UPDATE
April 18, 2022
NEW YORK – The suspect in the slaying of Orsolya Gaal sent a threatening message to her husband, warning that “Your whole family is next,” according to reports.
The body of Gaal, 51, was discovered inside a hockey duffel bag just after 8 a.m. Saturday. Police discovered a trail of blood leading back to the victim’s home on Juno Street in Forest Hills.
The victim’s husband, Howard Klein, was reportedly in Portland with the couple’s 17-year-old son on a college hunt.
According to WPIX, Klein received a chilling text message from the killer, threatening, “Your whole family is next.”
Gaal apparently told her youngest son, 13, she was heading out to watch a show Friday night, but instead met up with another man, the station reported.
Gaal spent some of her final hours tending her yard and enjoying a night out — before video caught a mysterious figure lugging her makeshift casket down the street, the New York Post reported.
April 17, 2022
NEW YORK – A nightmarish discovery upended a peaceful Saturday morning in an upscale Queens neighborhood when a woman’s body was found shoved inside a duffel bag by a man walking his dogs.
The body of Orsolya Gaal, 51, left the neighborhood shaken. She was found inside the duffel bag just after 8 a.m., along with a blood trail leading back to her Juno Street home, police said, according to the New York Post.
Glenn Van Nostrand, 51, came across the grisly scene while walking his two dogs through nearby Forest Park. Initially, he thought the duffel bag, which is designed for hockey equipment, had simply been discarded.
However, his two Rhodesian ridgeback canines got agitated as they approached. So he decided to look inside.
“They are scent hounds,” Van Nostrand told The Post. “They see the world through their noses.”
As he peered inside, he first saw a foot and then a hip, still attached, he noted.
“But to me it looked a mannequin,” he said. “It didn’t look very fleshy. It was more like a crash test dummy. I thought it was maybe some equipment being used for something. I didn’t think anything of it.”
Yet his observations transformed to something morbid when he saw black, ankle-length jeans, a belt and a woman’s waist before noticing blood on the other side of the bag. The body was in the fetal position, he said, adding that the bag had wheels, according to the news outlet.
“I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness,’ and called police at 8:05 a.m. and said there’s a body in this bag,’” he exclaimed.
“It’s shocking,” Van Nostrand said. “My personal feeling is a broken heart for whoever this is. My heart was in my throat the entire time.”
As police investigated, they were seen at Gaal’s Tudor-style home less than half a mile from where her body was discovered.
Neighbors said Gaal’s younger son, 13, was seen being taken away in handcuffs shortly after the body was found.
Police sources said the teen was questioned at the local precinct in connection with the case. His father was reportedly en route to the station, The Post reported.
The news outlet reached Gaal’s husband, Howard Klein, by phone. He said he was “in the middle of a terrible experience.”
The businessman said he was at an airport preparing to return to New York.
Prior to the discovery of the homicide, he tweeted about being on a trip with an older son and posted it to social media from Portland, Ore., at 1:36 a.m. Friday.
“[My son] Leo is safe. Thank God [my son] is safe,” he said Saturday of his younger child, before adding that his family’s “lives are at stake.”
Klein had no response when asked about his younger son being questioned by police, according to The Post.
“There are concerns about our safety,” the man claimed. “Our lives are at risk,” he said, without elaborating.
Orsolya Gaal’s husband, Howard Klein, seen in a photo with her. (orsolya.gaal.9/Facebook)
A source noted there are cameras along the route from the Juno Street home to the area where the body was dumped, which will facilitate the ongoing investigation.
“Something is not adding up. But there are cameras along the way,” the source said. “They’ll tell if it’s an adult or a child.”
The teen was released Saturday evening, police said. They did not reveal what adult took custody of the adolescent boy.
The city Medical Examiner will determine Gaal’s cause of death.
Neighbors near the Juno Street home said the family that resided there was nice and seemingly normal.
