The suspect believed to have murdered 51-year-old Queens mother Orsolya Gaal sent her husband a chilling text message: “Your whole family is next”.
Ms Gaal’s body was found stuffed in a hockey bag on Saturday morning in Forest Park in the borough of Queens.
Police followed a trail of blood from the bag that led them about half a mile to an upscale gated community in Forest Hills.
Law enforcement made an “emergency entry” into the woman’s home and found her 13-year-old son alone on the top floor. He was questioned by police and released.
Ms Gaal’s husband Howard Klein and 17-year-old son were reportedly in Portland at the time of her murder.
Police sources told PIX11 that the killer sent a text message to Mr Klein, saying: “Your whole family is next”.
“Your wife sent me to jail some years ago... I’m back,” the killer reportedly said in another message.
Mr Klein told the New York Post there were “concerns about our safety”.
Ms Gaal told her youngest son she was going out to watch a show, but met up with another man instead, NYPD sources told PIX11.
The suspect killed Ms Gaal in the basement of the family home, put her body in a duffel bag and dumped it half a mile away.
Cameras along the path between the family home and where Ms Gaal’s body was found may yield more information about the suspect’s identity.
No arrests have been made in the case. The city medical examiner will determine her cause of death.