Updated to reflect that Google waived his right to a bond hearing on Monday, remaining in jail.
On Tuesday, June 18, 2024, Montgomery County Police announced that an arrest was made in connection to the 2001 homicide of Leslie Preer.
Eugene Gligor, an ex-boyfriend of the victim’s daughter, was arrested for the crime. Gligor waived his right to a bond hearing on Monday, remaining in jail without bond. Additional details surrounding the arrest, per the arrest warrant, can be seen below the initial news release below:
Per the news release: The Montgomery County Department of Police – Cold Case Section has closed a 23-year-old cold case homicide with the arrest of a suspect in the 2001 murder of Leslie Preer.
On Wednesday, May 2, 2001, at approximately 11:47 a.m., Montgomery County Police were dispatched to the 4800 block of Drummond Ave. in Chevy Chase. Leslie Preer was found murdered inside her home after she did not show up for work. Upon arrival, officers discovered Preer and identified a crime scene within the house. Her death was ruled a homicide.
DNA evidence was recovered from the crime scene in 2001, and in September 2022, blood evidence from the scene was submitted to a lab for forensic genetic genealogical DNA analysis. 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.
A warrant for Gligor’s arrest was requested and obtained on Saturday, June 15. Gligor, who is currently 44-years-old, was arrested by the US Marshal’s Task Force in Washington, DC on June 18. Gligor has been charged with first-degree murder.
Details from arrest warrant: “At approximately 1147 hours on Wednesday, May 2, 2001, Montgomery County Police Officers were dispatched to the Preer residence, located at 4824 Drummond Avenue, Chevy Chase, Montgomery County, Maryland, 20815, for the report of a suspicious situation. Leslie Preer did not show up to work at 1000 hours. After her employer, Brett Reidy, could not reach Leslie on the telephone, he began to contact her family members, Lauren Preer (daughter) and Carl Preer (husband) to check her welfare. At approximately 1135 hours Brett Reidy and Leslie’s husband Carl Preer responded to the Preer residence, where they discovered a suspicious scene upon entry. There was blood spatter and smeared blood on the walls near the front door, as well as dried blood on the floor in the corner by the door, a puddle of water on the floor near the door, a corner table was knocked over and a rug with blood stains was moved away from the foyer into the living room. Carl Preer called out her name and looked throughout the house but could not find Leslie. Brett Reidy called 911 and reported the incident to the police after seeing the blood on the walls and floor and the room in disarray. Emergency operators instructed Reidy to exit the residence and wait for police officers to arrive. Carl Preer was inside of the residence attempting to call local hospitals to see if Leslie had been taken to the emergency rooms when Reidy told him they needed to exit the house.
Officers arrived on-scene and conducted a search of the residence, where they found Leslie Preer deceased inside of the upstairs master bathroom shower stall. Leslie was positioned face down with her legs and feet partially extending out of the shower stall opening. There were numerous lacerations to Leslie’s head. Leslie Preer’s body was removed from the residence and was transported to the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) for autopsy.
The Forensic Services Section (FSS) began an intensive crime scene search of the residence on May 2, 2001, which included processing the scene for latent fingerprints, swabbing suspected blood samples from various points in the residence, taking photographs, and vacuuming the foyer area for hairs and other artifacts. It was apparent that the perpetrators) had attempted to clean up the blood from the crime scene and had physically carried the body from the foyer area, upstairs to the shower stall and ran water over the body (via the shower) to wash away the blood and prevent the body from bleeding further on the floor of the residence.
On the day of the incident, May 2, 2001, investigators checked dumpsters at the surrounding shopping centers for the clean-up materials but found nothing. A blue Litho crystal process was used to enhance non-visible blood evidence and aid in its examination. This process revealed a large area in the foyer where blood had been cleaned up and showed wipe marks on the door and along the floor leading up to the stairs. There was also one portion of the floor where a piece of paper had been saturated in the pooled blood and then dried and was stuck to the floor. In addition, the blue Litho crystal process revealed areas around the kitchen and downstairs bathroom sinks where blood was present and had been cleaned up. There were blood drops and smears all around the kitchen, along the door frames and trash can and back door. The crime scene had several rooms of interest, with the largest concentration of blood being in the foyer and in the shower stall where Leslie’s body was found. FSS technicians collected swabs of suspected blood droplets and smears that were in various locations on the main floor of the residence. In addition, blood samples from Carl Preer and Leslie Preer were obtained for comparison purposes, and all serology related evidence was sent to Cellmark Diagnostics Lab for DNA evaluation. As a result of these evaluations and comparisons, it was determined that DNA from an unknown male was present within the crime scene.
The findings from the autopsy of Leslie Preer include approximately seven lacerations to her head on the anterior and posterior areas of the skull, as well as deep bruising of the internal tissues of the neck with hemorrhaging in these areas, indicative of manual strangulation. Leslie Preer had numerous bruises on her arms and torso, indicative of blows upon these areas. The cause of death was listed as multiple blunt force trauma and strangulation and the manner of death was homicide. The injuries to the skull were consistent with Leslie’s head being battered onto the foyer floor and the sharp edge shoe molding that surrounded the perimeter of the foyer and front door area. “V” shaped injuries appeared to be consistent with the sharp corners of the shoe molding or baseboard molding.
