True Crime in the Delaware Valley: Susan Ledyard and Ellen Greenberg case updates

I'm really not normally a "true crime" follower, but as previously mentioned, I have been paying attention to two unsolved local investigations that somehow managed to pique my interest over the years. Today, I have some small updates on both.

In the case of Susan Ledyard, a woman who lived in Wilmington Delaware and taught at Philadelphia's Academy Park High School was found dead in Delaware's Brandywine River. According to her fitbit, Ledyard's car left her home around 3am on July 23, 2019, and it somehow wound up parked near the river. Around 7am that morning, Ledyard's body was found about 1 mile from the parked car.

I didn't know it when I wrote the first article, but beyond the fact that Ledyard lived, worked and died in the Delaware Valley, the case has a far more local connection for me. Ledyard was actually born in West Chester, PA, which is where I have lived for a couple of decades.

That's where it stood until 2023 when Ledyard's widower was arrested for assaulting his new wife.... twice.

I have been aware of some additional related events for quite some time, though I haven't taken the time to write about it until now. Ledyard's death has remained unsolved, but her widower (Benjamin) has apparently had some more police-related drama in his life. Later in 2023, he was arrested again for another domestic situation while allegedly staying in a rented apartment with yet another woman. And in August of last year Benjamin Ledyard pleaded guilty to one of the assault charges against his new wife. Finally, in December, he was sentenced to a 2 year prison sentence for that crime.

Of course, Benjamin Ledyard's legal troubles and Susan Ledyard's death may only be peripherally related, but it seems impossible to search for information about one without learning about the other. Every time I searched for updates in 2023 it seemed that her former husband's name was popping up in the search results.

The Who Killed Susan Facebook page and the Susan Morrissey Foundation are raising funds in Susan's name to support students at the Academy Park High School where she taught. (How is there no justapedia page for Susan Ledyard?)

The investigation is still open and there's also a $50K reward for information that leads to an arrest. According to the Delaware State Police,

The Morrissey family, Susan’s parents, and her siblings have been supportive of this investigation. In partnership with Delaware Crime Stoppers, they are offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Anyone with information regarding this case is urged to contact Detective Daniel Grassi by calling 302-365-#### or emailing [email protected]. Information may also be provided by contacting Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333.

The second case is, ironically, another Philadelphia area teacher. I last wrote about Ellen Greenberg about three months ago. As you may recall, Greenberg was found dead in her Manayunk apartment with 20 stab wounds in various parts of her body, but the death was somehow ruled as a suicide.

You may also recall that as a result of possible conflicts of interest, the investigation of the case was shifted from Philadelphia to the Pennsylvania state attorney general's office, and then from there to the district attorney in Chester County (which happens to be where I live).

In my previous article, I noted that the Chester County District Attorney had made a sort-of a "pre-announcement" that they might make an announcement. Well, on the Friday after election day in the United States, they made one. In the flurry of election news, I managed to overlook it for a while. Basically, they said that there's not enough evidence to determine - beyond a reasonable doubt - that Greenberg was murdered, so they're not going to overrule the cause of death. Here's the meat of the statement.

After this review, the investigative team determined that, based on the current state of the evidence, we cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed. This standard of proof—beyond a reasonable doubt—makes the criminal investigation different than other legal cases or issues that surround Ms. Greenberg’s death. Because we cannot meet our burden of proof with the information and evidence presently available, we placed this investigation in an inactive status.

There is no statute of limitations for criminal homicide in Pennsylvania, and because investigations can take new directions, we are not closing the case.

True Crime blogger, Gavin Fish gives an optimistic interpretation of this announcement for people who believe it's extremely unlikely for someone to kill herself with a stab to the back of the skull, saying,

For the first time in nearly fourteen years, an investigative agency has finally recognized what Ellen Greenberg’s family has been saying all along: Ellen’s death was not a suicide.

Chester County District Attorney Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe informed the Greenbergs in a meeting yesterday that while there isn’t enough current evidence to press criminal charges, the case would remain open. This is a huge step forward for Josh and Sandee Greenberg, who have spent years running into one brick wall after another.

And

It’s important to note, to me, anyway, that the burden of proof in a civil suit is much lower—the preponderance of the evidence—than a criminal trial. I wonder if Chester County is opening the door to a wrongful death suit against Sam Goldberg by calling Ellen’s death a criminal homicide. Until now, the Greenbergs haven’t had the ammunition of a government agency calling their daughter’s death a murder. They do now.

To the best of my knowledge, the only legal proceeding that's still pending for the Greenberg case is that the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court is set to review a lawsuit by Greenberg's parents where the plaintiffs are suing to have the cause of death changed from suicide to homicide, or even undetermined. Going from memory, I believe that lower courts have ruled that whatever the facts may be, the Greenbergs lack standing to force the Philadelphia medical examiner to make the change.

Finally, in my searches today I noticed that Greenberg's fiancé, Sam Goldberg, made his own statement in the wake of the Chester County announcement. CNN quotes him as follows (the CNN article is worth reading, in its entirety):

When Ellen took her own life it left me bewildered. She was a wonderful and a kind person who had everything to live for. When she died a part of me died with her...

...If you’re really writing a truthful story, dig deeper, and please do some good by raising awareness for mental health.

You can learn more about Greenberg's death (there's a lot to learn!) by following the Justice for Ellen pages on Facebook or Twitter.

If there's anything that I've learned from watching these two cases across the years, it's that the old saying is true. The wheels of justice certainly do turn slowly.

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Thank you for your time and attention.

As a general rule, I up-vote comments that demonstrate "proof of reading".

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Steve Palmer is an IT professional with three decades of professional experience in data communications and information systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in computer science, and a master's degree in information systems and technology management. He has been awarded 3 US patents.

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^{Pixabay license, source}

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