Northeast
Family of mom murdered in ritzy DC suburb decades ago gets justice as perp nobody expected pleads guilty
A killer nobody expected has pleaded guilty in the 2001 murder of a Chevy Chase, Maryland, mother.
Defendant Eugene Gligor, 45, of Washington, D.C., walked free through the nation’s capital for more than 20 years before his DNA linked him to then-50-year-old Leslie Preer’s murder in 2001.
Preer’s daughter, Lauren Preer, told FOX 5 D.C. that she dated the suspect when they were both 15 years old. She was 24 when her mother was killed.
Montgomery County authorities linked DNA found beneath Preer’s fingernails at the time of her murder to Gligor’s “distant relative from Romania” who had voluntarily submitted her DNA to an online database, ultimately leading authorities directly to him last year, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said during a Wednesday press conference.
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Defendant Eugene Gligor, 45, of Washington, D.C., walked free through the nation’s capital for more than 20 years before his DNA linked him to then-50-year-old Leslie Preer’s murder in 2001. (Montgomery County State’s Attorney)
Gligor had lived in the D.C. area since committing the gruesome crime some 24 years ago. Fox News Digital has reached out to his attorney for comment.
“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 Digital. “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.”
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Kurtz added that “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.”
She also “wanted to express her gratitude to the Montgomery County Police Department who never stopped trying to get justice for her family and to the State’s Attorney’s Office for their efforts of securing a guilty plea from Leslie’s murderer.”
“Lastly, while the guilty plea will never bring back her mother, or create any of the moments she never got to experience due to losing her at such a young age, she and her family can finally have some closure to this horrific loss and try to start the healing process,” Kurtz said. “She wanted to express her sincere appreciation to all of her family and friends for the love and support over the years and decades and during the last year waiting for a conviction.”
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Preer’s boss found her dead in the second story of her Chevy Chase home on May 2, 2001, after she did not show up for work that day and ruled her death a homicide. There was blood all over the house. (Montgomery County State’s Attorney)
Preer’s boss found her dead in the second story of her Chevy Chase home on May 2, 2001, after she did not show up for work that day. Her death was ruled a homicide. There was blood all over the house, McCarthy said.
She died of blunt force trauma and strangulation.
In 2022, police submitted DNA collected from the crime scene to a lab for forensic genetic genealogical DNA analysis and later identified Gligor as a potential suspect.
McCarthy called Preer’s case “historic” during a May 7 press conference, saying it was the first time familial DNA was used in a cold-case murder in the county.
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“This was excellent police work that took place for over two decades,” former Washington, D.C., homicide detective Ted Williams told Fox News Digital. “This is how science, familial DNA, was able to help law enforcement catch a person who felt that they had committed the crime.… The fact that the DNA that was found under [Preer’s] fingernails was preserved all of those years and was later used to track down Mr. Gligor – he would have gotten away with murder, absent having this… near-exact science, and that is familial DNA.”
“[H]e would have gotten away with murder.”
Authorities obtained a sample of Gligor’s DNA by staging a fake second security screening at Dulles International Airport. They escorted the then-suspect into a room, where there were several water bottles. Gligor drank one water bottle and threw it away before leaving the room, according to court filings obtained by The Washington Post.
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John McCarthy, speaking on Lauren Preer’s behalf during the Wednesday press conference, remembered Leslie Preer as a “spectacular, loving, wonderful person.” (Facebook)
“There are times, unfortunately, when the evidence that is gathered at a crime scene does not lead in any one specific direction,” Williams said. “I am sure that at the early stages of the investigation, the investigators were looking at anybody they believed may very well have been involved with this murder, but [Gligor] did not come up on their radar screen. That happens in murder cases all the time… and at some stage or another, the development of the scientific evidence… is something or two that law enforcement now have in their possession to go back many, many years.”
Gligor worked at a real-estate firm and was known as a “zen” and friendly person, the Post reported last year, when he was named as a suspect.
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Court records and accounts from those who knew him obtained by the Post show that he was a mischievous high-schooler with some history of substance abuse. His parents divorced while he and Lauren were dating in high school, and he did not take the separation well. He was also expelled from boarding school, the Post reported.
Following Preer’s death, when friends and family offered support to Lauren, Gligor apparently drove cross-country to visit a friend in Oregon while Lauren was grieving. That friend told the Post that Gligor didn’t tell him he was coming to Oregon until he was already on his way.
Lauren recalled a moment years before her mother’s murder, when she and Gligor were still dating, when Gligor was accused of assaulting a woman on a bike path between the two then-teenagers’ houses. Lauren told the Post she went to the police station with a friend, insisting to officers that Gligor was innocent.
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“We both said, there is no way Eugene would have done this,” Preer recalled to the Post.
Authorities have not shared any kind of motive behind Preer’s murder. McCarthy said it will be up to the defendant to share what the motive was in his decision to kill Preer, adding later that there was no evidence to suggest the murder was “premeditated,” and Preer had no criminal record.
McCarthy, speaking on Lauren’s behalf during the Wednesday press conference, remembered Preer as a “spectacular, loving, wonderful person.”
Gligor faces up to 30 years in prison, which was the maximum penalty for second-degree murder in 2001 when the incident occurred. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 28, 2025, at 9 a.m.
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Northeast
Man with machete shot and killed by police, who then find 3 more dead inside home: officials
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Officials in Piscataway, New Jersey, noted Tuesday that an individual with a machete was shot and killed by police, who then found the subject’s mother and grandparents dead inside a home, WABC reported.
