PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "MLT: What do you hope to inspire in viewers? "NS: I want people to know Ellen’s story. I want people to feel what a beautiful person she was and feel very sad for what happened to her. I want the family to know that people care and want to see justice."
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STORY: "Bryn Mawr Native Nancy Schwartzman Investigates a Shocking Homicide," by Managing Editor Gina Lizzo, published by Main Line Today, on November 7, 2025.
SUB-HEADING: "The award-winning filmmaker partners with ABC News Studio on a three-part docuseries that looks into the death of Ellen Greenberg."
GIST: "Fourteen years after Ellen Greenberg was found stabbed to death in her Manayunk apartment, her parents continue to maintain that the case was mishandled to cover up a crime. A settlement this past February has prompted Philadelphia police to reopen the investigation of a case that was initially deemed a suicide. Award-winning filmmaker and Bryn Mawr native Nancy Schwartzman has partnered with ABC News Studio for the gripping three-part docuseries “Death in Apartment 603: What Happened to Ellen Greenberg?”, which is streaming now on Hulu."
"MLT: What drew you to Ellen’s story?
NS: My work has focused over the years on investigating stories that center on victims and stories about women. Ellen certainly typifies all of that in this case. It’s also personally meaningful because I’m from the area and it feels so close to home. Meeting Ellen’s family, they felt like people I knew and could’ve grown up with.
MLT: What makes you question the case?
NS: Ellen had 20 stab wounds, 10 in the front and 10 in the back. Even if that was a homicide, that’s a violent, brutal homicide. Calling that a suicide is so outrageous—it just doesn’t add up. The medical examiner who did the initial examination has gone back and said this is not a suicide.
MLT: In your research, what evidence surprised you the most?
NS: Certainly the bruising on her body. There were a bunch of bruises and actually some distress to her neck that had been left out of the medical examiner’s initial report. One of the knife wounds was inflicted and did not show hemorrhage, which means it was inflicted after she was dead.
MLT: What were your priorities while filming?
NS: I wanted to keep her humanity and who she was as a beloved friend, neighbor and teacher at the center of everything. But I also wanted to be really clear about what happened to her and her body and how suicide is just phenomenally unlikely in this case. Normally, I wouldn’t show wounding in the way I did in this project, but if the city’s calling it a suicide, I wanted people to see the wounding—because it’s extreme and brutal. The stuff happening in the back of her head is so impossible to imagine as a suicide.
MLT: What do you hope to inspire in viewers?
NS: I want people to know Ellen’s story. I want people to feel what a beautiful person she was and feel very sad for what happened to her. I want the family to know that people care and want to see justice."
The entire story can be read at:
https://mainlinetoday.com/life-style/nancy-schwartzman-ellen-greenberg/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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