hour

at least over the next few hours.

DEBBIE: Ellen was a first-grade teacher,

and schools in Philadelphia were closing.

So I texted her.

It was kind of like a squall or something.

Like, they just called it at the time.

So we were so excited.

I mean, teachers love a snow day, just like kids do.

I remember, like, waving goodbye to her

in the parking lot.

And later in the day when I got home,

I called a couple times.

She didn't answer.

[phone vibrating]

♪ ♪

PHIL: That day was cold as hell.

The front desk is popping, you know.

And Sam came to the front desk.

He said, Ellen came home early,

but I'm locked out of my unit.

So I said, well, the concierge don't leave the front desk

anymore to let people in.

Let me continue to call her,

and I'll try to get in touch with maintenance.

So he sort of just walked away with that.

MARK: My girlfriend at the time and I lived in 602,

pretty much across from Sam and Ellen.

And I hear, like,

a male's voice talking outside the door.

I get up and I crack the door a little bit

and hear it's Sam pounding on the door,

trying to coax her to come to the door to let him in.

I just figured they were into some kind of argument

and he got locked out.

He was pacing back and forth, and, I don't know,

he looked worried about something.

PHIL: When he came again, he was much more agitated.

He said, I need to get in the fucking unit.

So I said, well, is she... is something wrong with her?

He said, I don't know. I don't know.

And as he was departing from the front desk,

he said, well, I'm just gonna knock the fucking door down.

[foreboding music]

♪ ♪

[siren wailing]

♪ ♪

PHIL: After Sam went back to the unit

to break the door down,

next thing I see is a fire truck.

The lead or the lieutenant or something,

he said, where is the elevator?

I said, you know, just go,

and I directed him to the elevator.

He went up with his crew.

About 45 minutes later, he came down.

I said, how is she? Everything OK up there?

He said, you don't need an ambulance.

You need a homicide detective.

That's when everything changed.

I mean, my life changed right there.

MELISSA: On January 26th, I was in my office

working a little later than normal,

and I received a call from Phil,

who was our concierge on duty, let me know that there was

an issue going on in a sixth-floor apartment

and that the police were down in the lobby.

My office was on the second floor,

so I proceeded to go to the elevator,

went down one floor.

As soon as the elevator doors open,

there were two police officers

waiting to get in the elevator,

and then I took them up to the sixth floor.

When we were walking down the hallway,

I was a little concerned 'cause when I turned around,

they did have their guns drawn.

MARK: I didn't know what was going on.

I could tell that there was numerous people there...

the police, first responders.

Sam was distraught.

I didn't know what he found.

But there was some serious problem inside

with his... with Ellen.

♪ ♪

GUY: When I was a homicide prosecutor in Philadelphia,

I reviewed over 100 homicides.

Sadly, in Philadelphia, that is most often

the way in which people are killed,

by homicide or by murder.

And one of the things that is almost always,

if not always, critical are timelines.

What we know is, Sam Goldberg left the apartment

at approximately 4:50 PM.

Per him, Ellen is alive and well

and inside of that apartment.

He is gone for, give or take, 38 1/2 to 40 minutes

at the gym and the lobby area,

which you can see on CCTV.

He then gets into the elevator.

He goes to enter the apartment, and it's latched.

And you could only unlock it or lock it from the inside.

And he's shouting into the apartment.

He's slamming on the door.

He's getting more and more irate.

[elevator dings]

This, in combination with going up and down

the elevators to the lobby, goes on for about an hour

before he finally makes entry into the apartment

and makes the 911 call.

Ellen was found up against the cabinetry in the corner,

slunched down, blood all over her body,

on the cabinetry where clearly her head

had slid down the cabinet.

And there is a knife sticking out of her chest.

At around 6:40 PM, the police, fire, and rescue were there,

and detectives are there because this looks like,

at least from the call, to be a homicide.

So homicide detectives come out as well as police.

