Police arrested a suspect Thursday for the murder of 51-year-old Orsolya Gaal in her Forest Hills home Saturday (Photo: Facebook and Google Maps)
April 21, 2022 By Allie Griffin
The longtime lover of a married Forest Hills woman, whose bloodied body was found stuffed in a duffel bag on the side of the road Saturday, confessed to her slaying and was charged with murder Thursday.
The alleged killer, 44-year-old David Bonola of South Richmond Hill, was arrested for allegedly stabbing Orsolya Gaal to death and dumping her body off the side of the Jackie Robinson Parkway near Metropolitan Avenue.
Bonola, who worked as a handyman for the victim’s family, allegedly stabbed Gaal, a 51-year-old wife and mother of two teenage boys, more than 55 times inside her home on Juno Street sometime after midnight Saturday, police said at a press conference Thursday.
He was charged with murder, criminal tampering and criminal possession of a weapon after police spotted him outside his home Wednesday night.
Bonola and Gaal had an on-and-off romantic affair for about two years and had rekindled their relationship in early April, only to have broken things off once again.
Gaal arrived home from a night out at Lincoln Center and a local bar 20 minutes after midnight Saturday. Bonola entered the home shortly after — either let in by Gaal or by using a key hidden in the family’s outdoor grill, police said.
Bonola and Gaal got into a heated argument over their relationship in the home’s basement, which turned deadly. Bonola is believed to have used a knife from the family’s kitchen to stab Gaal to death as her 13-year-old son slept upstairs, police.
“A knife is brandished, a violent struggle ensues, resulting in our victim being stabbed ruthlessly and brutally in excess of 55 times, causing her demise,” NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said at the news conference.
Bonola then allegedly jammed Gaal’s body into one of her son’s hockey bags and dragged it several blocks — leaving a blood trail from her home to the sidewalk near the Jackie Robinson Parkway, where he dumped the body bag.
Gaal was killed at her Juno Street home last weekend before being stuffed into a duffle bag and dumped on the side of the road on Metropolitan Avenue near the Jackie Robinson Parkway overpass, pictured (Photo: Google Maps)
Doorbell video caught the suspect lugging the duffel bag down the street, “leaving a bloody trail through the streets of Forest Hills,” Essig said.
A person walking their dog found the hockey bag with Gaal’s remains just before 8 a.m. Saturday.
Police believe Bonola fled through Forest Park after disposing of the body. Investigators found the jacket they suspect he wore during the slaying inside the park as well as boots, a t-shirt and bloody bandages.
Bonola also received treatment for wounds to both hands at an area hospital the same day Gaal’s body was found, police said.
Gaal reportedly put up a fight against her killer. Investigators found defensive wounds on her hands.
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