Ellen Goldberg: Suicide or Murder?

Ellen was a 27-year-old teacher, found dead in her kitchen by her fiancé in January of 2011. She had a 10-inch knife in her chest and 23 stab and incision wounds in her head, neck, and front torso. Though this is true, authorities ruled her death a suicide. The wounds on her body were classified as “hesitation wounds.” This, along with the fact that no defensive wounds were found, led Chief Medical Examiner Dr Lindsay Simon to believe Ellen could have done this to herself. Any evidence of foul play was most likely removed from the scene before a proper look-through could be conducted. It has also been noted that Ellen suffered from anxiety, mostly due to her job. At the time of her death, it had been reported that her fiancé, Sam Goldberg, was at the gym. When he came back up to their shared apartment around 5:30, the door was latched from the inside, where Ellen was lying lifeless on the floor. He couldn’t get in at first, eventually breaking down the door an hour after he had gotten back from the gym. Surveillance footage confirms that he had not gone in or out of the building through the front lobby in the 40 minutes he had been at the gym. This proves that he could not have committed the murder. So that leaves the question: who did it? There was no sign of forced entry, no signs of struggle, nothing that could indicate a murder. So how exactly did this happen? Her parents revealed that Ellen had anxiety for a few weeks leading up to her death, and that the day of her death was the day that grades were due. A lot was going on, and she had explained to her parents that she didn’t quite feel like herself. All signs are pointing to suicide now. But the autopsy reported wounds to the back of her head and neck, something she could not have done herself, especially if she had also stabbed herself in the front too. Could the killer have been someone she trusted enough to let in? Did she somehow manage to kill herself? Could the killer even be a secret lover, either of hers or her fiancé’s? Could it somehow be the fiancé himself? These may be the questions that are never answered. We may never know what happened on that fateful evening. With no witnesses, no one can tell us for sure what may have happened.

Reviews

[lizzie]

Hey! I really enjoyed your story especially the emotional depth and smooth narrative progression. It naturally sparked visual ideas while I was reading.
I’m a commission-based comic/webtoon artist, and I’d love to chat if a visual adaptation is something you’d like to explore.
Instagram: lizziedoesitall

[CJ]

That sounds really cool! I unfortunately do not have any social media but is there another way we could talk?