A brutal murder that shattered an idyllic Washington D.C. suburb and haunted a family for nearly a quarter-century has been solved, with the killer revealed as a man once welcomed into the victim’s home. The 2001 slaying of Leslie Preer, a beloved 50-year-old mother, was finally closed this week after advanced genetic genealogy identified her daughter’s former boyfriend as the assailant.
On a beautiful May morning in 2001, Leslie Preer failed to arrive at her job, prompting immediate concern from her boss, Brett Rey. He and Leslie’s husband, Carl “Sandy” Preer, went to her Chevy Chase, Maryland home to investigate. They discovered a scene of horror: blood splattered along the foyer walls, items knocked over, and a kitchen drenched in evidence of a violent struggle.
Leslie was found deceased in an upstairs shower, the victim of a brutal 𝒶𝓈𝓈𝒶𝓊𝓁𝓉. The medical examiner determined she died from blunt force trauma and strangulation, her head bashed into a doorjamb. Scalding hot water had been poured over her body, a clear attempt by the killer to destroy forensic evidence. The peaceful, low-crime community was thrust into a nightmare.
For investigators, the initial mystery was profound. There was no sign of forced entry, suggesting Leslie knew her attacker. The crime seemed intensely personal, not random. Early suspicion, as often happens, fell upon the husband. Sandy Preer underwent intense interrogation and even failed a polygraph test, casting a long shadow over the grieving family.
He detailed marital struggles, including his wife’s issues with alcohol, but vehemently denied any violence. The couple’s daughter, Lauren, then in her early twenties, was adamant her father was incapable of such a horrific act. The emotional toll was immense; Sandy lived under a cloud of suspicion until his death in 2017, which his family attributes to a broken heart.
A crucial break came from the crime scene itself. DNA evidence—blood and skin cells found under Leslie’s fingernails and at multiple locations—clearly pointed to an unknown male. This excluded Sandy Preer but presented a new puzzle. Police compiled a list of nearly two dozen male family friends and acquaintances for elimination testing.
One by one, they were ruled out. The case, despite the promising DNA lead, went stone cold for almost a decade. It was reopened in 2010, and again in 2022, when Montgomery County Cold Case Detective Tara August took another look. Lauren Preer had long harbored a suspicion about a former neighbor, but his DNA was not a match.
The turning point was the application of forensic genetic genealogy. Detective August and her team uploaded the unknown killer’s DNA profile to public databases, building out a vast family tree that eventually pointed to Eastern European ancestry. The name that emerged sent a shock through the investigation: Eugene Gligor.
Gligor was not a stranger. He had been Lauren Preer’s high school boyfriend. He attended prom with her, was a frequent guest in the Preer home, and was known to the family. The couple had parted ways amicably years before the murder. His name was in the original case file but had never been pursued as a serious suspect.
“It was scary,” Lauren Preer recalled. “The horror that he could have done that to somebody that took care of him and opened their house to him was just 𝓈𝒽𝓸𝒸𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔.” With Gligor living abroad, detectives orchestrated a covert operation to obtain his DNA upon his return to the United States, collecting a discarded water bottle at the airport.
The match was definitive. In March 2023, Eugene Gligor was arrested. Confronted in an interrogation room, he initially feigned confusion and offered performative, tearless crying. When detectives revealed they had his DNA from the crime scene, his demeanor shifted to anger. He repeatedly claimed he did not remember, but never offered an outright denial of the crime.
“If I didn’t do that, I would have said I didn’t do that,” Detective August noted of his evasive responses. Faced with irrefutable evidence, Gligor later opted to plead guilty to second-degree murder just before his trial was set to begin. This spared the Preer family the agony of a protracted public trial.
At his sentencing hearing in February 2024, Lauren Preer faced the man who had been both her first love and her mother’s killer. “It’s like seeing a ghost,” she said. “You took my angel.” She delivered a powerful victim impact statement, telling Gligor, “You almost got away with it.”
Gligor, now 44, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with all but 22 years suspended. He will also serve five years of supervised probation upon release. In a statement to the court, he expressed “deepest regret, shame, and remorse,” but provided no clear motive for the attack that destroyed a family.
The resolution brings a bittersweet end to a 23-year ordeal. Sandy Preer was never formally exonerated in his lifetime. Leslie Preer’s warmth and generosity are remembered by a community that never forgot her. For Lauren Preer and the detectives who never gave up, the case is a testament to perseverance and evolving science.
“It was a miracle, literally,” Lauren Preer said. “I hope that for the other families that are dealing with very old cold case files that we give some hope.” The monster from her past is now behind bars, and after nearly a quarter-century, a painful chapter for a shattered family is finally closed.