Man Arrested in 23-Year-Old Cold Case Turns Out to Be Ex-Boyfriend of Victim’s Daughter

A man has been arrested in connection with a 23-year-old homicide case in Maryland, authorities say — and the victim’s daughter says the suspect is her ex-boyfriend.

Leslie Preer was found slain in her Chevy Chase home on May 2, 2001, Montgomery County Police said in a statement on Tuesday, June 18. Police responded to her residence when she did not show up for work.

Authorities initially collected DNA evidence from the 2001 crime scene, police said in their statement this week.

Decades later, in 2022, blood evidence was used as part of a genealogical DNA analysis that was eventually matched earlier this month to Eugene Teodor Gligor, whom police had developed as a potential suspect.

Preer’s daughter Lauren Preer now says the suspect was her boyfriend before her mother’s death, according to local TV station WTTG.

“It’s been a hell of a day,” Lauren told the outlet, adding that she saw Gligor as recently as last year.

She said the two of them grew up in the same neighborhood and began dating when she was 15, according to the station. She was 24 when her mother was killed.

In the years since, Lauren said she never thought of Gligor as a potential suspect or as having anything to do with the killing.

“Not at all,” she said.

She bumped into Gligor at a restaurant a year ago but nothing seemed out of the ordinary, she said, according to WTTG.

“I’ve spoken to him. He didn’t seem weird,” she said. “How you can look somebody in the eye knowing that you committed this crime and act like nothing happened is pretty unreal.”

Police did not provide further details in their statement about a motive or cause of death.

Gligor, now 44, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals in Washington, D.C., and is awaiting extradition, per Montgomery County Police. He has been charged with first-degree murder.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Gligor has entered a plea or retained an attorney to speak on his behalf.