Detectives trying to solve the brutal murder of Queens mother Orsolya Gaal watched handyman David Bonola for some time before his arrest on Thursday.
As CrimeOnline reported, investigators followed a trail of blood from the roller hockey bag where they found Gaal’s body, along with nearly 60 stab wounds, early Saturday. The blood led them to her house, a few blocks away.
There, on the fridge, they found a note, according to The Daily Beast, who spoke to a senior NYPD supervisor. “GET A NEW HANDYMAN,” the note read.
A search of Forest Park – the bloodied sports bag was dumped on the pavement at the edge of the park – revealed bloody rags, which investigators believe the killer used to bandage his hands. Killers who use knives as a weapon of convenience in a crime of passion often don’t realize how slippery the blood is and frequently cut themselves in their frenzy.
Further in the park, they found something else: an orange jacket stuffed in a hollow tree, also bloodied.
Gaal’s phone records showed contact with Bonola, and chef James Essig told a news conference the two had an on-going relationship for several years, but by the time of the murder it was over for good. .
And so detectives were watching Bonola’s house across Forest Park from uptown Gaal. Wednesday when the garbage truck came by to pick up his trash. Detectives stopped the truck around the corner and found a pair of bloody work boots.
The next day, Bonola noticed the cops watching him and asked if they were looking for him, the supervisor told The Daily Beast. They said they wanted to talk to him, and he agreed to accompany them to the 112th Precinct Police Station, where he spent the better part of half an hour suggesting that someone other than he had killed Orsolya Gaal, maybe even another handyman.
When investigators asked him about a hand injury, he said he was injured on the job. But a photograph from detectives showed his bandaged hand after the murder but before he said he suffered the injury.
Shortly after, police said Bonola had made a full confession, telling detectives that he and Gaal had been in a relationship for about two years, that he was angry when he saw text messages on his phone from another man.
Bonola said he went to talk to her about it after midnight on Saturday morning. They argued, he grabbed a knife and stabbed her repeatedly. He told detectives he stuffed her body in the hockey bag and rolled it away from the house because he didn’t want his family to find her.
A doorbell camera captured the haunting image of Bonola dragging the bag down Juno Street at 4:30 a.m., where a dog walker encountered him hours later.
The hockey bag, the rags, the jacket – they were all found on the way Bonola took home through Forest Park.
Bonola was charged with murder, criminal tampering and criminal possession of a weapon.
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[Featured image: David Bonola/WABC screengrab and Orsolya Gaal/Facebook]
