Where Is Eugene Gligor Now? Inside His Life After DNA Evidence Linked Him to His Ex-Girlfriend's Mother's Murder Two Decades Later By Caroline Blair

NEED TO KNOW

Leslie Preer was viciously murdered in 2001, but her case went cold for more than two decades
After 23 years, detectives matched familial DNA to reveal that Eugene Gligor had killed her
Gligor had previously dated Leslie’s daughter, Lauren Preer, years before the murder when they were in high school

For over two decades, Leslie Preer’s brutal murder went unsolved.

After Leslie didn’t show up for work on May 2, 2001, police searched her house and found her deceased in the shower of her upstairs bathroom, according to court documents obtained by Fox 5 DC.

The murder rocked the tight-knit community of Chevy Chase, Md., and led to mass speculation about who committed the heinous act. For several months after the murder, Leslie’s husband, Carl “Sandy” Preer, was an unofficial main suspect, even though he had an alibi and his DNA didn’t match that of the perpetrator.

Leslie’s murder went cold for years until two new detectives re-examined the evidence in 2022. Although the original detectives had discovered DNA from the killer, they were unable to find a match in any of the available databases.

In 2024, the detectives finally found a match using a familial DNA database and identified the killer. The evidence matched a man named Eugene Gligor, who dated Leslie’s daughter, Lauren Preer, in high school. Gligor was arrested in 2024 and initially denied any involvement.

He later changed his story and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. In August 2025 — over 24 years after Leslie’s death — Gligor was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Lauren reflected on the murder and eventual arrest of her ex-boyfriend in the Oct. 17 episode of Dateline.

“It was awful,” Lauren said in a teaser for the episode. “I was never going to give up.”

Here’s everything to know about Leslie Preer’s murder and where Eugene Gligor is now after killing her in 2001.

Who is Eugene Gligor?

Years before Gligor murdered Leslie, he was in a relationship with her daughter, Lauren. The pair dated when they were both 15 years old in high school and lived in the same neighborhood, she told Fox 5 DC.

During the time they dated, Gligor became close with the Preer family and spent time with them at dinners, holidays and game nights, per Nationwide News. Lauren told The Washington Post in 2024 that her mom had always liked Gligor, while her dad was hesitant.

She told the outlet that her dad said there was “something off about him.” Lauren and Gligor dated and broke up years before the murder, but it’s not publicly known when or why they split.

Gligor was described as a “zen” person before his arrest, according to court documents obtained by The Washington Post in 2024. Although he had changed over the years, during high school, he was known as mischievous with a history of substance abuse, per the outlet.

At the time he was dating Lauren, his parents got divorced, and that also took a toll on him and eventually contributed to him being expelled from school, The Washington Post reported.

After murdering Leslie in 2001, Gligor went on to work at a real estate firm and lived in an apartment in Washington, D.C., according to the New York Post. Gligor and Lauren lost touch after their breakup, but she recalled to Fox 5 DC that she ran into him at a bar a few weeks after her mom’s murder.

“He didn’t seem weird,” Lauren said, while adding that he apologized for her loss. “How you could look someone in the eye and know that you committed this crime and act like nothing happened is pretty unreal.”

What did Eugene Gligor do?

Leslie was found dead by police in the shower of her upstairs bathroom on May 2, 2001. Her official cause of death was blunt force trauma and strangulation, according to Fox 5. Police entered the home on a welfare check and noticed blood smeared on the walls and furniture scattered across the living room.

The detectives secured male DNA from both the blood smears and skin cells under Leslie’s fingernails, but they weren’t able to find a match. At the time, they suspected her husband, Sandy, but his DNA didn’t match what was found at the scene of the crime.

The case went cold for over two decades before Detective Tara Augustin and Detective Alyson Dupouy took a stab at cracking it.

How was Eugene Gligor eventually caught?

Two years after detectives Augustin and Dupouy re-examined Leslie’s death, they had a breakthrough with new DNA technology. The fresh process takes criminal DNA samples and compares them across public databases to check for relational matches.

“They’ll give you a list of profiles that are in these systems that have a certain degree of relatedness to the suspect’s DNA profile,” Augustin explained to 20/20 in September 2025. “Sometimes it can be thousands of people [and] it can be a very, very distant relationship.”

The detectives were able to create a detailed DNA profile of the suspect and eventually traced it back to a family in Romania. Augustin and Dupouy combed through the family line until they noticed the surname Gligor and recognized it from a tip authorities had received from a neighbor who suggested that the ex-boyfriend may have been involved, according to Bethesda Today News.

Since Gligor’s DNA was not already in a public database or stored with any law enforcement agencies, they had to get creative. Augustin and Dupouy tracked Gligor to Washington Dulles Airport, where they retrieved his used water bottle and matched his DNA to the samples collected from Leslie’s fingernails.

In June 2024, Gligor was arrested outside of his Washington, D.C., apartment. For nearly a year, he denied any involvement in the crime.

What was Eugene Gligor’s sentence?

Gligor changed his story in May 2025 and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

“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 at the time of his guilty plea. “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, “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.”

On Aug. 28, 2025, Gligor was sentenced to 22 years in prison by a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge, according to Bethesda Today News. Prosecutors recommended he get the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, which the judge gave him, but suspended the sentence to 22 years.

“Today is a day of reckoning,” state prosecutors Donna Fenton and Jodie Mount said at the time.

Since Gligor took a plea deal, he did not stand trial and did not have to offer a motive. Prosecutors said in the sentencing that Gligor was “unwilling to admit his motive and the full extent of his horrific conduct,” per 20/20.

However, during Gligor’s sentencing hearing, he insinuated that he was under the influence by telling the court that he struggled with drug and alcohol abuse and had experienced blackouts at the time.

“I vaguely remember leaving the Preer house in the morning, but the rest is a blur. I know Lauren and Leslie’s family want to know why I was there and what happened. I’m sorry. I’m unable to remember and provide an explanation,” Gligor said, per 20/20.