The next time I go to the door,

I could hear Sam talking to the police officer

about her medication

and that she had some mental health issues.

GUY: After Sam spoke with the detectives,

they believed that Ellen was experiencing

mental health issues.

So instead of investigating this,

they call it a suicide on scene.

[tense music]

MELISSA: I was told that she had stabbed herself.

The gurney came out, and it was empty.

And Sam was told that she had passed,

that she was dead, and he started crying.

And I just asked what I could do.

♪ ♪

When we initially found out what happened,

the only phone call I made was to Sam's parents,

and then the next phone call I made

when I had a moment was to my corporate office

to explain what had happened.

♪ ♪

SANDEE: We were hunkered down in our house.

You couldn't even hear the snow plows going through.

It was like a blizzard outside.

We made dinner, and we were watching TV.

[phone rings]

The landline in the kitchen rang,

and it was Sam's father.

He said, something terrible has happened to Ellie.

And I said, well, what do you mean?

Where's the ambulance?

There is no ambulance.

And at that point, I almost lost my voice.

I was screaming for Josh to, you know,

pick up the other landline.

And everything kinda went dark.

[solemn music]

It's very difficult for us to talk about that time slot

and try and put it in any sort of order.

♪ ♪

I was pretty much in a state of shock.

I don't even know how I was able to lay my head down

and fall asleep.

I was just...

nothing in my life prepared me for that moment.

Nothing in my life would ever be the same after that.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

DEBBIE: Sam and Ellen got engaged in June.

They came home,

and then it was like, let's plan a wedding.

I was privy to see pictures of Ellen in her dress,

and she was so beautiful.

She was gonna hold pink peonies in her bridal bouquet.

♪ ♪

But I went shopping with her the first week in December

for save the dates.

And she definitely wasn't herself.

JOSH: Ellen wanted to come home to Harrisburg,

and we were totally in the dark of what was...

why she would want to come home.

ALYSON: Something shifted

in that November, December time frame.

The Ellen that we knew that used to be excited

about everything was gone.

She just totally lost her light.

DEBBIE: I reached out to Sandee,

and I was like, what's up with Ellen?

Like, she's not her normal bubbly self.

And she was like, I know. I noticed it.

So then we started talking more about it.

SANDEE: She would say, oh, she was stressed from school.

She had a large classroom, and that was stressing her out.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

AMY: It's an inner-city school.

We did have very big class sizes.

There were five first grades, and all of them

were at least at 30 kids,

some of them almost 40 kids in a class.

BRUCE: She did say she wasn't feeling quite right.

She was new, so she was nervous,

like anyone starting any job would be.

It did seem a little overblown to me,

but she was in the midst of being engaged.

So she had a lot of pressure on her,

not the least of which was school.

ALYSON: She was doing circles in her head about work.

It was always work, and she was looking to get out.

♪ ♪

AMY: I remember I went into her classroom,

and she started crying,

and she's like, I can't do this.

I can't do this.

JOSH: She was more anxious.

She was more nervous.

And I made a deal.

SANDEE: He made a deal with her that if we found

a good psychiatrist and she did that

and if she still wanted to come home, she could.

But he wanted her not to lose her job

because she worked so hard to get there.

I'm almost embarrassed to tell you,

but I think at that stage, what my goals were

were legitimate fatherly goals...

help the daughter and save the job.

SANDEE: The psychiatrist prescribed

some anxiety medication.

She tried a couple of things

and didn't really like the way she felt.

And then they put her on a different medicine,

and then she started texting me like, it's working.

I'm feeling good.

I mean, she wasn't, like, 100%, but she was feeling good.

ALYSON: Bruce, my father-in-law,

her coworker, he assured me there was nothing going on

at work that she needed to worry about.

So what was it that was causing her so much anxiety?

[heavy music]

♪ ♪

Sam traveled a ton for work,

so she knew for the parts of the year

that the tournaments were, he was gonna be gone.

