Pod Insights Murder With My Husband 319. The Killer Next Door - The Murder of Leslie Peer About this episode On this episode, Garrett and Payton dive into the case of Leslie Preer, a mother living in an affluent neighborhood whose seemingly perfect life was shattered in a single morning.
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Case Sources:
People.com - https://people.com/where-is-eugene-gligor-now-11831246
WTop.com - https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2025/08/cold-case-killer-sentenced-to-22-years-in-prison-for-2001-murder-of-montgomery-co-mother/
BethesdaMagazine.com - https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/08/28/eugene-gligor-sentencing-22-years-chevy-chase-murder/
Dateline NBC - https://podcasts.happyscribe.com/dateline-nbc/a-perfect-spring-morning
ABCNews.go.com - https://abcnews.go.com/US/gligor-detectives-genetic-genealogy-crack-open-23-year/story?id=125412742
NBCNews.com - https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/in-the-news/blayne-alexander-reports-investigation-murder-leslie-preer-perfect-spr-rcna238726
Fox5DC.com - https://www.fox5dc.com/news/cold-case-killer-chevy-chase-mom-sentenced-22-years-prison
WJLA.com - https://wjla.com/news/local/montgomery-county-maryland-2001-decades-old-cold-case-chevy-chase-eugene-gligor-sentencing-leslie-preer-murder-killing-dna-crime-investigation-prison-court
Medium.com - https://medium.com/@noconductradio/how-a-cold-case-was-solved-after-23-years-the-murder-of-leslie-preer-2d2b45f8744a
KRTV.com - https://www.krtv.com/us-news/crime/daughters-ex-boyfriend-arrested-in-cold-case-murder-of-maryland-mother
NBCWashington.com - https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/man-pleads-guilty-to-second-degree-murder-in-montgomery-county-cold-case/3908830/
DNASolves.com - https://dnasolves.com/articles/leslie-preer-maryland/
ABC.com - https://abc.com/episode/484291d8-130a-49d7-9af5-229fafafb030/playlist/pl551127435
WWW2. MontgomeryCountyMD.gov - https://www2.montgomerycountymd.gov/mcgportalapps/Press_Detail_Pol.aspx? Item_ID=45423
DCNewsNow.com - https://www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-news/maryland/montgomery-county/cold-case-solved-dc-man-to-spend-decades-in-prison-for-killing-chevy-chase-mother-in-2001/
The-Independent.com - https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/cold-case-murder-eugene-gligor-sentencing-b2816167.html
USAToday.com - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/06/20/cold-case-murder-leslie-preer-man-arrested/74155945007/
20/20 First Comes Love Then Comes Murder S47 E34 - https://abc.com/episode/484291d8-130a-49d7-9af5-229fafafb030/playlist/pl551127435
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:01 Payton Moreland? You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with my Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland.
0:07 Garrett Moreland? And I'm Garrett Moreland.
0:08 Payton Moreland? And he's the husband.
0:09 Garrett Moreland? And I'm the husband.
0:10 Payton Moreland? I feel like my voice might sound a little weird.
0:13 Garrett Moreland? Peyton's a little stuffy right now.
0:14 Payton Moreland? I think it's allergies.
0:16 Garrett Moreland? Kind of happened out of nowhere. I think it might be allergies too.
0:18 Payton Moreland? Because like my eyes are burning, my nose is stuffy.
0:21 Garrett Moreland? Like two hours ago?
0:22 Payton Moreland? Yeah.
0:22 Garrett Moreland? Yeah. And then now not fine.
0:25 Payton Moreland? But anyways, so if my voice does sound a little weird, that's why. Also, I worked at the bagel shop all morning, so.
0:31 Garrett Moreland? Yeah, we had bagel shop this morning.
0:34 Payton Moreland? We haven't even talked about the grand opening because last week we recorded before it.
