A man has been arrested in connection with a 23-year-old homicide case in Maryland, according to authorities, and the victim’s daughter claims the suspect is her ex-boyfriend.
Leslie Preer was discovered murdered in her Chevy Chase home on May 2, 2001, Montgomery County Police stated in a statement on Tuesday, June 18. When she failed to show up for work, police arrived at her home.
Authorities initially collected DNA evidence from the 2001 crime scene, according to a statement released this week.
Decades later, in 2022, blood evidence was used in a genealogical DNA analysis that was later linked earlier this month to Eugene Teodor Gligor, whom police had identified as a possible suspect.
Lauren Preer, Preer’s daughter, now claims the suspect was her lover before her mother died, according to local TV station WTTG.
“It’s been a hell of a day,” Lauren told the site, adding that she saw Gligor only last year.
According to the station, she and her boyfriend grew up in the same neighborhood and started dating when she was 15 years old. She was 24 when her mother was killed.
Lauren has stated in the years since that she never considered Gligor to be a viable suspect or to have any involvement in the murder.
“Not at all,” she replied.
She met Gligor at a restaurant a year ago, and nothing looked out of the norm, she told WTTG.
“I’ve spoken with him. “He didn’t seem strange,” she stated. “How you can look somebody in the eye knowing that you committed this crime and act like nothing happened is pretty unreal.”
In their statement, police did not disclose any further information concerning the motivation or cause of death.
According to Montgomery County Police, Gligor, 44, was detained by US Marshals in Washington, D.C., and is currently awaiting extradition. He’s been charged with first-degree murder.
It was not immediately known whether Gligor had entered a plea or hired an attorney to speak on his behalf.