I do think she had some insecurities with it.

It wasn't an ideal situation,

but Ellen knew what she signed up for.

And from, you know, everything she was telling us,

everything was perfect.

DEBBIE: I wasn't scared for her.

It's just like, oh, she's going through a rough patch.

It never occurred to me that it could be anything else

other than what she was telling me,

because why wouldn't she tell me?

[foreboding music]

♪ ♪

AMY: The day of the snowstorm,

she was really, really obsessed with the grades.

ALEXANDRA: I was like, Ellen, it's OK,

like, because you have it.

Like, you have all the data.

But it was just really something

that was weighing on her.

BRUCE: I was with her a lot that day.

She was really tense at that point

because report cards were coming out.

So when I went out to my car, she was already there.

She was parked right next to me,

and I cleaned off her car for her.

It probably took me the better part of an hour.

And for all that time, she was on edge.

So I tried to talk her down from that...

off the ledge.

The 15-minute ride took me

an hour and a half to get home,

and then when I got to the parking lot at my condo,

I got a call from Ellen, and it was the same thing.

And she was still distraught when we hung up.

Bruce texts me, and he says, your BF is crazy.

So I... I call him, and as I'm talking to him,

Ellen calls me on the other line.

And I didn't pick up.

I kick myself to this day.

I didn't pick up.

♪ ♪

DEBBIE: The police said that Ellen committed suicide.

We have no reason not to believe the police.

We knew nothing.

We were in the dark about everything.

[mysterious music]

♪ ♪

My name's Donna Jaconi.

I was a Philadelphia police officer for 26 years,

and I was in the elite crime scene unit,

where I was a crime scene investigator

for over 22 years.

We would go out to the scene,

meet with the homicide detectives.

Then we'd photograph the whole scene,

search for ballistic evidence, clothing, hair fibers.

We were looking for evidence

of either a crime or not a crime.

In 2011, Philadelphia was a high-crime city.

But Manayunk is one of the lower crime areas.

I probably only had one or two homicides there in my career.

♪ ♪

Venice Lofts is a unique property

because it's not the city, but it's not the suburbs.

It's right in between.

We had a 24-hour concierge.

Guests would come into the front.

They would sign in.

We had a key fob system

that would register the apartment number

as well as the residents' names.

The parking was gated,

and there were cameras at every point of entrance

and in the common areas.

We didn't have cameras in the elevators

or the hallways at the time.

♪ ♪

That night, we were slow because of the snowstorm.

I remember a call coming in from Manayunk.

It was mentioned that it was a suicide.

We basically only went out to things

that were major crimes.

If it was said to be a suicide, then there would be

no reason to hold the scene.

And so basically, we didn't go out.

♪ ♪

PHIL: I'll never forget that night.

You know, it was just surreal.

And I just saw her last week.

She was so full of energy

and so looking forward to this engagement party

that they were having.

After learning how she died and that it was a suicide,

I didn't understand it.

I didn't understand it.

I remember, I guess, about 10:00,

everybody was still up in the unit.

Detectives, they sorta asked me questions.

I didn't even know what my job was at that point,

to be honest with you.

There's no blueprint or format to how you deal with that.

And I think Melissa and I were making that shit up as we went.

[heavy music]

♪ ♪

MELISSA: At that point, everyone had gone home.

It was just those that came from the coroner's office,

myself, and Ellen.

I had dealt with fires and floods and domestic issues

and thefts, but I had never dealt

with someone who had died

and having to escort the body out.

There was no discussion in the elevator.

There was dead silence.

[elevator dings]

Ellen was taken away.

And the next day, I got a call from Sam's uncle,

that they wanted to retrieve some personal effects

for the funeral.

And I called the police station

asking if I can let them into the apartment.

They said I could, and I...

I could only imagine that if there was a stab wound,

that perhaps there was blood,

and I didn't want the family to see that.

