Woman found in duffel bag in Queens was stabbed dozens of times, autopsy reveals
KEW GARDENS, Queens (WABC) -- A woman whose body was found in a duffel bag in Queens over the weekend was stabbed as many as 60 times, according to the results of an autopsy that were released Monday.
The Medical Examiner determined the cause of death for 51-year-old Orsolya Gaal to be sharp force injuries of neck and the manner of death as homicide.
Police said Gaal was murdered and discovered in Forest Park in Kew Gardens, beneath the Jackie Robinson Parkway, just after 8 a.m. Saturday.
A person walking in the park noticed blood coming from the bag, which was laying on the ground near the corner of Metropolitan Avenue and Forest Park Drive.
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Shortly after, police discovered a second crime scene at 72-24 Juno Street, with blood there matching the victim's.
Neighbors told Eyewitness News that a family of four lives in the home -- a father, mother, and two teenage sons ages 13 and 17.
According to police sources, it's believed the woman had gone out for the night while her husband was out of town visiting colleges with the couple's older son, met someone who then killed her in her basement, and dragged the body in the bag to the location where it was dumped.
Gaal was reportedly out with girlfriends that night, but she may have returned home with a male friend to her home sometime after 11 p.m.
Investigators say the killer dragged her body in the duffel bag nine blocks through the neighborhood in the middle of the night before dumping it prior to daybreak.
There were no signs of forced entry at her home, leading detectives to believe she knew her killer.
The 13-year-old son was upstairs at the time but did not know what happened.
Gaal is believed to have put up a fight, with defensive wounds on her body, before she was ultimately killed.
After the murder, a threatening text was sent to her husband from his wife's phone, warning him that his "whole family is next."
Detectives scouring Gaal's cell phone for clues found that three separate men texted with her, and they will speak with them.
Detectives are also looking into Gaal's history. She has no prior domestic incidents, although her husband reported her missing in May 2020 when she didn't come home.
She returned several hours later.
They say Gaal was not dismembered but that her body was placed in the bag.
No arrests have yet been made, and authorities are pleading with anyone who may have information to contact the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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Those who knew her were stunned.
"I never expected anything like that to happen," neighbor Theoroda Grafas said. "She was a lovely lady. Always very attentive to her family, her kids. Just an amazing person, and she's going to be missed, all of us who knew her. She was really just wonderful."
Neighbors said the quiet family had lived on the block for about 10 years.
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