Kriti Mehrotra
It was January 26, 2011, when the world turned upside down for an entire community as 27-year-old Ellen Greenberg was found dead inside her apartment in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to ABC’s/Hulu’s ‘Death in Apartment 603: What Happened to Ellen Greenberg?,’ she died from over 20 stab wounds across her upper body, half of which were to her back and neck. However, despite her extensive injuries and the old bruises on her, the officials, as well as her then-fiancé, Samuel “Sam” Hankin Goldberg, have reportedly always believed she died of suicide.
Sam Goldberg and Ellen Greenberg Reportedly Shared a Loving Relationship
Born around 1982 to Pennsylvania natives Mindy and Richard Goldberg, Sam Goldberg had a childhood full of comforts thanks to his father being a rather successful businessman. In fact, he was the owner of All Star Shredding, a confidential document destruction and recycling company in New Castle, Delaware. Nevertheless, from an early age, Sam’s interests were more untraditional, such as entertainment and sports, driving him to pursue a Bachelor’s in Broadcasting and Mass Media from Temple University (2001-2004) after he graduated from high school.
Sam reportedly kickstarted his career as a producer at NBC Sports not long after earning his degree, and it was while he was still working there a few years later that he first came across Ellen Greenberg. The duo met on a blind date through mutual friends, considering they hailed from the tight-knit Jewish community in Philadelphia, and there were immediate sparks. Their beliefs, values, and expectations for the future all aligned to a tee, so they became official not long after. Sam even invited her out across the country to be with him while he was covering the PGA Tour, which further strengthened their bond.
Therefore, by the time 2o11 rolled around, the couple was not only living together in apartment 603 at Venice Lofts in the Manayunk neighborhood but were also planning for their future together. After all, Sam had proposed to Ellen in the summer of 2010 after 3 reportedly beautifully stable years together, and they were planning to tie the knot in August 2011. They had even sent out their save-the-dates on January 22, 2011, making it clear they were still in sync as well as excited to start a new chapter together. Yet, everything changed merely 4 days later as Ellen was found fatally stabbed inside their locked apartment.
Sam Goldberg Found His Fiancée Unresponsive in Their Home
According to the aforementioned series, Ellen was having anxiety issues in 2010 and was wondering if she could quit her job as a first-grade teacher because of how stressful it was. Sam was reportedly as supportive as he could be while still encouraging her not to walk away from her career, and this was evident in the notes his fiancée’s psychiatrist kept. Ellen had started seeing the professional in the hopes of getting better, and the latter not only prescribed her medication but also kept detailed notes on their session. In it, it was penned that Ellen’s face always lit up when she spoke of Sam or about getting married.
In other words, Ellen didn’t seem to have any suicidal ideations. Nevertheless, when Sam found her half-perched in their kitchen at around 6:30 pm with a 10-inch knife sticking from out of her chest, he told the 911 dispatcher she had “stabbed herself” or had fallen on the knife. A blizzard had started to hit the city at around noon, so Ellen was let out of work early, reportedly arriving back home at around 1:40 am. According to Sam, she was still alive and well when he left for the gym at 4:45 pm, only to not open their door when he returned roughly half an hour later. He initially believed she was either showering, blow-drying her hair, or working with headphones on, which annoyed him.
That’s why Sam incessantly began texting Ellen, escalating from “Hello” to “open the door” to “you better have an excuse” over the period of an hour. He briefly went back to the lobby twice, once to ask the concierge to call maintenance and the other to let them know he was going to break down his door. That’s allegedly what he did at around 6:30 pm, just to find his partner half-propped up by the corner kitchen cabinet with blood all over and around her. He thus called 911, and it was reportedly only when the dispatcher was guiding him to administer CPR that he noticed the 10-inch slim knife sticking out from her chest. It was then that he assumed she had fallen on it or stabbed herself.
Sam Goldberg Has Always Believed His Fiancee Died by Suicide
Owing to Sam’s statements on the 911 calls and the position of Ellen’s remains, officials ruled her death to be suicide at the scene. Therefore, the scene was protected, and no real evidence was gathered from there, which ended up being a cause of concern a couple of days later because her autopsy ruled her death a homicide. That’s because it was during the autopsy that the 10 cuts on her neck and back were seen, identified, and examined. The police opened an investigation into the matter, but owing to a lack of defensive wounds on her remains, the assumption was that her bruises were likely a side effect of her new anti-anxiety medication and her recent mental health struggles; her case was closed as a suicide.
According to the aforementioned show, Sam initially kept in contact with Ellen’s mother, friends, and extended family, but he never questioned anything regarding how his partner died. He reportedly didn’t wonder how she had stab wounds on her back or pay much heed to any other speculation, including why his uncle had grabbed her personal items from their home prior to her funeral. As per records, since he had allegedly broken the front door’s latch, his uncle didn’t want her devices to be stolen, and he understood the police’s reasoning for closing the case as a suicide.
Since then, despite Ellen’s parents’ fight to attain what they believe to be justice for her, Sam has rarely spoken on the matter in public. He only broke his silence in 2024 in a statement to CNN, which read, in part, “When Ellen took her own life, it left me bewildered… When she died, a part of me died with her. Unimaginably, in the years that have passed, I have had to endure the unimaginable passing of my future wife and the pathetic and despicable attempts to desecrate my reputation and her privacy by creating a narrative that embraces lies, distortions, and falsehoods in order to avoid the truth. Mental illness is very real and has many victims… do some good by raising awareness for mental health.”
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Sam Goldberg Has Since Moved Forward in Life Both Personally and Professionally
While the days, months, and years following Ellen’s death were hard for Sam, he eventually found love again in a fashion industry professional named Caroline Shnay. Their relationship was so mutually deep and fulfilling that they actually tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in early January 2014 at the Plaza in New York. Since then, they have reportedly settled down in New York City, New York, where they have welcomed at least one beautiful daughter named Lola into their lives. As per Caroline herself, Sam is a great husband and a truly hands-on father, making him the ideal man for her. “He is also a star in the kitchen,” she said in an interview, which focused on her sharing that she quit her job to spend more time with her growing family. “Besides from me breastfeeding… Sam has cooked most of (our daughter’s) meals.”
Coming to Sam’s professional standing, it appears as if he served at NBC Sports as a Producer turned Associate Director until October 2018. He then juggled his responsibilities as a Segment Producer at Comedy Central and a Senior Producer at GOLF Magazine from 2018 to 2020 before eventually spreading his wings by focusing on golf alone. He landed the positions of Supervising Producer and Director of the European Tour at Golf Channel in November 2020, which he proudly maintained until February 2025. During this period, he even served as a Freelance Producer for the PGA TOUR LIVE from January 2022 to August 2023. Yet, today, in his early 40s, the creative three-time Sports Emmy Award winner with experience covering major golf tours and multiple Olympic Games is a full-fledged Freelance Senior Producer based out of New York.