So police directed me to call a company

called Crime Scene Cleanup.

I made a phone call, and they came out.

And that's when I videotaped the apartment.

I don't know what was left in the apartment.

I know I was letting someone else in that I didn't know,

and I didn't want to be held responsible

for anything missing.

When I went into the apartment,

the thing that I remember the most is the setting.

I remember walking in and seeing

blueberries on the counter,

a couple of knives in the sink.

It was so serene.

You know, cleaning the fruit in the kitchen.

Just a... just an everyday event.

That's what it looked like.

There was laptops.

I remember the engagement ring.

And then I remember the blood.

♪ ♪

I didn't stay the entire time with the cleanup crew,

but I do remember that they had on Hazmat suits

and protective gear, and they put everything

in the dishwasher and turned it on

and wiped it up, and that was it.

[elevator dings] Two men arrived.

One was Sam's uncle.

I wanted to do my best in balancing my sympathies

and helping the family, as well as my role as property manager.

So I did stay there with them as they walked around.

I just stayed in the living room.

They weren't in there too long,

maybe... maybe 15 minutes or so.

And then I locked up behind them.

GUY: The police determine this is a suicide,

and because of that decision,

you don't have a held crime scene,

meaning it's not roped off and protected.

This apartment is being professionally cleaned

by a company called Crime Scene Cleanup.

And the very next morning,

all of Ellen's electronic devices

were taken by her fiancé's uncle,

who's not even related to Ellen.

[mysterious music]

♪ ♪

ALYSON: The morning of the 27th,

I go start shoveling out.

It's... we have, like, over a foot of snow.

9:15, my phone rings,

and it's Sandee, Ellen's mom.

And she says, Ellen took her life.

And I'm just like, oh, my God.

H... how? What?

And I... I don't even know what to say.

And I'm like, I'm so sorry.

What... and she just says,

I need you to call all the girls.

I must have said over and over, no, that's not right.

That's not right. No.

Ell... what? No.

I just... I'd seen Ellen the week before.

I just talked to Ellen.

Like, what?

I'm like, no, there's no way it's suicide.

I still think I didn't fully believe

when I called you and I'm, like,

saying these words to you.

Yeah.

And I was just...

still completely disbelieving of what had happened.

And then I picked up the phone and called Sam.

And the first words out of his mouth were,

she did this to herself.

And I just remember thinking, what are you talking about?

Why would you think that?

Why would you say that?

I was in total shock and disbelief.

[heavy music]

SARAH: Most suicides,

even if they have had ideation in the past,

the actual moment that the decision is made

is relatively short, with very little time

between the decision and the act.

And a lot of times, people want to say,

well, they couldn't possibly have died by suicide.

They had plans in their life.

There is so much bound up in it

of, what could I have done?

What should I have done? What did I miss?

So it's actually really common for families and loved ones

to refuse to accept suicide.

That doesn't mean that they're always wrong, though.

[solemn music]

♪ ♪

D'MICHELLE: The ME's office is a neutral body.

We determine cause and manner of death.

It is our responsibility to that victim

to find out the truth.

I have a forensic consulting company

where I do high-profile cases and second opinions,

and this is an unusual case

because there were mistakes from the very beginning.

At a crime scene, the crime scene itself

is under the jurisdiction of law enforcement.

However, the body and things that surround the body

or are with the body are the jurisdiction

of the medical examiner.

The medical examiner basically examines

that body at the scene.

They will look at the wounds, and they will examine the body

on a cursory method right then

to help determine at that point in time,

can I make a decision?

Is this a homicide or suicide or accident?

Sometimes you can. Sometimes you can't.

But if you're able to, you must examine that body.

That is the evidence.

Does the evidence match the story that we're hearing?

And in this case, pretty much all of that is negative.

They rushed to the belief

and really took the fiancé's word

that this was self-inflicted.