0:38 Garrett Moreland? Okay, I'll make it my 10 seconds. If you're sick of bagel talk, you can skip this. If not, grand opening was last Saturday. It was, it was insane and I was not, I wasn't expecting it. It was insane. We couldn't make enough bagels. We sold out so early and the team was still learning. So obviously there's some hiccups and everything, but this Saturday compared to last Saturday was way smoother in my mind. Bagels are coming out way better. Everything's starting to get more smooth. We're figuring out all the systems. Yeah, but it was crazy.
1:10 Payton Moreland? Yeah, thank you guys.
1:11 Garrett Moreland? Thank you for coming.
1:12 Payton Moreland? Yeah, I got to talk to so many listeners when I was able to work at the opening.
1:18 Garrett Moreland? I probably ignored a lot of listeners, so sorry if you said hi to me. I've been running around like a madman just between ovens and just been hiring a lot of people. So I'm sorry if I have.
1:28 Payton Moreland? Yeah.
1:29 Garrett Moreland? Yeah, we've been still selling like crazy. So if, thank you for buying and thank you for supporting.
1:36 Payton Moreland? Yeah.
1:37 Garrett Moreland? I'm tired.
1:37 Payton Moreland? You know, just to, just to brag a little, like Garrett, they hand roll everything in store. They let the dough proof for 18 to 24 hours so that you're getting quality dough. It's dense. It's so good. They're popping them out of the oven every 15 minutes, which means they're strategically cooking them, which is the reason why we sell out because you can only cook as much. That's a whole, that's a whole process. It's longer than 24 hours.
2:05 Garrett Moreland? It's crazy. So we're making more.
2:06 Payton Moreland? Yeah, we're working on it.
2:08 Garrett Moreland? Um, like we're making a lot right now, but we're getting more ovens. We're making more bagels.
2:13 Payton Moreland? We can't thank you enough.
2:14 Garrett Moreland? Yeah, thank you so much. I think they're like a perfect dense fluffy crispy bagel. Anyways, I'll stop bragging about the bagels. Um, I feel like I should do a hot take real quick because it's been a second.
2:25 Payton Moreland? Yeah.
2:26 Garrett Moreland? I got a hot take. I was thinking, this kind of relates to true crime.
2:29 Payton Moreland? Really?
2:30 Garrett Moreland? Yeah. So I was thinking about like judges.
2:33 Payton Moreland? Okay.
2:33 Garrett Moreland? I just think it's, I think it's insane. I mean, I guess there's no other way to do it, but like that a judge can just decide somebody's fate.
2:41 Payton Moreland? I mean, there's a, there's a few checks and balances, but yeah, at the end of the day.
2:45 Garrett Moreland? So I just think that, I guess it's not really a hot take, but I think that it should be, how, okay, how do I say this?
2:53 Payton Moreland? A jury for a judge?
2:54 Garrett Moreland? Kinda.
2:55 Payton Moreland? Yeah.
2:56 Garrett Moreland? I just feel like there's not enough checks and balances when it comes to judges. I feel like I've seen some, I've seen some judges do some crazy corrupt things. I look, I feel like it's a flawed system. Maybe people will come at me and as far as justice systems go, I feel like the US does have a very good system, but it's still flawed.
3:15 Payton Moreland? Yeah, it still needs.
3:16 Garrett Moreland? Like there's just needs so much work and maybe it'll never be perfect and that's fine.
3:20 Payton Moreland? There are a lot of good judges.
3:23 Garrett Moreland? For sure.
3:23 Payton Moreland? But when you have a bad judge, it is a catastrophic error. You know what I mean? I think that's what you're saying.
3:30 Garrett Moreland? Playing God.
3:31 Payton Moreland? Yeah.
3:31 Garrett Moreland? You're playing God.
3:32 Payton Moreland? Yeah. So I think like it's, it's a little different than having a bad worker at a bagel shop. You know what I mean?
3:38 Garrett Moreland? Yeah, you're playing, it's, it's different than having a bad experience where like you're playing God with somebody's life.
