Police in New York have charged a suspect with the murder of Orsolya Gaal, who was found stabbed to death inside a duffel bag abandoned in Queens last weekend.
David Bonola, 44, who worked as a handyman for Gaal — and who allegedly was involved in an on/off affair with the married mother-of-two for some years — admitted his guilt when questioned by detectives, NBC New York reported.
Police say Bonola, who lives not far from her Forest Hills home, made his way there around 12:40 AM the morning of the murder, shortly after Gaal had returned home from a night out, having gone to a show with friends before going to a local bar alone.
They allege the two got into a “heated argument” in the basement, during which Bonola “ruthlessly and brutally” stabbed her repeatedly with one of her own kitchen knives. The knife was later recovered at the scene.
He stabbed her with such violence his clothes ended up covered in blood, per authorities; he also received wounds to his hands from when police believe Gaal was fighting for her life.
Investigators say Bonola then stuffed her body into her son’s hockey bag, before dragging it out of the house and down the street, leaving a trail of blood behind him, before ultimately dumping it off the sidewalk and fleeing.
The pair last had a romantic interaction in April, according to police; they say the lovers were “off” at the time of the killing.
According to the New York Daily News, police believe Bonola was aware the family kept a spare key to the house hidden in an outdoor barbecue grill, but it is unclear if he used it to let himself inside, or he was invited in by the victim.
Bonola had previously made a number of flirty comments on Gaal’s Facebook posts, the outlet reported, declaring “es la mujer mas hermosa” (“she is the most beautiful woman”) on a profile picture last year; and in a more recent response to a Mother’s Day post — seemingly quoting the Luis Miguel song — he wrote “tu mirada enamorada” (“your in love look”).
Bonola was charged on Thursday with murder, criminal tampering and criminal possession of a weapon.
He only has one previous, unrelated arrest from 2013.
A New York mother was murdered in her own home, dragged half a mile inside a duffel bag and dumped on a sidewalk — before the killer texted her husband a chilling warning from her phone, according to police.
The body of 51-year-old mom-of-two Orsolya Gaal was discovered inside the blood-soaked hockey bag by a man walking his dogs in Queens around 8 AM Saturday morning.
Following the trail of blood led police to her $2million home in upscale Forrest Hills, where they believe she was murdered in the basement.
Surveillance footage shows the suspect dragging the bag out of the house, before it was eventually dumped on a grass verge near the intersection of Metropolitan Avenue and Jackie Robinson Parkway.
Investigators told PIX11 that the suspect used the victim’s phone to text her husband: “Your wife sent me to jail some years ago…I’m back. Don’t call the police or I will kill your family.”
Her husband Howard Klein was in Oregon with their older son, 17, visiting colleges at the time of the attack, according to a since-deleted tweet he posted, per the New York Post.
The couple’s youngest son, aged 13, was at home when a team of 30 police officers descended on it Saturday morning; he was taken away in handcuffs and questioned, but later released without charge.
Police sources told PIX11 that Gaal had told the boy she was going to a show on Friday night, but met up with a man she knew instead; investigators believe this man is the culprit.
After learning what happened, Klein immediately made arrangements to fly back; contacted by the New York Post, he said he was “in the middle of a terrible experience.”
“[My son] Leo is safe. Thank God [my son] is safe,” he told the outlet.
“There are concerns about our safety,” Klein — a founding partner at technology metals investment advisors RK Equity — added. “Our lives are at risk.”
Investigators say Gaal was murdered some time between 11 PM Friday night, when she returned to the house, and 4:30 AM, when the suspect was seen dragging the bag down the street.
Police sources told NBC News she was stabbed 58 times.
The man who made the gristly discovery, 51-year-old Glenn Van Nostrand, told the Post he thought the wheeled Bauer hockey duffel bag had simply been discarded — until his two Rhodesian ridgebacks became agitated.
“They are scent hounds,” he said. “They see the world through their noses.”
He decided to look inside and saw a foot, then a hip, but still did not realize what he had found.
“But to me it looked a mannequin,” he said. “It didn’t look very fleshy. It was more like a crash test dummy. I thought it was maybe some equipment being used for something. I didn’t think anything of it.”
Looking closer, he saw black, ankle-length jeans, a belt and a woman’s waist… and then the blood. He realized it was a woman’s body, curled up in a fetal position.
“I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness,’ and called police at 8:05 a.m. and said there’s a body in this bag,” he said.
After police arrived and he gave his report, Van Nostrand said he tried to take his dogs home, but they kept pulling him to a spot 100 yards from where the bag was found — where a patch of fresh blood was then discovered.
“They kept pulling me,” he said. “Some of the cops followed me and the dogs to it.”
The trail of blood would eventually lead police all the way back to the scene of the murder.
“It’s shocking,” Van Nostrand said. “My personal feeling is a broken heart for whoever this is. My heart was in my throat the entire time.”
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