♪ ♪

SARAH: Though I wasn't involved in the investigation

at the time, while researching Ellen's case,

I noticed the home in which it happened

should have been better preserved

and the evidence on the body

should have been better preserved,

cataloged, identified.

From the materials that I've been given access to,

there are significant weaknesses.

There are no photos at the scene

of half of the wounds on her body.

She was stabbed 20 times.

And it is acknowledged that they didn't even know

half of them, the ones on the back,

were present until the autopsy.

GUY: There are 20 stab wounds, multiple stab wounds

to the back of the neck, a huge blunt-force trauma

from a knife to the head.

How was this ruled a suicide?

D'MICHELLE: I have investigated

stabbing suicides in my career.

I've never seen anyone stab themselves in the back.

There are specific wounds that typically

we would call hesitation wounds.

They are usually with suicide,

and they're very shallow attempts at injury to yourself.

There are some that I would call that on Ellen's body.

However, a stabbing of this nature with so many wounds

is just very atypical.

GUY: When Ellen Greenberg's body was taken

to the medical examiner's office,

the medical examiner, Marlon Osbourne,

looked at the body and looked at the evidence,

and he, in fact, ruled this death a homicide.

So they're gonna be able to get a real investigation,

and this family is finally gonna get a call.

Your daughter, Ellen, did not kill herself.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

ALYSON: Ellen died on January 26th,

and the funeral was just two days later,

which is typical in Jewish custom.

Burials are very quick.

♪ ♪

AMY: We went together in the snowstorm.

And it was packed. Do you remember?

We were, like, all the way in the back.

It was packed.

BRUCE: A lot of people.

And it was a miserable snow.

Snow up to your ankles at that point,

especially in Harrisburg.

ALYSON: There was clearly a divide at that funeral.

Ellen's family all was on the right,

then Sam's on the left.

Two separate sides.

It was a very awkward feeling and situation.

♪ ♪

BRUCE: I was directly behind Sam.

When we walked into the funeral home,

he turned around,

and he looked at me, and I've never seen

a face more contorted with anguish in my life.

He didn't look like himself.

I got chills.

♪ ♪

AMY: I remember Sam wailing.

Wailing.

Yeah.

It was a lot.

♪ ♪

DEBBIE: That morning of the funeral,

I got a phone call from my best friend.

She said, oh, my God, Ellen's story is on the news,

and it is now a homicide.

Now a serious warning for women.

The search is on for a suspect following a murder in Manayunk.

REPORTER: Police crime scene specialists were back

at the Venice Lofts apartments,

collecting potential evidence

from Ellen Rae Greenberg's sixth-floor apartment.

Presently, they have no suspects

or motive in the case.

We were like, wait, what?

Like, what do you mean?

It's all over the news in Philadelphia.

We had no idea.

Sandee and Josh were never called

by Philadelphia Police or anybody.

I told them.

♪ ♪

JOSH: We found out that it was now considered a homicide.

And then I had to give a eulogy.

I asked everyone to close your eyes and just think of Ellen,

and Ellen will be there.

She'll still be in your mind's eye.

Josh got up there, and he shared the news

of what had come out actually on the...

on the news stations in Philadelphia that morning.

♪ ♪

SANDEE: He announced it.

And you could hear a pin drop.

ALYSON: It was like a hush went over,

you know, the crowd there.

It was alarming.

I mean, my God, the medical examiner

had changed it to homicide.

♪ ♪

DEBBIE: We went to the cemetery,

and I remember pulling the rabbi aside and saying,

are we burying her?

And he's like, if we're at the cemetery,

she's getting buried.

ALYSON: In Jewish custom, the body is prepared

in a certain way, and the women in the community

who prepared Ellen's body, word had gotten out

about what they had seen.

All of the sudden, that suicide narrative was long gone.

♪ ♪

Here we all are there, and no one's talking

about the big elephant in the room.

If it was a homicide, who could have done

anything like that to Ellen?