Piscataway Mayor Brian Wahler noted that the suspect’s father dialed 911, the outlet noted.
When authorities arrived at the home, the man had a machete, authorities said, according to the outlet. Authorities attempted to utilize tasers against the man but indicated it did not stop the suspect, WABC noted.
He allegedly charged at law enforcement officers with the weapon, and they opened fire and killed him, the outlet reported.
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Authorities with the Piscataway Police Department responded to a 911 call about someone with a knife. (Kyle Mazza/UNF News/Shutterstock)
After the shooting, police found three people dead in the home, a press release from the New Jersey attorney general’s office notes.
“The Office of Public Integrity and Accountability is investigating a fatal officer-involved shooting that occurred on Monday, January 5, 2026, in Piscataway Township in Middlesex County, New Jersey,” the release states.
Preliminary information indicated that authorities with the Piscataway Police Department had responded to a 911 call from someone who reported a person with a knife, the release indicates.
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Police shot a man armed with a knife Jan. 5, 2026, in New Jersey. (Kyle Mazza/UNF News/Shutterstock)
“Officers subsequently shot and killed a man armed with a knife who they encountered at the residence,” the press release noted.
“A 2019 law … requires the Attorney General’s Office to conduct investigations of a person’s death that occurs during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody. It requires that all such investigations be presented to a grand jury to determine if the evidence supports the return of an indictment against the officer or officers involved,” the release explains.
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Law enforcement shot a person armed with a knife in New Jersey. (Kyle Mazza/UNF News/Shutterstock)
According to a post on X, New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association President Peter Andreyev noted, “We are aware of the horrific crime in Middlesex County tonight. All our members that were involved are being evaluated. Thank you to all who have reached to offer support.”
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Boston, MA
Battenfeld: Michelle Wu should demand better security after Boston Medical Center rape
In the middle of Michelle Wu’s orchestrated inaugural celebration, prosecutors described a senseless hospital horror that unfolded at Boston Medical Center – a rape of a partially paralyzed patient allegedly by a mentally ill man allowed to freely roam the hospital’s hallways.
It happened in September in what is supposed to be a safe haven but too often is a dangerous campus. Drug addicts with needles frequently openly camp in front of the hospital, and in early December a security guard suffered serious injuries in a stabbing on the BMC campus. The alleged assailant was finally subdued by other security guards after a struggle.
In the September incident, prosecutors described in court this week how the 55-year-old alleged rapist Barry Howze worked his way under the terrified victim’s bed in the BMC emergency room and sexually assaulted her.
“This assault was brutal and brazen, and occurred in a place where people go for help,” Suffolk County prosecutor Kate Fraiman said. “Due to her partial paralysis, she could not reach her phone, which was under her body at the time.”
Howze, who reportedly has a history of violent offenses and mental illness, was able to flee the scene but was arrested two days later at the hospital when he tried to obtain a visitor’s pass and was recognized by security. Howze’s attorney blamed hospital staff for allowing him the opportunity to commit the crime and some city councilors are demanding answers.
“This was a horrific and violent sexual assault on a defenseless patient,” Councilor Ed Flynn said. “The safety and security of patients and staff at the hospital can’t be ignored any longer. The hospital leadership must make immediate and major changes and upgrades to their security department.”
Flynn also sent a letter to BMC CEO Alastair Bell questioning how the assailant was allowed to commit the rape.
Where is Wu? She was too busy celebrating herself with a weeklong inaugural of her second term to deal with the rape at the medical center, which is near the center of drug-ravaged Mass and Cass.
If the rape had happened at a suburban hospital, people would be demanding investigations and accountability.
But in Boston, Wu takes credit for running the “safest major city in the country” while often ignoring crimes.
Wu should intervene and demand better security and safety for the staff and patients at BMC.
Although the hospital is no longer run by the city, it has a historic connection with City Hall. It is used by Boston residents, many of them poor and disabled or from marginalized communities. She should be out front like Flynn demanding accountability from the hospital.
Boston Medical Center, located in the city’s South End, is the largest “safety-net” hospital in New England. It is partially overseen by the Boston Public Health Commission, whose members are appointed by the mayor.
BMC was formed in 1996 by the Thomas Menino administration as a merger between the city-owned Boston City Hospital, which first opened in 1864, and Boston University Medical Center.
Menino called the merger “the most important thing I will do as mayor.”
When he was appointed CEO by the hospital board of trustees in 2023, Bell offered recycled Wu-speak to talk about how BMC was trying to “reshape” how the hospital delivers health care.
“The way we think about the health of our patients and members extends beyond traditional medicine to environmental sustainability and issues such as housing, food insecurity, and economic mobility, as we study the root causes of health inequities and empower all of our patients and communities to thrive,” Bell said.
But the hospital has been plagued by security issues in the last few years, and a contract dispute with the nurses’ union. The nurses at BMC’s Brighton campus authorized a three-day strike late last year over management demands to cut staffing and retirement benefits.
Kirsten Ransom, BMC Brighton RN and Massachusetts Nurses Association co-chair, said, “This vote sends a clear message that our members are united in our commitment to make a stand for our patients, our community and our professional integrity in the wake of this blatant effort to balance BMC’s budget on the backs of those who have the greatest impact on the safety of the patients and the future success of this facility.”
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