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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Thousands of students across New York State this week were unable to finish annual standardized tests after a technological issue disrupted the computer-based exams for the second consecutive year.
Students in grades three through eight from Buffalo to New York City encountered error messages on Wednesday when they tried to log in to their math or English language arts exams, which do not affect students’ ability to advance to the next grade. While some could sign in and complete the tests, others were kicked offline, frustrating students, teachers and parents.
For the past three years, New York State has been transitioning to digital exams, with this spring marking the first time that every student in those grades had to take them on a computer. So when students encountered issues on Wednesday, there were no paper exams available as a backup.
The developer of the state test, NWEA, an educational testing and research group, said it had worked overnight to identify the source of the disruption, which was identified as a problem with a server, and repaired it before school started on Thursday.
After problems emerged a year ago, the company pledged that it would not happen again. The New York State Education Department has awarded $116 million in contracts to NWEA to develop the untimed, federally required assessments.
The repairs this week came too late for many New York City students who were taking the math portion of the state assessment. Education officials in the city had advised principals on Wednesday not to reschedule the math test for the next day out of concern that the system could remain offline.
But some schools resumed the math exams on Thursday after the outage had been resolved, said Dominique Ellison, spokeswoman for the Department of Education. The remaining schools will administer the test in the coming days.
“I know this issue has been challenging and frustrating for schools, students and families who have been working hard in preparation for these exams,” Kamar Samuels, the schools chancellor, said on Wednesday night at a meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy, an oversight group.
It was unclear how many students in New York State had to scrap the exams, but the disruption appeared to be widespread. JP O’Hare, a spokesman for the New York State Education Department, said that 116,000 students had taken the tests on Wednesday without problems.
It was also unclear how many students were scheduled to take the exams on Wednesday because school districts have a window of several weeks in April and May in which they can administer the tests. There are about a million third-through-eighth-grade students in the state.
On Wednesday, Buffalo Public Schools stopped all math exams for students, while more than 1,600 students at Zeta Charter Schools in New York City had to give up on their English language arts assessments.
“The current system is failing, creating unnecessary challenges for students, teachers and administrators,” Emily Kim, the chief executive of the charter school network, said. “Our students deserve a testing experience reflecting the same level of preparation, care and accountability we ask of them.”
Those must be some extra sticky fingers.
The Boston Police Department is asking for the public’s assistance in identifying a man they say robbed a South End candy shop at knife point.
The man, captured on surveillance video, entered Madeleine’s Candy Shop at 47 Clarendon St. just before 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. He then walked up to an employee while holding “what appeared to be a knife,” according to a BPD statement, and demanded cash. He fled with an undisclosed amount of money.
Police describe the man as a white or light-skinned Hispanic man wearing a maroon sweatshirt, a gray wool cap, gray sweatpants, and a black mask.
Police ask that anyone who recognizes the man or who has information on the theft to contact detectives at (617) 343-5619 or to provide information anonymously through the CrimeStoppers tip line by calling 1-800-494-TIPS (8477), texting the word “TIP” to CRIME (27463), or through the online portal at Police.Boston.gov/CrimeStoppers/.
FBI recovers stolen 17th century Italian urn
Boston FBI agents recovered and returned a 17th century urn stolen from an Italian church.
“It’s incredibly exciting when the FBI can recover a piece of history that carries such deep emotional and cultural significance,” said Ted Docks, the special agent in charge of the Boston FBI. “After all, this reliquary urn is a tangible link to intense religious devotion and a connection to the generations who lived and prayed with it.
It represents the intersection of faith, history, and art – elements that are invaluable to the people of Italy and to humanity as a whole,” he continued. “This case highlights the power of international cooperation and our collective commitment to safeguard the world’s cultural treasures, no matter where they may be.”
The reliquary urn, which authorities say is a significant piece of Italian history and is registered with the Historical Artistic Heritage Items of the Italian Episcopal Conference, was stolen sometime in August 2022 from the church of San Michele Arcangelo di Cangiano.
The piece turned up in the hands of an antiques dealer in the American Northeast on Feb. 11, 2026. The dealer, who purchased it at some point from an Italian dealer, voluntarily relinquished the urn to the FBI, who gave it back to the Italian Ministry of Culture.