3:43 Payton Moreland? Yeah, there are people, yeah.
3:45 Garrett Moreland? And I just think it's, it's, it's hard to ask a human to look at somebody else and be like, okay, just look at these facts and don't judge them based off of appearance, skin color, the way they talk, the tone of their voice, like anything else.
3:59 Payton Moreland? Yeah.
3:59 Garrett Moreland? Just judge them based off these facts. It's just.
4:02 Payton Moreland? It's not gonna work.
4:02 Garrett Moreland? There's no way you can find, like finding someone like that is extremely difficult.
4:06 Payton Moreland? Yeah, I get what you're saying. I think there are a lot of great judges, but when you do have your random bad judge that isn't, doesn't have a check and balance, it's catastrophic.
4:17 Garrett Moreland? Anyways, I guess 10 seconds hot take, kind of not really.
4:23 Garrett Moreland? On that note, let's hop into today's episode.
4:27 Payton Moreland? Our sources for this episode are people.com, WTOP.com, Bethesda Magazine.com, Dateline, ABCNews.co.com, NBCNews.com, Fox5DC.com, WJLA.com, Medium.com, KRTV.com, NBCWashington.com, DNAsolves.com, ABC.com, WW2.MontgomeryCountyMD.gov, DCNewsNow.com, The Independent, and USA Today. And then there is a 2020 episode as well. Now, I have talked about Occam's razor on this show before, but when it comes to true crime, I think it bears repeating.
5:08 Payton Moreland? It is the idea that the simplest explanation involving the fewest assumptions is usually the most likely. It is why the police often look at a loved one or those close to the victim when they start investigating a case. And it does make sense, but that doesn't always mean it's right. Sometimes when it comes to solving a case, Occam's razor can lead investigators to a conclusion too soon. And it can create a lot of problems and even more victims, especially when the wrongfully suspected person ends up carrying that burden with them for the rest of their life. Because sometimes when solving a case,
5:51 Payton Moreland? the simplest explanation isn't the most likely. It could be far from it. And sometimes the answer is the one you would least expect. So for today's case, we are traveling to the quiet upscale area of Chevy Chase, Maryland.
6:09 Garrett Moreland? Wait, Chevy Chase, like the?
6:11 Payton Moreland? Do you think it's Chevy Chase?
6:12 Garrett Moreland? I'm sure it is because you know the movie Chevy Chase. Have you ever watched?
6:17 Payton Moreland? No, I've heard the name though.
6:18 Garrett Moreland? Okay, it's a Christmas movie, really good. I'm sure a lot of people know what I'm talking about. Is that, is it Chevy Chase?
6:24 Payton Moreland? Yeah, I think so.
6:25 Garrett Moreland? Am I saying that wrong? For the reason I'm kinda?
6:27 Payton Moreland? No, it's Chevy Chase.
6:28 Garrett Moreland? I gotta let this up real quick, come on.
6:29 Payton Moreland? I literally looked it up.
6:30 Garrett Moreland? Christmas, it's Christmas vacation, right?
6:33 Payton Moreland? Like he's getting electrocuted.
6:35 Garrett Moreland? National Lampoon's Vacation is the name of the movie, but yeah, Clark Griswold. I remember is the guy and then Chevy Chase is the actor's name. That's right.
6:44 Payton Moreland? Maybe he was just named after this place.
6:46 Garrett Moreland? Okay.
