Judge's bombshell response to 'suicide' death of teacher Ellen Greenberg from TWENTY stab wounds

A judge has slammed officials who ruled the death of a teacher found with 20 stab wounds a suicide, calling her cause of death 'puzzling'. 

Ellen Greenberg, 27, was found dead on the kitchen floor of her apartment in Philadelphia in the middle of a blizzard on January 26, 2011.

She had 10 stab wounds to her neck and the back of the head, and 10 to her stomach, abdomen and chest - with a 10-inch knife still plunged into her heart.

Assistant Philadelphia Medical Examiner Marlon Osbourne initially ruled her death a homicide, but changed it to suicide after a meeting with police and prosecutors. 

Earlier this month, a judge told her parents Josh and Sandee Greenberg that the decision to switch the ruling baffled him as well. 

Judge Michael Erdos made the comments during a hearing as part of the parents ongoing lawsuit they filed that accused officials of covering up their daughters death.

It was the first time that her parents had sat in a courtroom and listened to arguments in the case. 

Erdos said: 'I don't think anyone disagrees the crime scene should have been handled differently. The fact the death certificate lists the cause of death as suicide is puzzling.'

Fox News reported that Erdos dismissed one of the defendants in the lawsuit but witheld judgement on four others. 

Erdos also asked the attorney representing the Greenbergs to file briefs outlining how he plans on showing a jury how they 'intentionally inflicted emotional distress' upon the Greenbergs. 

The judge added: 'It’s a steep climb but not an impossible climb. You have a fighting chance.'

The defendant that was dismissed was Lyndsey Emery, a former pathologist with the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office. 

The others named in the suit include Osbourne, former Chief Medical Examiner Sam Gulino, retired Sgt. Tim Cooney and Detective John McNamee. 

As the years have dragged on, pathologists, crime scene experts, law enforcement and lawyers have expressed doubts over the suicide ruling. 

The knife went through her chest and pierced her liver, slashed her aorta and severed the dura mater, the membrane surrounding her spinal column. 

Another wound was more than three inches deep, near the base of her skull, and caused a bleeding stroke. 

Greenberg's fiancé Samuel Goldberg called 911 saying he found her in a pool of blood after forcing his way inside the apartment when she wouldn't answer.

He has spent the past decade as a target of suspicion by those convinced Greenberg was murdered.

For the last 13 years Goldberg has always stuck to his story that he returned from the gym in the building and realized he had locked himself out. 

Speaking for the first time recently to CNN, Goldberg said: '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.

'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. I hope and pray that you never lose someone you love like I did to a terrible disease and then be accused by ignorant and misinformed people of causing her death.'

Over the course of 22 minutes he sent her nine messages while his fiancée lay dead on their kitchen floor.

In order, he texted her: 'Hello', 'open the door', 'what r u doin', 'I'm getting p*****', 'hello', 'you better have an excuse', 'what the f***', 'ahhh', and 'u have no idea'. 

Greenberg earlier texted her friend Alycia Young about 3:40pm and mentioned ongoing trouble in her work as a teacher, which according to friends was causing her stress, a CNN Investigation reported.

Those were the last outgoing text messages sent from her mobile phone, with Goldberg's cell also going silent around then, according to records. 

His phone data also showed frequent and regular call activity in the day before her death, other than a gap between 4 pm and 7 pm. 

The routine of call-making continued the next morning and afternoon, but he was radio silent from 3:40 pm until 5:30 pm on the day she died. 

Surveillance footage showed him getting off the elevator and walking towards the gym in the building at 4:50 pm where he told cops he used the elliptical for a half hour.

At 5:26 pm he was then seen walking towards the concierge desk to check his mail before he then returned to his apartment and realized he was locked out. 

When asked by detectives why he didn't force the door right away, he said: 'I thought she was in the shower, doing her hair, or doing work with her headphones on, or even taking a nap.'

In his 911 call, Goldberg can be heard telling the operator, who had to urge him to perform CPR: 'She fell on a knife. Oh no, her knife's sticking out.'

Goldberg is increasingly in the minority in his insistence that Greenberg killed herself, particularly given the number and location of her stab wounds.

Greenberg's parents have fought for years to get her manner of death in the autopsy report and death certificate changed from suicide to homicide or undetermined.

After amassing a wealth of evidence pointing to homicide, they sued the ME's office and Osborne in 2019 but were rejected by the Commonwealth Court last September.

But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted their request in July to hear an appeal as a 'matter of statewide importance'.

Goldberg has never been charged, and moved on with Caroline Fay Shnay, the daughter of well-off real estate agents, whom he married at the Plaza in New York City on January 11, 2014, almost exactly three years after Greenberg's death.