NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- The NYPD is offering a $3,500 reward for information on last week's brutal murder of Queens mom Orsolya Gaal, officials confirmed on Tuesday.
The reward comes as new details emerge about Gaal's recent text messages with four men — and she met one of them at Lincoln Center hours before her body was found in a duffel bag with dozens of stab wounds, sources told 1010 WINS on Tuesday.
Investigators are talking to or tracking down all four contacts of Gaal, 51, as they continue to gather and examine evidence in the case, according to the sources.
WABC reported that police have identified a person of interest—a man who had access to Gaal’s home in Forest Hills. Police haven’t named anyone, and it's unclear if it's the man who sources said met Gaal at Lincoln Center on Friday evening.
Later on Friday night, Gaal went to a local bar in Queens, where she waited for someone for 40 minutes before heading home alone, WCBS-TV reported. It's unclear if she returned to Queens alone or was accompanied by someone.
After Gaal got back to her home on Juno Street that night, she was stabbed 58 times in the basement, the city medical examiner said. Stab wounds to her hands indicate she was trying to fight off her killer. She also had stab wounds to her neck, torso and left arm.
The medical examiner determined Gaal’s cause of death was “sharp force injuries of the neck.” Her death was deemed a homicide.
Her 13-year-old son was home upstairs at the time of the killing, while her husband and 17-year-old son were on the West Coast on a college search. The younger son was questioned by police and released.
There was no sign of forced entry at the home, and authorities believe Gaal knew her killer. There are reports that the killer entered through the backdoor of the family's home.
Gaal’s body was found in a hockey duffel bag just hours later Saturday morning on the edge of Forest Park, near Metropolitan Avenue and the Jackie Robinson Parkway. A dog walker made the gruesome discovery around 8 a.m.
Police said they followed a half-mile trail of blood “multiple blocks” back to the family’s Tudor-style home, where blood was found in the basement and on the first floor.
Doorbell cam video shows a man dragging a duffel bag down 75th Avenue—about four blocks from the family's home—around 4:30 a.m. Saturday before her body was found.
The killer reportedly sent Gaal’s husband a threatening text message from her phone reading: “Your whole family is next.”
Police haven’t identified a motive in the killing, and no arrests have been made.
An NYPD patrol car remained outside the home Tuesday, as did police tape and several bouquets of flowers.
The murder mystery has shaken a neighborhood of stately single-family homes and manicured lawns, where the victim was remembered as a "lovely lady" who was "super friendly."
“It’s very frightening and concerning to everyone in Forest Hills and the surrounding community,” a woman told WNBC.
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