Latest news with #EugeneGligor
New York Post
14-05-2025
- New York Post
Killer who lived in plain sight for nearly 25 years pleads guilty to killing ex-girlfriend's mom
A Maryland man known for his Zen-like calm has shockingly confessed to beating and choking to death the mother of his then-childhood sweetheart — and then hiding in plain sight for nearly 25 years. Eugene Gligor, 45, pleaded guilty last week to the murder of Leslie Preer, a 50-year-old married mom who was found dead in her blood-spattered home in Chevy Chase on May 2, 2001. The homicide investigation went cold until investigators matched DNA from under her fingernails to a distant relative of Gligor living in Romania. 4 Eugene Gligor pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last week. Montgomery County Department of Police The killer was finally arrested outside of his Washington, DC apartment last June — shocking the dead woman's daughter, Lauren Preer, who had dated Gligor when they were both 15. The daughter said she even ran into her ex at a DC-area restaurant a year before he was arrested, leaving her now-chilled at how he acted like nothing ever happened. '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,' she told Fox 5 last year. 4 Leslie Preer was beaten and strangled to death in her Maryland home in 2001. Montgomery County Department of Police After the killing, Gligor had remained in the DC area for 23 years working at a real estate firm. His colleagues described him as 'Zen' and friendly after his arrest, according to The Washington Post. Gligor's motive for the murder remains unclear. He has no criminal record, and there is no sign the murder was 'premeditated,' Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said. 4 Lauren Preer and her parents at her graduation from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in 1995. Her mother, Leslie J. Preer, was killed six years later. Courtesy Preer Family 4 The murder happened in an affluent area of Maryland. Fox5 Gligor was charged with first-degree murder, but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree murder. He faces up to 30 years in prison when he's sentenced on Aug. 2. 'Lauren, her family, and friends have waited 24 years to finally get closure and justice for this horrific crime that tore her family apart,' family attorney Benjamin Kurtz told Fox News. 'The fact that it turned out to be someone they allowed in their home with open arms, just makes it that much harder to understand,' he added.
Daily Mail
13-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Maryland family man stuns courtroom by admitting to brutal murder of his teenage girlfriend's mother
A Maryland man has confessed to the decades-old murder of his high school girlfriend's mother. Eugene Gligor, 45, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to second-degree murder for the 2001 killing of 50-year-old Leslie Preer - who was the mother of his school sweetheart, Lauren Preer. Preer was found dead in her Chevy Chase home on May 2, 2001, after she failed to show up to work that morning and her colleague decided to check on her. The coworker, along with Preer's husband Carl, went to the house and found blood in the foyer, then her body in an upstairs bedroom. 'Mr. Preer called out his wife's name and looked quickly throughout the home but could not find her,' Assistant State's Attorney Jodie Mount said in court, reported The Washington Post. Investigators concluded her death was a homicide as the result of blunt force trauma inflicted during a struggle. Police collected DNA evidence from the scene, but with no leads, the case went cold for years. In 2022, detectives re-examined blood gathered from the crime scene using new forensic genealogy to establish a DNA link, which then led them to Gligor. His arrest last year stunned the victim's daughter, Lauren Preer, who realized she had dated her mother's killer when they were teenagers. 'We started dating when we were 15, so his family and my family knew each other,' Lauren told Fox 5. Eerily, Lauren had run into Gligor at a restaurant in Washington, D.C. before his arrest under normal pretenses. He acted like nothing had happened. '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,' she said. Police linked the DNA to Gligor using forensic genealogy that found a connection to 'distant relative from Romania.' From there, investigators built a family tree that connected Gligor, a name they recognized as Lauren's young love. Authorities then arranged for Gligor to be taken through extra airport security screening where they gave him a water bottle that was used to match the DNA, according to court documents. No motive has been given for Preer's murder, but records indicate he was a mischievous high-schooler and had some substance abuse issues, reported Fox News. Gligor worked at a real-estate firm and colleagues described him as 'zen' and 'a happy, positive person,' according the Post. When asked if Gligor was ever on her radar as being a potential suspect, Lauren responded: 'No, not at all.' Now, the grieving daughter is relieved that her mother and family is finally getting justice. 'Lauren, her family, and friends have waited 24 years to finally get closure and justice for this horrific crime that tore her family apart,' family attorney Benjamin Kurtz told Fox News Digital. 'The fact that it turned out to be someone they allowed in their home with open arms, just makes it that much harder to understand.' Gligor faces up to 30 years in prison - the maximum sentencing for second-degree murder in 2001 when the crime occurred - and sentencing is scheduled for August 28.
