Cold case killer of Chevy Chase mom sentenced to 22 years in prison

ROCKVILLE, MD. - Eugene Teodor Gligor, 45, who pleaded guilty to the killing of Leslie Preer earlier this year, was sentenced Thursday to 22 years in prison by a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge in Rockville.

What we know:

More than 60 people filled the courtroom to watch Gligor be sentenced, many of whom were the victims' friends and family. 

"Today is a day of reckoning," state prosecutors Donna Fenton and Jodie Mount said during Gligor's hearing. He will also serve five years of supervised probation upon release. Judge David Lease also ordered Gligor to seek mental health treatment and not to contact Preer's family.

Lease said Thursday that while reviewing the case, he was "trying to make sense of the senseless" and called the murder "horrific." In handing down the sentence, Lease said that he took into account Gligor's past struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction, as well as his "commitment" to helping others through Alcoholics Anonymous. 

Prior to his sentencing, Gligor addressed the court and Preer's family, expressing his regret tearfully. He claimed that in the days leading up to the killing, he had "blackouts" and although he remembers entering Leslie Preer's home, he doesn't remember exactly what happened after that. 

The murder of Leslie Preer 

The backstory:

Gligor's sentencing comes over 20 years since Preer was killed at her Drummond Avenue home in Chevy Chase.

On May 2, 2001, Preer was found dead by blunt force trauma and strangulation after Montgomery County Police conducted a welfare check. Blood was smeared on the walls and furniture was toppled over. Preer's body was ultimately found lying face down, partially inside an upstairs shower, according to court documents. 

Investigators initially suspected Preer's husband, Sandy Preer, according to prosecutors. Police weren't able to match him to the male DNA blood samples found at the scene, however. After that, the case went cold. 

Timeline:

Due to advancements in DNA technology, police investigators were able to connect Gligor to the samples found at the scene and arrest him in 2024, prosecutors say. Gligor was once the boyfriend of Preer’s teenage daughter, Lauren Preer, who told FOX 5 in May that she dated him when they were both 15. Their families knew each other and lived in the same neighborhood.

Lauren Preer, who was 24 at the time of the murder, said she never suspected Gligor, recalling a meeting years later at a Washington, D.C., restaurant, where they spoke as if nothing had happened. Lauren described the revelation of his having murdered her mother as "unreal."