A D.C. man who lived a quiet life in the nation’s capital pleaded guilty this month to killing the mother of his high school girlfriend nearly 25 years ago, according to Maryland prosecutors.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said Eugene Gligor, 45, was convicted last week for beating and strangling 50-year-old Leslie Preer to death in 2001.
Gligor dated the victim’s daughter, Lauren Preer, when the two were teens, according to WTTG-TV. Lauren Preer was 24 when her mother was brutally slain inside her Chevy Chase home.
Prosecutors said they linked Gligor to the killing after taking unknown DNA samples left on Preer’s body and matching them with a distant relative of the murderer in Romania.
Authorities said they never established a motive for Gligor, who had no criminal record prior to his second-degree murder conviction. He was arrested last June in connection to the case.
“Lauren, her family, and friends have waited 24 years to finally get closure and justice for this horrific crime that tore her family apart,” Preer family attorney Benjamin Kurtz told Fox News. “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.”
Gligor faces up to 30 years behind bars when he’s sentenced Aug. 2.
