Joe Yates
More than two decades on, a cold case murder has received a shocking update as crucial DNA evidence has been uncovered.
In 2001, 50-year-old mom Leslie Preer was found dead in her Maryland home, with blood discovered in the foyer and her body in an upstairs bedroom - a brutal death in the county of Montgomery.
After she didn't show up for work, one of her colleagues visited her home in the 4800 block of Drummond Avenue in Chevy Chase, and came across the horrific scene.
While Montgomery County Department of Police concluded her death was a homicide as a result of blunt force trauma inflicted during a struggle, channels of inquiries went cold and sadly, no suspect was ever identified.
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That is until now.
On Tuesday (18 June), 23 years on - or to be more precise 8,448 days from 2 May, 2001 when Leslie was murdered, a suspect has finally been identified and charged by the US Marshall's task force in Washington, DC.
Eugene Gligor has been arrested two years on from when a blood sample at the crime scene was 'submitted to a lab for forensic genetic genealogical DNA analysis'.
Speaking of the news, Leslie's daughter Lauren Preer said to Fox 5 DC: "It's been a hell of a day."
And she wasn't wrong; while the news has shocked the world, no one is more surprised than Lauren.
“He was my ex-boyfriend!” Lauren revealed.
According to the news outlet, Lauren and Gligor had been dating since they were 15 and they grew up in the same neighborhood and their families were close - Lauren living in Somerset and Gligor in nearby Kenwood.
While it is not yet known what happened on that fatal day - with Gilgor being 21 at the time - the couple obviously had since broken up, but bumped into each other in Washington last year.
She added: "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."
A statement issued by MCDP read in part: "Through the course of the investigation, detectives identified Eugene Teodor Gligor as a potential suspect.
"On June 9, 2024, Montgomery County Police detectives collected DNA evidence belonging to Gligor and compared it to the DNA recovered from the crime scene. The analysis generated a positive match."
Gligor has been charged with first-degree murder, and an arrest warrant has been sent to the capital to serve as a detainer pending his extradition process.