Fox News
12-05-2025
- Fox News
Family of mom murdered in ritzy DC suburb decades ago gets justice as perp nobody expected pleads guilty
A killer nobody expected has pleaded guilty in the 2001 murder of a Chevy Chase, Maryland, mother. Defendant Eugene Gligor, 45, of Washington, D.C., walked free through the nation's capital for more than 20 years before his DNA linked him to then-50-year-old Leslie Preer's murder in 2001. Preer's daughter, Lauren Preer, told FOX 5 D.C. that she dated the suspect when they were both 15 years old. She was 24 when her mother was killed. Montgomery County authorities linked DNA found beneath Preer's fingernails at the time of her murder to Gligor's "distant relative from Romania" who had voluntarily submitted her DNA to an online database, ultimately leading authorities directly to him last year, Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said during a Wednesday press conference. Gligor had lived in the D.C. area since committing the gruesome crime some 24 years ago. Fox News Digital has reached out to his attorney for comment. "Lauren, her family, and friends have waited 24 years to finally get closure and justice for this horrific crime that tore her family apart," family attorney Benjamin Kurtz told Fox News Digital. "The fact that it turned out to be someone they allowed in their home with open arms, just makes it that much harder to understand." Kurtz added that "Lauren has been given a sense of peace knowing that her father has finally been vindicated of any wrongdoing, even if after his death, and she feels he can finally rest in peace with the knowledge her killer has been caught." She also "wanted to express her gratitude to the Montgomery County Police Department who never stopped trying to get justice for her family and to the State's Attorney's Office for their efforts of securing a guilty plea from Leslie's murderer." "Lastly, while the guilty plea will never bring back her mother, or create any of the moments she never got to experience due to losing her at such a young age, she and her family can finally have some closure to this horrific loss and try to start the healing process," Kurtz said. "She wanted to express her sincere appreciation to all of her family and friends for the love and support over the years and decades and during the last year waiting for a conviction." 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 that day. Her death was ruled a homicide. There was blood all over the house, McCarthy said. She died of blunt force trauma and strangulation. In 2022, police submitted DNA collected from the crime scene to a lab for forensic genetic genealogical DNA analysis and later identified Gligor as a potential suspect. McCarthy called Preer's case "historic" during a May 7 press conference, saying it was the first time familial DNA was used in a cold-case murder in the county. "This was excellent police work that took place for over two decades," former Washington, D.C., homicide detective Ted Williams told Fox News Digital. "This is how science, familial DNA, was able to help law enforcement catch a person who felt that they had committed the crime.… The fact that the DNA that was found under [Preer's] fingernails was preserved all of those years and was later used to track down Mr. Gligor – he would have gotten away with murder, absent having this… near-exact science, and that is familial DNA." "[H]e would have gotten away with murder." Authorities obtained a sample of Gligor's DNA by staging a fake second security screening at Dulles International Airport. They escorted the then-suspect into a room, where there were several water bottles. Gligor drank one water bottle and threw it away before leaving the room, according to court filings obtained by The Washington Post. GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB "There are times, unfortunately, when the evidence that is gathered at a crime scene does not lead in any one specific direction," Williams said. "I am sure that at the early stages of the investigation, the investigators were looking at anybody they believed may very well have been involved with this murder, but [Gligor] did not come up on their radar screen. That happens in murder cases all the time… and at some stage or another, the development of the scientific evidence… is something or two that law enforcement now have in their possession to go back many, many years." Gligor worked at a real-estate firm and was known as a "zen" and friendly person, the Post reported last year, when he was named as a suspect. Court records and accounts from those who knew him obtained by the Post show that he was a mischievous high-schooler with some history of substance abuse. His parents divorced while he and Lauren were dating in high school, and he did not take the separation well. He was also expelled from boarding school, the Post reported. Following Preer's death, when friends and family offered support to Lauren, Gligor apparently drove cross-country to visit a friend in Oregon while Lauren was grieving. That friend told the Post that Gligor didn't tell him he was coming to Oregon until he was already on his way. Lauren recalled a moment years before her mother's murder, when she and Gligor were still dating, when Gligor was accused of assaulting a woman on a bike path between the two then-teenagers' houses. Lauren told the Post she went to the police station with a friend, insisting to officers that Gligor was innocent. "We both said, there is no way Eugene would have done this," Preer recalled to the Post. Authorities have not shared any kind of motive behind Preer's murder. McCarthy said it will be up to the defendant to share what the motive was in his decision to kill Preer, adding later that there was no evidence to suggest the murder was "premeditated," and Preer had no criminal record. McCarthy, speaking on Lauren's behalf during the Wednesday press conference, remembered Preer as a "spectacular, loving, wonderful person." Gligor faces up to 30 years in prison, which was the maximum penalty for second-degree murder in 2001 when the incident occurred. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 28, 2025, at 9 a.m.
Washington Post
07-05-2025
- Climate
- Washington Post
A killer hid in plain sight for 23 years. This is how police found him.
Eugene Gligor took a seat on the steps outside his apartment building in Washington, D.C. He scrolled through his phone, drank a cup of coffee. It was June 18, 2024, sunny and 80 degrees.