Fingernail clippings were obtained from the body of Leslie Preer at the time of autopsy. DNA was obtained from underneath her fingernails and was submitted to Cellmark Diagnostics Lab for evaluation. It was determined that the DNA from beneath her fingernails matched the unknown male DNA profile from swabs of three areas of the crime scene: blood from under the baseboard beneath the dining room window, blood from the kitchen doorway connected to the dining room, and blood on the interior side of the kitchen door leading to the back yard. This DNA profile was submitted into CODIS on September 19, 2001, and to this date there have been no matches.
Neighborhood canvasses were conducted, with no additional information gained into the identity of the unknown male suspect.
A neighbor, Meg Bloom, who resided at 4822 Drummond Avenue, stated that as she was loading her child into the car around 0725 hours, she saw Carl Preer exit the house and then start talking loudly towards the front door of his residence saying goodbye to who she believed must have been Leslie. Another neighbor, Mary Lewis, was outside with the children whom she babysits all morning and was very close to the Preer residence, and she did not hear or see anything unusual the entire morning.
Detectives conducted many interviews with family members, friends, and co-workers of Leslie Preer to identify any males in Leslie’s life that may have had a reason to harm her. Any males that were identified were interviewed and asked to provide a DNA sample to compare to the unknown profile found at the crime scene. All these samples were compared and eliminated, excluding them as suspects. Detectives also looked into individuals known to be involved in violent crimes, burglaries, and home invasions in the area and determined that none of them were viable suspects in the murder of Leslie Preer.
The unknown male DNA was located underneath Leslie Preer’s fingernails, which indicated that she was engaged in physical contact, likely a struggle, as was indicated by the wounds on her arms. In addition, the unknown male DNA was also present in three rooms of the crime scene and was collected from swabs of taken from blood droplets in the dining room, kitchen, and on the back door. Therefore, it is highly probable that the individual who left their blood within the crime scene and whose DNA was found underneath the victim’s fingernails is the individual who murdered Leslie Preer.
In 23 years, the unknown male whose DNA was in the crime scene has not been identified. The Montgomery County Police Department Cold Case Section believed that all other reasonable investigative methods had been exhausted, and that the use of forensic genetic genealogical DNA analysis and searching (FGGS) was necessary to continue the investigation to identify the perpetrator in the murder of Leslie Preer.
On September 1, 2022, the writer and Assistant State’s Attorney (ASA) Donna Fenton met with Circuit Court Judge Cheryl McCally to present an affidavit seeking judicial authorization to initiate FGGS for the murder of Leslie Preer, specifically utilizing a swab of blood that was obtained from the crime scene, Judge McCally granted judicial approval and the blood evidence was sent to Othram inc. Labs on September 23, 2022. Othram Inc. submitted the suspect DNA profile obtained from the crime scene evidence into Family Tree DNA’s open- data personal genomics database. A list of shared DNA matches was identified on the Family Tree DNA database and while investigating the genetic genealogy matches, the surname Gligor was identified.
On June 4, 2024, the writer located a tip inside of the original case file regarding an individual that previously had a relationship with Leslie Preer’s daughter, Lauren Preer, in 1998. This suspect, Eugene Teodor Gligor (DOB 11/09/1979), also fits in the family tree of a shared DNA match located in Family Tree DNA’s database. The tip that was located was from January 30, 2002, from a previous neighbor of Gligor, who thought that he may be somehow related to the Leslie Preer murder after finding out that he had previously been associated with her daughter, Lauren. The tipster had mentioned that the Gligor residence was often visited by the police due to noise and nuisance complaints, underage drinking, and drug use. Gligor and his mother moved out of the neighborhood in August or September of 2001.
The writer queried law enforcement databases and identified Eugene Teodor Gligor (DOB 11/09/1979) as a white male, 6’00” in height, weighing 160 pounds, on the 1400 block of T Street NW, Washington, DC, 20006. Gligor possesses a Maryland driver license, number G426237789861.
Further investigation into Gligor revealed previous arrests for weapons possession, driving under the influence, and theft. The writer located additional incident reports through Montgomery County Police Department where Gligor was listed as a suspect in thefts from residences and burglary. Gligor has never been arrested for any crimes where his DNA would have been obtained and entered into the CODIS database.
On June 9, 2024, at Dulles International Airport, MCPD Detectives collected an empty water bottle that Eugene Teodor Gligor was observed opening, drinking from, and discarding. This bottle was entered into MCPD evidence and processed for a DNA profile, which was then compared against the DNA profile obtained from the crime scene evidence from 4824 Drummond Avenue,
Chevy Chase, Montgomery County, Maryland, 20815 on May 2, 2001. It was concluded that the single source DNA profile obtained from Eugene Teodor Gligor’s water bottle was included as a contributor to the DNA profile obtained from the evidence in the murder of Leslie Preer.
Due to the fact that the DNA from Gligor’s water bottle was a positive match when tested against the crime scene evidence, the writer requests that an arrest warrant be issued for Eugene Teodor Gligor (DOB 11/09/1979) charging him with 1st Degree Murder in violation of Maryland Criminal Law Article 2-201 of the Annotated Code of Maryland, for the events that occurred on May 2, 2001, against victim Leslie Preer.
All the above events occurred in Montgomery County, Maryland, unless otherwise stated.”
