Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Ellen Greenberg case, explained

As a potential vice presidential candidate, Gov. Josh Shapiro has come under scrutiny for a review his office conducted of one of Philadelphia’s most perplexing death cases while he served as state attorney general.

Conspiracy theories swarmed online over the weekend about Shapiro’s involvement in reviewing the death of Ellen Greenberg. Greenberg, 27, died in her Manayunk apartment in 2011 by 20 stab wounds and the case was ruled a homicide, then switched to suicide.

For 13 years, Greenberg’s parents, Joshua and Sandra of Harrisburg, have fought to get the manner of their daughter’s death changed back to homicide or undetermined. They’ve amassed a cadre of forensic experts who’ve questioned the suicide ruling, as first detailed in a March 2019 Inquirer report.

Shapiro’s involvement in the case began when the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office was tasked with reviewing it in 2018. His office stood by the city’s 2011 suicide ruling in 2019 and continued to do so through 2022, when it referred the case to another office after critics claimed Shapiro had connections to Greenberg’s fiancé's family. While the AG’s Office insisted there was no conflict of interest, a spokesperson said at the time they referred it due to “the appearance of a conflict.”

Shapiro himself has never publicly spoken about the case or his office’s investigation into it.

But as he is in the national spotlight as a potential running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris, misinformation about the case and Shapiro’s involvement in it are spreading.

A spokesperson for Shapiro did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Meanwhile, the case is still tied up in the legal system. Last year, the Commonwealth Court called the city’s investigation into the case “deeply flawed,” and just last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to take up the Greenbergs’ civil case against the city.

Here’s what you need to know about Greenberg’s death, the investigation and subsequent reviews of it, and Shapiro’s involvement as attorney general:

Greenberg, 27, was found by her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg, in the kitchen of their Manayunk apartment with a 10-inch knife lodged in her chest on Jan. 26, 2011.

Investigators on the scene treated her death as a suicide because the apartment door — which Goldberg said he broke down — was locked from the inside, there were no signs of an intruder, and Greenberg had no defensive wounds, police have said.

But the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office discovered a total of 20 stab wounds to Greenberg’s body — including 10 to the back of her neck — along with 11 bruises in various stages of healing, and ruled her death a homicide.

Police publicly disputed the findings, citing “mental issues” Greenberg may have had, and the Medical Examiner’s Office later changed the ruling to suicide.

Greenberg was dealing with anxiety, had met with a psychiatrist, and was prescribed antianxiety and sleep aid medications. Greenberg’s psychiatrist told police Greenberg felt overwhelmed at work, but “there was never any feeling of suicidal thoughts,” and according to the medical examiner’s investigation report, there was nothing indicative of suicide found on Greenberg’s computers.

She did not leave behind a note.

In reversing its homicide ruling, the Medical Examiner’s Office relied heavily on what it said were the findings of an outside neuropathologist, Lucy Rorke-Adams, who allegedly determined Greenberg’s spinal cord wasn’t damaged by the wounds to the back of her neck, which would have allowed her to inflict the subsequent wounds on herself, including the final plunge to her chest.

But nobody has ever been able to produce that neuropathology report, or an invoice for it, and Rorke-Adams previously told The Inquirer that she had no recollection of the case.

In 2012, the Greenbergs hired then-civil rights attorney Larry Krasner in their search for answers. He convened a meeting for the Greenbergs with police officials and the District Attorney’s Office in an effort to get the investigation reopened, but nothing came of it, the Greenbergs said.

When Krasner became Philadelphia District Attorney in 2018, the Greenbergs reached back out to their old lawyer to see if he’d reopen the investigation. Krasner referred the matter to the state AG’s Office, then helmed by Shapiro, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Shapiro’s office had the case for more than a year. It was only when The Inquirer pressed the office for answers that Shapiro’s spokesperson at the time, Joe Grace (now spokesperson for Mayor Cherelle L. Parker), said in a 2019 statement that the office had conducted a “thorough investigation” and that the “evidence supports ‘Suicide’ as the manner of death” and the AG has “closed this investigation.”

Grace pointed to search history on Greenberg’s computer that included the search terms suicide methods, quick suicide, and painless suicide.

When asked why the medical examiner’s April 15, 2011, report said nothing indicative of suicide had been found on Greenberg’s computer, Grace said his office didn’t find the analysis in the DA’s file, so “we cannot say if anyone, police or prosecutor, ever looked at it,” Grace wrote.

When asked about the neuropathology exam, Grace said, “Dr. Rorke-Adams has no independent recollection of participating in the investigation and we have not found a copy of the report.” Still, the office believed there was “ample evidence” that the neuropathology exam happened based on a line about it in the autopsy report and statements from two detectives.

In 2019, the Greenbergs sued the Medical Examiner’s Office and the pathologist who conducted the autopsy, seeking to have the manner of their daughter’s death changed back to homicide or undetermined.

Additional details about the case came to light through that civil lawsuit, including Goldberg’s call to 911, new information about the unusual process around how Greenberg’s death was classified, and new testimony about whether one of the wounds to her neck was possibly administered after she died.

In late 2021, a lawyer for the Greenbergs delivered depositions and other records obtained as a result of that civil suit to the AG’s Office — which was still run by Shapiro — in the hopes it would reopen the case. But at that time, AG spokesperson Molly Stieber said the information “brought to light no new facts in this case,” and the office stood by the suicide ruling.

As the case gained attention in online forums and true crime podcasts over the years, various conspiracy theories started to swirl, including one which alleged Shapiro was familiar with family members of Goldberg, Greenberg’s fiancé. When members of the media asked the AG’s Office for comment on the allegations in 2022, the office said it did not believe a conflict of interest existed but it was referring the case back to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office out of caution.

“While the Office of Attorney General does not have an actual conflict in this matter, circumstances beyond our control have created the appearance of a conflict and our involvement is no longer serving one of the primary purposes of the District Attorney’s original conflict referral,” Stieber said via email at the time.

Due to Krasner’s own conflict of interest because he had represented the Greenbergs, his first assistant district attorney handled the referral and sent the case to the Chester County District Attorney’s Office. The Chester County DA’s Office has now had the case for two years and has made no announcement about its findings. Requests for comment about the status of its review have not been returned.

Shapiro, who resigned from his position as attorney general after he was elected governor in 2022, has not been involved in the case since the AG’s Office referred it back to Philadelphia.

In October 2021, a Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge ruled that the family’s civil lawsuit could proceed to trial. The city appealed that ruling to the Commonwealth Court.

In September, the Commonwealth Court granted the city’s appeal, noting that the Greenbergs didn’t have standing to seek a revision in their daughter’s listed manner of death.

Even though the Commonwealth Court ruled in the city’s favor, it criticized how Philadelphia authorities handled the investigation into Greenberg’s death and called it “deeply flawed.”

The Greenbergs appealed that ruling and, last week, the state Supreme Court agreed to take up the case. The court will not rule on the manner of Greenberg’s death, but will consider the issue of whether her parents have standing to challenge the listed manner of death.

A date for arguments in the appeal has not yet been set and a second civil suit the Greenbergs have filed against members of the Medical Examiner’s Office, the Police Department, and the DA’s Office seeking monetary damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress remains ongoing.