A murder mystery has rocked the community in Queens after New York City mom Orsolya Gaal was found dead inside a duffel bag on city parkland a half-mile from her home in Forest Hills, police announced on Saturday, April 16.
UPI reported that the 51-year-old was found about 8:10 a.m. on Saturday by a sidewalk on Metropolitan Avenue near Forest Park Drive. The site where Gaal was discovered is within the boundaries of densely-wooded Forest Park between Forest Hills and Kew Gardens.
New York City police said that Gaal was covered in blood and had no ID on her when she was found. Police revealed that they followed a trail of blood to her home a half-mile away on Juno Street in Forest Hills, with officers then making an "emergency entry" into the house.
Police questioned Orsolya Gaal's 13-year-old son
Cops then found Gaal's 13-year-old son alone on the top floor inside the home. He told the police that his mother lived in the house, but he did not know where she was. Police said that Gaal's son was questioned regarding the murder case but was later released.
According to his Twitter account, Gaal's husband, who neighbors identified as Howard Klein, was traveling out of state with their 17-year-old son. According to the New York Daily News, Klein tweeted early on Saturday that he had just landed in Portland, Oregon, before re-evaluating Ann Arbor with his 17-year-old son. Police announced that both Klein and his son were on their way back to New York.
Gaal had family in Hungary, according to her Facebook page. She also studied there, attending a business school in Budapest. Many of Gaal's pictures on the social media platform show her with her dog and her travels in Hungary, Guatemala, and Croatia.
Gaal contributed back in February to her 13-year-old son's fundraiser for Susan G. Komen, a foundation that raises money for breast cancer research. Gaal's 13-year-old son posted a YouTube video back in March explaining this endeavor, saying he started the said fundraiser as a bar mitzvah project to honor his paternal grandmother, who passed away in 2010.
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Faint blood trail discovered by police crucial in solving the case
Gaal's neighbors were completely stunned by the presence of the police around the home of the family of four. John Blankson, a next-door neighbor of the family, said that it is a complete surprise what happened to Gaal as it is a quiet neighborhood and they were a regular family. Blankson added that the family had been in the neighborhood for about nine years now.
New York Post reported that a faint blood trail leads from Gaal's home in Juno Street to a large blood spot on the sidewalk at the corner of Metropolitan Avenue and 75th Avenue. According to one of the neighbors, police have put tape around that spot on the corner, and they were testing it and swabbing it all morning.