ORSOLYA Gaal’s teen son was dragged through a police station in handcuffs without any shoes on after she was murdered in the basement of their home while he slept upstairs, a witness claims.
Gaal, 51, was found butchered to death inside a blood-soaked hockey bag in Queens, New York, on Saturday morning after allegedly being stabbed to death by her handyman lover in a jealous rage.
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The grisly discovery was made by Glenn Van Nostrand who happened across the bag while walking his dogs near Forest Park at 8am.
Nostrand told The US Sun how he nudged the bag with his foot before looking inside to find the body of a lifeless woman in the fetal position.
He immediately called 911 and police raced to the scene, soon discovering a trail of blood that led them all way back to a $2 million Tudor-style home on Juno Street where Gaal lived with her husband and two teenage sons.
A knock on the door would yield no sign of Gaal. Her confused 13-year-old son answered, telling investigators his dad and older brother were out of town and he “didn’t know” where his mom was.
The young teen was handcuffed and taken to the NYPD’s 110th precinct for questioning.
Nostrand had been waiting inside the station to give a statement when the boy was brought in.
He recounted for The US Sun how the teen was “dragged” through the station with no shoes on and wearing what appeared to be pajamas.
Nostrand wouldn’t realize who the boy was until hours later when Gaal’s body was officially identified by police.
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“His head was kind of down, like pitched a little forward, and I mean he was brought right past me,” he said. “It was, like, 1-2-3 and he was gone, brought around the corner of the station and taken into a room that I couldn’t see into.”
The 13-year-old, who The Sun is not naming, was held for question for a short while before being ruled out as a potential suspect.
He was released into the care of a relative while his father, Howard Klein, traveled back to New York from Ann Harbor, Michigan, where he had been touring prospective colleges with they boy’s older sibling.
‘JUST A KID’
Nostrand said his thoughts immediately went to the young teen and the rest of Gaal’s family when she was named as the woman he’d found dead.
“I mean, it’s such a sad story because I’m thinking from the kid’s point of view and how terrible it is that this woman had to endure this,” Nostrand said.
“I don’t care if they’re 17 and 13, they are children. I can’t imagine how it’s going to affect the rest of their lives.”
He added: “I feel really, really, really, really said for these kids, because they’re going to need some help.
“Especially the one who I saw who was home when it happened, I can’t imagine what he’s going through.”
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Nostrand said he’s still coming to terms with what he saw when he happened upon the bag containing Gaal’s body on Saturday morning, describing the experience as surreal.
He said he spotted the bag from more than 100 yards away, but it wasn’t until he was standing over it that he noticed a pool of blood pouring out from the bottom.
He decided to nudge the bag with the side of his leg and he felt something heavy.
“And I mean really heavy,” he said. “It was really heavy from all the blood. I was like, ‘oh boy.'”
At first, Nostrand thought a large dog or another big animal might be inside. He said he’s previously seen all kinds of “crazy s**t” in and around Forest Park, including a severed pig’s head he’d happened upon weeks earlier.
“I decided to open the bag,” Nostrand said. “I’m right-handed so I used my right hand to pull the zipper down and I just saw this pair of bare feet, pale bare feet, and I just thought ‘oh my gosh.'”
Nostrand unzipped the bag a little further. He saw black ankle-length skinny jeans, a belt, and the top of a woman’s waist.
The body, he said, was in the fetal position and had been placed in the bag head-first.
He poked the body with two fingers and, after realizing it was cold to the touch, immediately stepped back and dialed 911. Dispatchers received the call at 8.02am.
“That’s when it all really hit me emotionally,” he said. “I could feel this unsettling feeling rising up through my throat and I felt quite choked up.
“By this point, my dogs were going crazy,” he added. “I honestly thought the body was of a teenage girl because it seemed so small.
“But I was on the phone to the operator who kept asking me in a number of different ways whether the person was still alive. I kept telling her no, can you just bring someone down here.”
HANDYMAN’S CONFESSION
The apparent truth of what happened to Gaal wouldn’t be realized for almost another five days until David Bonola, the married mother’s secret boyfriend of two years, was taken into custody at NYPD’s 112th Precinct on Wednesday night.
Under interrogation, police say Bonola made several “incriminating statements” before allegedly confessing to the crime.
According to police, Bonola admitted he’d been in an “off again, on again” relationship with Gaal for the last two years, but the extra-marital tryst had recently come to an end.
He told them he’d seen texts Gaal had exchanged with another man and went over to her home to discuss their relationship just after midnight on Saturday.
The pair quickly started arguing, and Gaal took the conversation down to the basement for fear of waking up her son who was sleeping upstairs.
Their argument continued to escalate, and Bonola allegedly casually described to cops how, in a fit of rage, he grabbed a knife and slashed Gaal’s throat, stabbing her over and over again across the left side of her body.
The handyman, who worked as Gaal’s family’s heating and air conditioning repairman, then fetched her son’s hockey bag and stuffed her corpse inside.
He waited until 4.30am, and then wheeled the bag towards Forest Park, reportedly not wanting to leave her body in the basement for her son to find.
He then sought treatment for wounds to his hands at a local CityMD sometime after 6am, police say.
A later search of Gaal’s home would uncover blood on the first floor and even more in the basement.
Also recovered was a bloodied knife, believed to be from the family’s kitchen, and on the fridge, investigators found a curious note which read “GET A NEW HANDYMAN.”
That note, according to The Daily Beast, led investigators to Bonola. Police surveilled his home and recovered blood-stained bandages and other items from his trash can.
FINAL MOMENTS
The night before her murder, Gaal had been out watching a show at the Lincoln Center in Manhattan with friends, before she was sighted drinking alone at a bar in Queens from 11.30pm to around 12.40am.
Witnesses told police she appeared to be waiting for someone but that someone never showed.
That would prove to be the last time she was seen alive.
Bonola, meanwhile, appeared in court on Thursday night to be arraigned on charges of second-degree murder, criminal tampering, and criminal possession of a weapon.
The 44-year-old remained completely silent throughout the hearing. Hours earlier he had been far less restrained, having been recorded telling a journalist to “go f**k” themselves as he was led out of the 112th precinct in cuffs.
Prosecutors told the judge that Gaal had let Bonola into the home because she knew him.
“He then engaged her in a verbal dispute and unfortunately she had to ask him to leave multiple times,” they claimed.
“[But Bonola] refused to leave and the incident [escalated] with the unfortunate stabbing of the victim over 50 times.”
Judge Anthony Battisti ordered Bonola to be held without bond, citing his apparent confession to the killing.
“The accused lays out in detail what happened, how it happened and what he did following the events given rise to this case,” Battisti said.
It’s currently unclear when Bonola is due back in court.
The Mexican national entered the US 21 years ago. He was living in the country illegally at the time of his arrest, according to the NY Post.
Gaal’s family has not spoken publicly since his arrest. Several attempts by The US Sun to reach them have been unsuccessful.
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