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Cops seek handyman ex-lover who had access to home in slaying of Queens mom as details unravel

April 20, 2022 | | Print Article

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New York City authorities are reportedly seeking to question an unnamed man whom they believe may be responsible for the gruesome murder of Orsolya Gaal, a mother of two whose body was found stuffed in a large duffel bag roughly half a mile from her Forest Hills home Saturday morning.

The nature of the crime has led authorities to strongly suspect it was an unpremeditated crime of passion by a spurned lover versus, say, a burglary gone bad, and the evidence thus far points to the unnamed man being said culprit.

“Gaal was stabbed nearly 60 times sometime in the wee hours Saturday inside the front of the home, with her corpse then taken to the basement,” the New York Post reported Tuesday.

“She was stashed in a black Bauer hockey bag similar to one belonging to her kids, and the pouch containing her body was then dragged outside and dumped about a half-mile away, leaving behind a trail of blood.”

Clue 1: According to the Post, the suspected spurned lover, who has neither been publicly identified nor officially branded a suspect yet, “knew where the family kept a spare key at their well-kept Forest Hills tudor and would have been able to access the home without breaking in.”

Clue 2: “He left a blood trail for five blocks from the house. It was like a trail of bread crumbs,” a law enforcement source said to the Post, suggesting the crime wasn’t premeditated but rather an act of passion.

“If you want to kill somebody, you try to make it a little cleaner, be a little more prepared. He didn’t go with something to move her body. He took something from the house. I’m sure with that kind of blood, there’s lots of DNA there. The killer’s DNA has gotta be in that blood. It’s not a clean scene,” the source added.

Clue 3: Following Gaal’s murder, her husband, Howard Klein, began receiving threatening text messages warning, “Your whole family is next.”

Clue 4: According to the family’s electrician, Arrjuna Jack, their home is “outfitted with a camera surveillance system,” as reported by Fox News. A surveillance system that, from the sounds of it, wasn’t even disabled by the sloppy, seemingly in a hurry killer.

As noted earlier, the authorities have thus far abstained from identifying the possible spurned lover or labeling him a suspect — reportedly to avoid spooking him.

“Cops are … concerned that if they label him a person of interest, he might surrender with a lawyer and refuse to answer questions,” according to the New York Daily News.

The Daily News also notes that the authorities don’t yet know how Gaal “met the man or how and when their relationship ended.”

What’s known is that he’d “previously been in her family’s tony Tudor-style home and may have done work around the house.”

What’s also known is that she’d reportedly been texting several other men prior to her death, which raises the question of whether she’d been having an affair with them as well. The authorities are also looking to speak with them.

The timeline of Gaal’s death begins late Friday when she reportedly “went out” to see a show in Manhattan, then hit up a bar in Queens afterward. She remained at the bar for 40 minutes, after which she returned home and the killing reportedly happened.

“The man who killed her later entered through a backdoor and attacked her on the first floor and in the basement, stabbing and slashing her at least 50 times, mostly in the neck and upper body. She also had wounds on her hands, indicating that she put up a fight,” according to the Daily News.

Surveillance footage from a nearby home then caught him wheeling her body out of it at around 4:30 am Saturday morning.

Gaal leaves behind a husband and two sons. One son, 13, was reportedly home asleep through the whole ordeal. The other son, 17, was in Oregon scouting colleges with her husband.

The Daily News notes that isn’t the first time Gaal has been linked with sketchy behavior.

“Gaal disappeared once before, on May 29, 2020, when her husband, Howard Klein, called police at 7:21 a.m. and said she had left their home at 12:30 a.m. to go for a walk and had not returned,” according to the Daily News.

“He managed to track her phone to Jamaica, Queens, but couldn’t reach her. About 30 minutes after calling cops, Klein called police back saying his wife was safe and sound.”

Vivek Saxena
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