6:46 Payton Moreland? So we're in the upscale area of Chevy Chase, Maryland, where in 2001, 49 year old Leslie Preer is living that white picket fence life you really only see in movies. The manicured lawn, the neighborhood kids running around in the streets, the country club just down the block, the idyllic place to raise a family, which is exactly what she and her husband, 50 year old Carl Sandy, as he was known, Preer are doing. Now Leslie wasn't originally from Maryland though. She was actually born in Rhode Island back in 1952. And when she was young, she and her family moved to Pensacola, Florida,
7:30 Payton Moreland? where her father actually worked for the Navy. But at least Leslie wasn't alone. She was actually one of eight kids. And many of her siblings said that Leslie was by far the sweetest one of them all with the biggest heart. She was also quirky and resembled their mother in a lot of ways. It was also there in Pensacola that Leslie met Sandy, her husband. The two bonded over the fact that they both came from military families and they quickly fell for one another while they were both attending the University of Florida. Now afterwards Sandy became an accountant before shifting over into IT. And then finally in 1974, they tied the knot and welcomed their daughter Lauren three
8:15 Payton Moreland? years later in 1977. And baby Lauren became the center of Leslie's world. As the only child, Leslie fawned over Lauren. She would do anything for her. This is something that never changed, even when the family moved to Maryland and Lauren grew older. The two, mother and daughter, always stayed extremely close. But even as a newcomer in Maryland, Leslie found her place in this community very easily. Her coworkers said not only was she beautiful inside and out, she was a shining light that would always brighten up the office. Plus, everyone thought she and Sandy, her husband, were a match made in heaven. He was a guy's guy who loved to have fun and joke around over a few beers.
8:59 Payton Moreland? He was always warm and friendly with everyone. They were the perfect example of this fun, loving couple. What a marriage should be in a nice place with a nice family. The daughter Lauren even said her parents were always so sweet together. Her dad was obsessed with her mother. As a family, they always had dinner together every night. They were the home in the neighborhood where all of the local kids came after school to hang out. The parents' house was warm. It was loving. It was safe, at least until May of 2001. So by then Lauren has grown up. She's 23 years old, so she's now living in a place of her own. But her apartment was not far. It was actually just a few minutes' drive
9:44 Payton Moreland? from her parents' home. Plus, like I said, she and her mom were best friends. They spoke on the phone every single day. But on May 2nd, things were different. That morning, the husband Sandy took off for work, per usual, around 7:45 a.m. He said goodbye to Leslie before he left. And meanwhile, Leslie was set to be at work that day at 10 a.m. Now, Leslie didn't have a car, so she always either walked the mile or so or took the bus to work. She didn't mind the long walk through her beautiful neighborhood to get to the bus stop. But sometimes that stroll took a little longer than expected, causing her to be a minute or two late to work if she missed the usual pickup.
10:27 Payton Moreland? However, that Wednesday morning in 2001, 10 a.m. comes and goes and Leslie doesn't make it into her office. Now, her coworkers assume she probably has a doctor's appointment or something and forgot to mention it to them because Leslie was rarely ever late without calling and now she's not even answering her phone. They're trying to reach out to her. So when 10:45 a.m. rolls around and there's still no sign of her, her boss and good friend Brett Reedy actually calls Sandy, Leslie's husband. Now, when Brett asks Sandy, "Hey, why hasn't Leslie shown up for work today?" Sandy immediately seems frantic. Like,
11:11 Payton Moreland? he can sense something is just not right. He knows his wife didn't have anything scheduled that morning. She should be at work. So this concerns him. Now, her boss and Sandy, their first thought is, could something have happened to Leslie on the way into work? Did she get into an accident of some kind either on or on the way to the bus? Now luckily, Leslie's house, like I said, is very close to the office. So Brett offers to just go over right away to look for Leslie, drive the route. And Sandy was like, "Listen, I'll meet you at our home ASAP." Now, by the time Brett gets there, it's about 11:35 a.m. and Sandy is only a minute or two behind him. But the second they walk through the
11:54 Payton Moreland? front door, they can tell something is off. There appears to have been a struggle in this house. Furniture is turned over on its side. There's blood smeared on the walls, in the kitchen.
12:07 Garrett Moreland? Oh my.
12:09 Payton Moreland? The back door on appliances and more blood on a rug that kind of looks like it's been dragged from the foyer into the living room.
12:17 Garrett Moreland? Oh my gosh.
