Man arrested in Maryland for death of ex-girlfriend’s mother 23 years ago

A man remained in jail Thursday after federal authorities arrested him in connection with the unsolved 2001 death of an ex-girlfriend’s mother in Maryland.

A U.S. Marshals task force arrested 44-year-old Eugene Teodor Gligor in neighboring Washington on Saturday on an arrest warrant accusing him of the murder of Leslie Preer.

Montgomery County police said in a statement this week that charges of first-degree murder had been filed in their jurisdiction.

It was not clear whether Gligor has hired legal counsel, and a spokesman for the Montgomery County Public Defender’s Office said it was most likely too early to decide whether she would represent him. A woman listed online as a possible relative of Gligor did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment.

Gligor was being held by the Washington Corrections Department on Thursday, according to statements from the inmate. Montgomery County police said in their statement that they requested that he remain in custody in Washington pending his extradition to Maryland.

Preer’s killing shocked a region that includes affluent communities such as Chevy Chase and Bethesda. Preer was pronounced dead in her Chevy Chase-area home shortly before noon on May 2, 2001, after her employer called her husband to tell him she had not shown up for work that day, police said.

Her employer and her husband went to the family home to check on her, found her body and called police, authorities said in an earlier statement.

Preer’s body appeared to have sustained serious injuries, police said, but the exact cause of death was not disclosed so that the information could be used in court should someone be brought to justice.

Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones told NBC Washington the attack was widely felt in his district. “A lot of people were nervous,” he said.

In 2022, county police announced that cold case investigators would reopen the two-decade-old investigation with a fresh perspective.

Jones told NBC Washington that DNA from the murder scene initially suggested only that the perpetrator might be a man, but the technology used to extract and identify DNA has become more sophisticated over the past 20 years.

In recent years, investigators have been working through unsolved cases by checking familial DNA databases for near-identical DNA matches to DNA from the crime scene. When they find near-identical matches, they can use other clues and common sense to rule out relatives until they land on a relative they believe fits a case.

In the Gligor case, police said investigators had “collected” DNA evidence from him but would not provide any further details. A sample collected from him matches DNA left at the crime scene 23 years ago, police said.

Preer’s daughter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jones said the motive is still under investigation. He said his investigators spent hours questioning Gligor over the weekend to determine why he might have attacked Preer.