Boston-based FBI agents worked with the agency’s art crime team, its attaché in Rome and with the Italian Carabinieri, a paramilitary national police agency. The FBI’s art crime division was launched in 2004 and has recovered more than 20,000 items valued at more than $1 billion, according to the agency.
A reliquary is a medieval holder of a relic, according to Bowdoin College’s art history department, an item that “belonged to a saint … or, in many cases, the relics were believed to be body parts of a saint, truly powerful objects in the eyes of many medieval Christians.”
2 teens arrested for Haverhill mill fire
Two teens have been arrested on suspicion of setting fire to a Haverhill mill building earlier this week.
Firefighters responded to the mill at 14 Stevens St. at around 2:45 a.m. Tuesday after callers reported heavy smoke and flames. Firefighters arrived to “intense fire conditions that required a coordinated, multi-alarm response,” according to the Haverhill Police Department.
Crews worked the scene all day and were still fighting hot spots at least as late as 11:22 that night, when the firefighter union made its own post on the efforts.
The building was determined the next day to be a total loss, according to a statement issued by Mayor Melinda Barrett, Fire Chief Christopher Cesati, and city Building Inspector Thomas Bridgewater.
“Due to the intensity of the fire, the resulting heat severely compromised the structural steel supporting the four-story building,” the update stated. An independent structural engineer “determined that the building sustained a critical loss of structural integrity and will require full demolition.
That same day, Haverhill PD announced the arrest of 18-year-old city resident Isabella Sargent, who they charged with arson of a structure and conspiracy to commit arson.
On Thursday, police announced they had also arrested a second teen, this one a 17-year-old juvenile, on charges of arson and related offenses.
Police report that there were no civilian injuries related to the fire and that the incident remains under investigation.
The police ask that anyone with any information contact them by calling 978-373-1212 ext.1551.
Police search for Roxbury shooters
Boston police are looking for three males they say are responsible for shooting two other males on Kendall Street in Roxbury last month.
Police responded to 3 Kendall St. in Roxbury a little after 7 p.m. on March 29. There they found two male victims suffering from gunshot wounds. Both were treated at local hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries.
One suspect fled toward the parking lot behind that address while the other two fled toward where Kendall Street intersects with Shawmut Avenue.
Police on Wednesday released a surveillance still of the suspects and ask that if anyone recognizes them or has any information regarding the shooting to contact detectives at (617) 343-5619 or through the CrimeStoppers tip line. Crimestoppers information is detailed at the bottom of the first Crime Briefs entry.
More than 50,000 people will run in one of the Pittsburgh Marathon events this weekend. It’s capped off by the marquee event of the marathon itself.
Call it a runner’s high or insanity; the marathon takes just about everything a person can muster up physically and mentally. That’s why supporters line the course, especially the tough miles down the stretch.
“It gives you a boost. It gives you a little bit of that rush to keep going, knowing that people are standing out there in sometimes not great conditions cheering you on,” said Ali Ewig with Dancing Gnome Running Club, which will be cheering around mile 23.
Running clubs, which are recent additions to the cheering sections, along with neighborhood groups like the Bloomfield Citizens Council and the Highland Park Community Council, which have been cheering for decades, all do their part. It can feel more like a block party with the vibes the groups give off as they help every runner get back Downtown.
“It’s a blast to finally be able to celebrate a sport that a lot of people do by themselves en masse together with everyone,” Dan Lampmann of Yinz Run Club said. His group will have a cheer section near PNC Park and on the South Side.
Arguably one of the toughest stretches can be crossing the Birmingham Bridge and climbing up the hill to get into Oakland. It can be a real gut check time for runners. So, Scottie Brown, dressed as Spiderman, will run up the hill with people to keep them going.
“I just run with them, encourage them, bring light to their day as they are halfway through the race, hitting that tough hill,” Brown said over Zoom.
And whether they are a yinzer running through town or someone from the other side of the world, there is pride in cheering people through the city’s neighborhoods.
“I think that we all have a lot of pride in cheering on these people that are maybe for the first time or maybe for the 50th time running this monumental personal goal for themselves,” Jessica Bowser Acrie of the Highland Park Community Council said. Her team will be set up around mile 20.
Sunday morning promises to be another marathon with miles of cheers.
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