The man suspected of murdering a 51-year-old mother in Queens last week and dragging her dead body down the street in a duffle bag was in the U.S. illegally, sources told the New York Post.
David Bonola, 44, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with the murder of Orsolya Gaal on Thursday. According to sources at the NYPD, he entered the U.S. illegally 21 years ago.
“[L]aw-enforcement sources revealed Friday that he was living in New York in violation of immigration law when busted Wednesday for Gaal’s horrific slaying,” the Post reported.
The Post added that officials were initially unsure if Bonola was a legal resident of the U.S. “But Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed to The Post that it has lodged a detainer with Queens Central Booking, where Bonola currently is,” the outlet reported.
The Daily Wire’s Ashe Short reported on the alleged murder of Gaal earlier this week after her body was found on the ground inside a duffle bag Saturday morning. An autopsy report said that she had been stabbed nearly 60 times in her neck, hands, torso, carotid artery, and trachea.
Later reports revealed that Bonola worked for Gaal as a handyman, and the two were allegedly in an intimate relationship. “He is accused of showing up at her stately Forest Hills home early Saturday morning and stabbing her nearly 60 times after they got into a fight about their relationship,” the Post wrote.
Shortly after Gaal’s body was found, her husband Howard Klein allegedly received a text that stated, “Your whole family is next,” as The Daily Wire reported. At the time of Gaal’s death, Klein and their 17-year-old son were touring colleges in Portland, Oregon.
“There are concerns about our safety,” he told the Post. “Our lives are at risk.”
Bonola allegedly arrived at Gaal’s home last Saturday morning after she had told her 13-year-old son she would be spending the evening out with friends. She reportedly arrived home just before midnight and was killed in the following hours. NYPD Chief James Essig said he wasn’t sure if the suspect forced his way into the home or was let in, according to NBC New York. Security footage caught a figure dragging a duffel bag down the sidewalk hours before the mother’s dead body was found.
“According to the NYPD, Bonola and Gaal got into a ‘heated argument’ in her basement and he allegedly brandished a knife, stabbing her so many times and with such violence that he ended up with blood all over his clothes and wounds to his hands as Gaal tried to fight back. The knife was later recovered at the scene,” the outlet reported.