The murder of Leslie Preer
Chevy Chase, Montgomery County, Maryland · 2001
Overview
Leslie Preer, 49, was beaten and strangled inside her home on Drummond Avenue in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on May 2, 2001; her body was found in an upstairs bathroom after she failed to show up for work. The killer left DNA under her fingernails, but it matched no one, and the case went cold for more than two decades. In 2022 Montgomery County police turned to forensic genetic genealogy, which traced the unknown profile through a distant relative in Romania to Eugene Teodor Gligor, the former boyfriend of Preer's daughter. Detectives confirmed the match with DNA from a water bottle he discarded at Dulles airport, arrested him in 2024, and he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, receiving a 22-year sentence in what prosecutors called the first Maryland cold-case murder solved with familial DNA.
How it was solved
Crime-scene DNA recovered from beneath Leslie Preer's fingernails was preserved from 2001 but never matched a known offender. In September 2022 the Montgomery County Police Department partnered with the Texas forensic laboratory Othram, which used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to build a comprehensive profile of the unknown male and obtained court authorization to submit it for forensic genetic genealogical analysis through the Family Tree DNA database. The strongest match pointed to a family line in Romania; genealogists built out a family tree, and the resulting Gligor surname connected to a tip in the original 2001 case file noting that Eugene Gligor had dated Preer's daughter, Lauren. While surveilling him, detectives watched Gligor drink from a water bottle at Dulles International Airport on June 9, 2024, and discard it; the bottle's DNA matched the crime-scene profile. He was arrested on June 18, 2024, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on May 7, 2025, and was sentenced on August 28, 2025 to 22 years in prison followed by probation. State's Attorney John McCarthy described it as the first time familial DNA was used to solve a cold-case murder in Maryland.
Sources
- Man pleads guilty to 2001 murder of Montgomery Co. mother
“Officers discovered her body in the upstairs master bathroom shower stall; an autopsy revealed she had been strangled and her head was battered onto the foyer floor.”
- Man arrested for 2001 cold case murder in Chevy Chase pleads guilty
“In September 2022, investigators obtained court authorization to submit the unidentified male DNA sample for forensic genetic genealogical analysis, and the sample was submitted into Family Tree DNA's database.”
- Getting Gligor: How detectives used genetic genealogy to crack open a 23-year-old cold case
“Detectives collected his DNA from a discarded water bottle at Dulles Airport in summer 2024, which confirmed a match to evidence from the crime scene; the male DNA found under Leslie's fingernails did not match her husband Sandy.”
- After 23 years, Leslie Preer's Suspected Killer is Arrested
“In September 2022, the Montgomery County Police Department teamed with Othram to determine if advanced DNA testing could help identify the perpetrator; Othram scientists used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to build a comprehensive DNA profile.”
- Leslie Preer Murder: New Details Revealed
“Eugene Teodor Gligor, 44, was arrested June 18, 2024, in Washington, D.C.; he had dated Lauren Preer, the victim's daughter, and authorities collected his DNA from a water bottle discarded at Dulles International Airport on June 9, 2024.”
- Eugene Gligor pleads guilty in murder of Leslie Preer in Montgomery County cold case
“On Wednesday, May 7, 2025, Eugene Gligor pleaded guilty to second-degree murder; State's Attorney John McCarthy said that for the first time in state history, familial DNA was used to solve a cold case murder.”
- Maryland man sentenced to 22 years for killing ex's mother in decades-old Chevy Chase case
“On Thursday, August 28, 2025, Gligor was sentenced to 22 years in prison; Preer's daughter Lauren called him 'a wolf in sheep's clothing.'”
- Family of mom murdered in ritzy DC suburb decades ago gets justice as perp nobody expected pleads guilty
“Preer's boss found her dead in the second story of her Chevy Chase home on May 2, 2001, after she did not show up for work; cause of death was blunt force trauma and strangulation, and a distant relative from Romania who submitted to an online database led investigators to Gligor.”
- In 'History-Making Case,' Man Sentenced in 24-Year-Old Chevy Chase Murder of Former Girlfriend's Mother
“Leslie Preer, 49, was killed at her home on Drummond Avenue; Gligor dated the victim's daughter beginning in 1998, and was sentenced to 22 years in prison followed by five years probation.”