More than two years after the Chester County District Attorney’s Office was tasked with the reinvestigation case of Ellen Greenberg — whose 20-stabbing death in 2011 was ruled a homicide, then ruled a suicide by Philadelphia authorities — announced Friday that “based on the current state of the evidence” it cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she was a crime committed.

“Because we are unable to meet our burden of proof with the information and evidence currently available, we have placed this investigation on inactive status,” an emailed news release said. “There is no statute of limitations for criminal homicide in Pennsylvania, and because investigations may take new directions, we are not closing the case.”

Joseph Podraza Jr., the attorney for Greenberg’s parents, Joshua and Sandra Greenberg of Harrisburg, said in an emailed statement that they remain firm in their belief that Ellen Greenberg was murdered and called the Chester County District Attorney’s investigation “extremely of limited and constrained”.

“The office told us that they did not investigate the underlying issues that we raised that establish that Ellen was murdered and that the evidence remains undisputed,” Podraza said. “Despite these unfortunate limitations and constraints, we appreciate the professional courtesy of the District Attorney in speaking with the family and frankly acknowledging all of these limitations and constraints.”

A civil action filed by Greenberg’s parents to determine whether they had the right to challenge the suicide ruling on their daughter’s death certificate was resumed on appeal this year by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and remains ongoing. The Greenbergs also have a second civil lawsuit pending, seeking monetary damages from the city and several people involved in the investigation into their daughter’s death.

In its news release, the Chester County District Attorney’s Office, which is led by District Attorney Christopher DeBarrena-Sarobe, noted that the standard of proof for a criminal investigation — beyond a reasonable doubt — is “different than other legal cases or issues that surround the lady. . The Death of Greenberg.”

Greenberg, then 27, a first-grade teacher, was discovered by her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg, in the kitchen of their locked Manayunk apartment, with 20 stab wounds to her body and a 10-inch knife stuck in her chest on January 26, 2011.

Investigators at the scene treated her death as a suicide because the door to the apartment — which Goldberg said had broken — was locked from the inside, there were no signs of an intruder and Greenberg had no defensive injuries. the police said.

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

The police have publicly disputed the findings and the ME’s Office he later changed the ruling to suicide, with no explanation to Greenberg’s parents.

In the years since, the Greenbergs have retained experts who have raised questions about the suicide ruling and the investigation into the case, as detailed for the first time in a 2019 Applicant Report.

When the Greenbergs’ former attorney, Larry Krasner, became Philadelphia’s district attorney in 2018, they reached back to see if he would reopen the investigation into their daughter’s death.

Given his conflict of interest, Krasner’s office referred the case to the state Attorney General, who was then led by now Governor Josh Shapiro. After more than a year, the AG’s Office said it found evidence supporting suicide and closed its investigation.

In 2019, the Greenberg family sued the Philadelphia ME Office and the pathologist who performed it autopsy, seeking to have their daughter’s manner of death changed back to homicide or undetermined, given the new information and forensic experts they obtained.

As a result of the civil process, additional details and records about the case and the unusual investigation into it came to light. In 2021, Podraza gave this information to the AG’s Office, which was still headed by Shapiro, but the office honored the suicide ruling.

Over the next year, theories began to circulate on the Internet about possible connections Shapiro had with family members of Greenberg’s fiance. While the AG’s Office said there was no conflict, it sent the case back to the Philadelphia DA’s Office because of “the appearance of a conflict.”

Unable to take the case due to Krasner’s own conflict of interest, the Philadelphia DA’s office then referred him to the Chester County DA’s office, where remained from August 2022.

According to the bureau’s press release, detectives “took additional investigative steps, including, but not limited to, conducting further interviews and consulting with an independent forensic expert.”

In his statement, Podraza said the expert the office consulted has a bachelor’s degree in entomology (the study of insects) and a master’s degree in criminal justice, but no training in medical or forensic pathology.

The Chester County District Attorney’s Office said its detectives also conducted a review of previous investigations by the Philadelphia Police Department and the AG’s Office.

But the validity of the police department’s investigation has already been called into question by the Commonwealth Court, which called it “deeply flawed” in a 2023 ruling.

That court heard the case on appeal after the city contested Greenberg’s first civil lawsuit in 2019. The city argued that Greenberg had no standing to request a change to their daughter’s death certificate. In 2-1 deciding last yearThe Commonwealth Court said it had “no choice as a matter of law” but to accept the city’s appeal to prevent a civil suit from going to trial.

But the Greenbergs and Podraza appealed the Commonwealth Court decision, and in July the Pennsylvania Supreme Court — the state’s highest court — agreed to hear the case. The court will not rule on Greenberg’s manner of death, but will consider whether her parents have standing to challenge the listed manner of death.

A date has not yet been set for arguments in the Supreme Court case, but they are expected to take place next year.

A second civil lawsuit Greenberg filed against members of the ME’s Bureau, the police department and the DA’s Office, seeking monetary damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress, remains pending in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.

“We now look forward to a future trial where a full and direct examination of the critical issues surrounding Ellen’s killing can be conducted publicly before an independent judge and a jury of our peers,” Podraza said.