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For two and a half decades a Chevy Chase mother’s murder sat on a shelf while a family lived with the unanswered question every night. This week, that long wait finally ended when prosecutors confirmed that investigators used forensic genetic genealogy to identify and convict Eugene Teodor Gligor for the 2001 killing of Leslie Preer, bringing a measure of closure to a family that deserved justice.
Montgomery County detectives say Preer was found dead in her home on May 2, 2001, and that male DNA collected at the scene remained a mystery for years. The evidence, painstakingly preserved, became the key to cracking the case once new technology and relentless detectives were finally able to follow the DNA trail.
What broke the case was old-fashioned police work amplified by modern tools: detectives used genealogical DNA databases to find distant relatives overseas, painstakingly built a family tree, and traced the line to the suspect. In a move straight out of a procedural, investigators then obtained a covert sample — from a discarded water bottle during a customs secondary-screening — that matched the DNA found under the victim’s fingernails and at the crime scene.
Gligor ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in May 2025 and was sentenced this past August, a result that holds him to account after 24 years of unanswered questions for the family. The county’s own statement and court filings show the sentence reflects both the brutality of the crime and the reality of plea bargaining, leaving the community to reckon with how justice is delivered even when it arrives late.
For the victim’s daughter, Lauren Preer, the revelation cut the deepest because the man charged was someone she once dated as a teenager — a detail that adds an almost Shakespearean sting to the tragedy and underscores how evil can hide in plain sight. Her shock and disbelief are the human face of this story, and it’s right that the system finally answered her family’s desperate questions.
Conservative Americans should salute the detectives who refused to let this crime be forgotten; tenacity and the smart use of technology put a killer behind bars. At the same time, we must insist on clear rules: forensic genealogy is a powerful tool for justice, but it must be used transparently, under proper warrants and with respect for civil liberties so that it doesn’t become an unaccountable surveillance shortcut.
If we value the safety of neighborhoods and the dignity of victims, we ought to support properly funded cold-case units and give law enforcement the tools to finish what was started — while also demanding sensible safeguards to protect privacy. Hardworking citizens want law and order, fairness, and closure; this case shows those aims can coexist when investigators are allowed to pursue the truth with courage and common-sense limits.