12:17 Payton Moreland? So when your wife doesn't show up to work and now you're at the house with her boss and this is what you walk into, a bloody house, everything's in disarray, they begin frantically calling Leslie's name.
12:30 Payton Moreland? And that is when their black lab, a dog named Boomer, comes up from the basement.
12:36 Garrett Moreland? Okay.
12:37 Payton Moreland? Now Sandy checks the entire house. There's still no sign of Leslie. So they stop wasting time and they call 911. Now, right away, the operator tells them, step outside the home and wait for police to arrive, which, I mean, at that moment, they could be tampering an active crime scene. So when the officers do arrive, they can tell almost immediately that foul play was involved because the blood is not contained to one room. It's all over the house. But when officers make their way upstairs, they actually hear something strange. The shower upstairs is running.
13:16 Payton Moreland? And when they get to the bathroom to check it out, they find Leslie lying face down. Her dead body is under the running water in the shower.
13:27 Garrett Moreland? Okay.
13:28 Payton Moreland? Now, this is when one of the officers comes outside and breaks the news to Sandy and Brett, who've apparently searched the house. Hey, we found your wife. She's dead. And when Brett asks Sandy, well, you searched upstairs. How didn't you see her? He says the bathroom was the only room he didn't get a chance to check.
13:48 Garrett Moreland? So instantly red flags going all over the place.
13:51 Payton Moreland? Right. It is probably good that he missed this, though, because...
13:56 Garrett Moreland? True, because if he, if he's not involved, that, the trauma from seeing that, I cannot even imagine.
14:01 Payton Moreland? And Leslie's injuries are severe. Her head has been slammed into the floor so hard that it has like imprinted on the floor in the shape of a V. It also appears she's been strangled. And whoever left her body under the running water was probably just trying to wash away evidence. It also seemed like whoever had done this had tried to clean up their mess a little bit in other parts of the house, too. Aluminum test shows that there was blood in the dining room, in a hallway, the kitchen sink, a downstairs bathroom sink, and a trash can, but someone had tried to clean the blood
14:42 Payton Moreland? from those spots before just kind of giving up on cleaning up all of the blood and leaving the scene.
14:48 Garrett Moreland? Okay.
14:49 Payton Moreland? They also discovered that there was no forced entry into the home, which police immediately think, okay, well, whoever attacked Leslie was likely someone she knew, or at least someone she trusted enough to open the door to or even let in. Meanwhile.
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17:05 Payton Moreland? trust I Am8. And I think you should too. Go to I Am8health.com/husband right now, or just click on the link in the description and use code HUSBAND for a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, plus 10% off your order. That's code HUSBAND at I Am8health.com/husband, code HUSBAND at I Am8health.com/husband. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease. Their daughter Lauren can just sense something's off that day. When she doesn't get through to her mother that morning, she calls her office to check in on her. And one of her coworkers
17:50 Payton Moreland? is like, yeah, Leslie hasn't been in. You should probably call your father and talk to him. Now, it isn't too long after that when a police car pulls up in front of Lauren's apartment. They've been sent to her. And as she watches her father exit the police vehicle and approach her apartment, she knows something's seriously wrong. At that point, Sandy didn't have much information to share with his daughter Lauren, other than that her mother Leslie has been attacked and murdered in their home. But by the next day or so, Leslie's autopsy already reveals a little more. It shows that while there were signs of strangulation,
18:33 Payton Moreland? the real cause of her death was from the blunt force trauma to her head. Now unfortunately, determining her exact time of death wasn't totally an option. Since she had been left to soak in the running water, the hot water and steam changed the rate of normal decomposition. So to them, that meant Leslie could have died earlier that morning before she was even supposed to leave for work. It could have even been the night before. There was one silver lining, though. Leslie had apparently attempted to fight off her attacker. And because of that, she had DNA evidence under her fingernails.
19:17 Garrett Moreland? Could you imagine like letting somebody know in and they just kill you?
19:20 Payton Moreland? Yeah, no.
