John Jefferson
Leslie Preer (left), (right) Eugene Gligor after his arrest (Montgomery County Police Department)
After 23 years, Maryland authorities believe they have solved the murder of a 50-year-old mother found dead at home, and now the victim’s daughter has revealed that the suspect is an ex-boyfriend from her teenage years that she saw as recently as last year.
The Montgomery County Police Department declared the long-elusive murder case closed on Tuesday, announcing the arrest of 44-year-old Eugene Teodor Gligor as the suspect in the 2001 slaying of Leslie Jennings Preer in her Chevy Chase home.
Preer, cops have said, was found dead just before noon on May 2, 2001, after she suspiciously did not go to work that day and her worried employer at Specialties Inc. started making calls.
“When Leslie Preer did not show up to work in the morning of May 2, 2001, her employer contacted her family members to check her welfare,” cops said in 2022. “Leslie’s employer and her husband,” Sandy, “responded to Leslie’s residence, where they discovered a suspicious scene. Leslie was located deceased inside of the residence with apparent trauma to her body.”
But there would not be any real developments in the investigation until 2022, when blood at the “brutal” Drummond Avenue crime scene was “submitted to a lab for forensic genetic genealogical DNA analysis,” police said this week.
The results of that analysis and probe led investigators to Gligor on June 9 of this year, police said.
That day, police “collected DNA evidence belonging to Gligor and compared it to the DNA recovered from the crime scene.” It’s not immediately clear what they meant by “collected DNA evidence belonging to Gligor,” but other investigations of this kind have resulted in arrests based on the discovery and testing of discarded evidence (whether a pizza crust or a tissue or a cigarette butt or a can of beer).
“The analysis generated a positive match,” cops said.
After cops got a warrant for Gligor’s arrest on suspicion of first-degree murder, U.S. Marshals on Tuesday, June 18, took the suspect into custody in Washington, D.C., where he awaits extradition to Maryland, authorities said.
When Gligor was arrested, he was wearing a “Stealth Monitoring” polo shirt. It’s unclear if he is an employee there, but the company says it is “North America’s Leading Provider of Live Video Monitoring Solutions.”
“Proactively Deter Crime and Help Secure your Business at a Fraction of the Cost of Guards with Live Remote Surveillance,” the website says.
Law&Crime left a message with customer service asking about whether Gligor has any actual connection to the company.
In an interview with D.C.-based local Fox affiliate WTTG, Leslie Preer’s daughter Lauren Preer revealed her shock that Gligor, an ex-boyfriend from her teenage years, was identified as the murder suspect.
Leslie Preer’s daughter Lauren speaks with WTTG about Eugene Gligor’s arrest (Fox 5 DC/screengrab)
In fact, Lauren said, she saw Gligor at a Washington, D.C., restaurant just last year and that he “didn’t seem weird.”
“It’s been a hell of a day!” Lauren told WTTG. “I’ve spoken to him. He didn’t seem weird and how you could look someone in the eye and know that you committed this crime and act like nothing happened is pretty unreal.”
Lauren added that she never thought Gligor might have done it.
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