Press Release
QUEENS MAN CHARGED WITH MURDER OF FOREST HILLS WOMAN WHOSE BODY WAS DISCOVERED IN DUFFEL BAG NEAR PARK SATURDAY MORNING
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that David Bonola, 44, has been charged with murder in the shocking death of a Forest Hills mother, whose body was found in a duffel bag near Forest Park on Saturday, April 16, 2022. The victim’s body was discovered in a hockey sports bag on Metropolitan Avenue near Union Turnpike – at the end of a long trail of blood that led back to the 51-year-old woman’s Juno Street home.
District Attorney Katz said, “Two boys are left without a mother and a young teenager faces the added trauma of being home when this heinous murder took place. As alleged, the defendant stabbed the victim over 50 times and then attempted to dispose of the body by stuffing it into a duffel bag and dragging it across a quiet residential neighborhood – leaving a trail of blood and a terrified community. The defendant is now in custody and will be held to account for this horrific crime.”
Bonola, of 114th Street in South Richmond Hill, Queens, was arraigned tonight before Queens Criminal Court Judge Anthony M. Battisti on a complaint charging him with murder in the second degree, tampering with physical evidence and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. Judge Battisti set the defendant’s return date for April 26, 2022. The defendant faces up to 25 years-to-life in prison, if convicted.
According to the charges, Orsolya Gaal, 51, returned to her Forest Hills home around 12:30 a.m. Saturday, April 16th after an evening out. The defendant – who was a handyman and had done work at Gaal’s home on and off for the last two years – came to the victim’s home a few minutes later. He entered the residence and the two engaged in a verbal argument, which escalated to Bonola allegedly slashing the woman’s throat and stabbing her more than 50 times.
The DA continued that the defendant then found a hockey duffle bag that belonged to one of the victim’s sons and stuffed the woman’s bloody body inside. He is allegedly seen on video surveillance from a nearby home rolling the duffle bag through the quiet neighborhood.
According to the charges, the duffle bag was discovered near Forest Park at Metropolitan Avenue and Union Turnpike around 8 a.m., Saturday. Inside were the remains of the married mother of two. Police followed a trail of blood from the bag to the crime scene – the Juno Street home of Gaal.
During the investigation, said the DA, police recovered a bloody jacket and blood-stained tissues from inside Forest Park.
On Wednesday the defendant offered to speak to police and during questioning allegedly made incriminating statements. He revealed that some time on Saturday he went to a New York City hospital for a cut on his hand. He also stated in sum and substance that he and the victim argued, he allegedly confessed to stabbing her and moving her body.
The investigation was conducted by Detectives John Petzolt and Todd Keyes of the New York City Police Department’s 112th Precinct and Detectives Carmine Caruso and Joe Bey of the NYPD’s Queens North Homicide Squad.
Assistant District Attorney John Kosinski, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief of the Homicide Bureau, is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Assistant District Attorney Antonio Vittiglio, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Peter J. McCormack III, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.
**Criminal complaints and indictments are accusations. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.