Police early Thursday arrested 44-year-old handyman David Bonola for the murder of Orsolya Gaal, who was stabbed almost 60 times last weekend in a savage slaying that horrified a normally safe Forest Hills, Queens, community, a senior NYPD supervisor confirmed to The Daily Beast.
Bonola faces charges of second-degree murder, possession of a weapon, and criminal tampering. Police believe he entered her home through the back door, that the murder weapon may have come from inside the house, and that he ultimately stabbed Gaal 59 times.
It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney; after his arrest Thursday, he shouted, “Fuck you Motherfucker,” to the press.
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At a Thursday morning press conference, police said Gaal and Bonola had an on-again, off-again romantic relationship for two years, while Bonola was employed as Gaal’s handyman. Bonola, cops say, was known to Gaal’s family.
When Bonola visited Gaal’s home Friday before allegedly killing her, he’d stopped by to discuss their relationship, cops said. The pair had reunited in early April but their “relationship was considered at an end,” said Deputy Chief Julie Morrill.
The suspect appeared to have commented affectionately on Gaal’s Facebook posts over the years, with a post under his name listed under a childhood photo of Gaal with “Hola” and a heart emoji. That month, he also commented on a selfie that said, “Tu mirada enamorada,” or Spanish for roughly: “Your loving gaze.”
In July 2019, Bonola also doled out compliments online, commenting in Spanish on one photo of Gaal in Guatemala, “She is the most beautiful woman.”
“I love those streets and the architecture! The landscape and the Giant Volcano… and you,” he added on another image.
Bonola had a scant presence on the Facebook profile he used to communicate with Gaal, and one of his five “friends” on the site told The Daily Beast they didn’t even know him. “I have no idea who he is but saw that he’s somehow on my friends list. He must have added me a long time ago. I’ve never spoken to him and until now didn’t even know we were friends on Facebook,” the person said, adding a “shocked face” emoji.
On what appeared to be a second Facebook profile belonging to Bonola, the user indicated that he studied at the New York School of Interior Design and was from New York but lived in Queens. But a spokesperson for the school said he had not attended. In photographs from the past few years, he presented himself as a curly-coiffed rocker in a leather jacket and jeans. “Bon Jovi?…” one friend commented in response to a photo of him with big hair and sunglasses.
NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said that as far as authorities know, Bonola had no history of prior arrests.
Essig said cops were canvassing for video on Wednesday night when they observed Bonola, who was wanted for questioning in connection to Gaal’s death, and approached him. “He voluntarily came back to the 112 precinct and made incriminating statements,” Essig said.
What those statements were cops did not disclose on Thursday, save for one detail: Bonola sent an ominous text to Gaal’s husband, Howard Klein, who was out of state on a college-scouting trip with the couple’s eldest son at the time of the slaying.
Earlier this week, news reports indicated that Gaal’s killer used her phone to text Klein: “Your whole family is next.” On Thursday, Morrill said that Bonola had confessed to sending that message himself.
Police confirmed that on the night of her death, Gaal attended a show at Lincoln Center and took the subway back to her neighborhood. She stopped at a bar and returned home at 12:20 a.m. Saturday. Cops believe Bonola appeared at her house between 12:30 and 12:40 a.m. “He is either led in voluntarily, or he uses a key he has knowledge about hidden in the barbecue,” Essig told reporters. “A heated argument ensues between the two in the basement, 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.”
Cops recovered a knife at the scene that appeared to be from Gaal’s residence. According to police, Bonola then retrieved Gaal’s son’s hockey bag and stuffed Gaal’s body into it, wheeling the bag down the street before abandoning it.
After allegedly disposing of Gaal’s body, cops say, Bonola fled through Forest Park, where investigators discovered a jacket they believe he wore during the crime. Detectives also found boots, a T-shirt, and bloody bandages at another undisclosed location.
On Saturday, police said, Bonola received treatments for wounds to both hands at an area hospital.
“This case is still ongoing. We are still awaiting forensics evidence and are canvassing for more video as we speak. But detectives, through interviews, videos, and the public’s help, and specifically the Queens DA, Melinda Katz, and her staff, who have been with us every step of the way, were able to quickly take this killer off the street.”
“I just want to assure the public and especially the residents of Forest Hills that there are no outstanding suspects at this time.”
Prior to the arrest, Gaal’s friends told The Daily Beast that they could not rest until cops solved the murder. “I’m still in disbelief,” said one pal, who asked to remain anonymous. She said that members of Gaal’s circle were “all talking, trying to make sense of everything that’s happening and trying to learn about what happened to her so we can get some closure so we can start the grieving process.”
“What is there to say,” the friend added. “It’s a horrific loss. I don’t think anybody deserves what happened to her.”
The person described Gaal as a “fantastic mother” to her two teenage sons, one of whom was out of town with their father at the time of the crime; the other was upstairs in the house, and was briefly detained by police before quickly being dropped as a potential suspect.
“Everything she did was for her children, and she was always the extra mom, always hosting the parties, going above and beyond with doing things for and with the children,” the friend said. “My heart is just breaking for the loss that these kids are going to experience without her being around anymore.”
She said Gaal was “extremely confident” and fearless, often with friends but unafraid to go out on her own, to visit a bar, play, or show if she couldn’t find someone to accompany her. Police previously told The Daily Beast they were told Gaal had attended the opera on the night of her killing, though they were only able to place her in the general vicinity of Lincoln Center in Manhattan.
Police believe the crime took place later, after Gaal visited a bar in her own neighborhood that night. Surveillance footage later appeared to show her body being rolled in the duffel bag from the home, leaving a trail of blood behind.
Gaal was known to take walks late at night to relieve stress during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, the year her husband reported her missing after a midnight walk.
“Forest Hills can be a very close community because there’s multiple generations that have lived in these homes, but we had moved to the area and she was very open and friendly and welcoming,” the friend added. “It was just really refreshing and appreciated. It says a lot about a person that they’re able to get over themselves and be like that.
“You didn’t need to prove yourself with her… She was just a really nice person.”