19:22 Garrett Moreland? I mean, you'd be dead, I guess they wouldn't know, but like the utter like just betrayal and surprise factor. I just, I can't even imagine your brain is probably in utter shock. Like just letting somebody know in and all of a sudden you're like, wait, what?
19:36 Payton Moreland? Yeah. Now, the DNA that was collected underneath her fingernails, those samples are collected and sent off for testing. And as they await the results, police also start canvassing the neighborhood for any witnesses. And they speak to one neighbor who says they saw something strange about two nights earlier. The evening before Leslie's death, they said they found it weird that all of the lights were on in the prayer house, but all of the shades were closed. And another neighbor told police that on the morning of Leslie's death, Sandy saw them outside and said goodbye to them before he left for work.
20:18 Payton Moreland? And they just found this odd because Sandy never really made it a point to say hello or goodbye to this specific neighbor in the past. But they're like, yeah, the morning she was murdered, we did see him outside and he did talk to us. Now detectives have to consider, okay, is Sandy covering for something? Or people just reading into the situation a little too much? I mean, your neighbor ends up murdered, police come over and are like, hey, did you see anything? Are you just like looking for things that maybe, I don't know. Ordinarily, these aren't details someone might find suspicious. But when you're dealing with a murder case, everything just kind of seems like a red flag. Which is why police call Sandy in for questioning pretty quickly.
21:03 Payton Moreland? And there is one question from the autopsy that's really eating away at them. Again, it's the time of Leslie's death. If she could have been killed before Sandy went to work that morning, then chances are he was definitely home when this murder happened. In which case, they start to think, maybe those eyewitness statements need to be considered after all. So they tell Sandy, they want to know exactly minute by minute, what happened the day before Leslie died?
21:36 Payton Moreland? Now Sandy's like, it was a regular day. He went to work, but after he was done, he had to take some old computers to a dump to get rid of them. He said he did that before they closed at 8:00 PM. And then he said he needed a new phone charger, so he stopped at three different stores after that to find the charger that fit. But he claims he was home with Leslie. Again, it's 2001, so there wasn't really universal chargers for cell phones.
22:08 Garrett Moreland? Yeah, I mean, I guess I can see that. It's still weird, but yeah, okay.
22:12 Payton Moreland? I think I would have given up after store one.
22:13 Garrett Moreland? Seriously?
22:15 Payton Moreland? He's like, yeah, so I get home to Leslie by 9:00 PM that night. He says when he got there, he went right to bed. But he claims Leslie stayed up for a bit, though he couldn't remember what time she actually got into bed. However, this whole story makes detectives a bit weary of Sandy because to them, it almost seems like he's trying to secure an alibi for himself. Going to the dump isn't exactly something you do on an everyday basis. But things get even more confusing when Sandy willingly reveals a skeleton from Leslie's closet. So in this interrogation, Sandy says, actually, Leslie was drinking quite a bit recently, and it had kind of been putting a strain on their marriage.
23:00 Payton Moreland? He claimed that both of them were feeling a lot of stress at work, and they were having a hard time keeping up with bills and finances. That when she drank, it was heavy and they would get into arguments, mainly because according to Sandy, she would make a quote, "mountain out of a molehill." In fact, he said he actually started coming home much later from work because of Leslie's drinking. He didn't want to be around it as much.
23:30 Garrett Moreland? Mm-hmm.
23:30 Payton Moreland? But when officers asked, "Okay, she's drinking. Did any of this ever lead to violence?" Sandy said, "No, absolutely not." Though, he said there was one time where he tried to get her to stop. He claimed, quote, "The most violent I ever got was I grabbed her and I just said, 'You gotta snap out of it,' like grabbing her by the shoulders." At one point, he also confessed he had hit a wall while arguing with Leslie, but after realizing things were just kind of spinning out of control, he made an effort to correct his mistakes. Now, it's at this point detectives bring up the topic of divorce. And Sandy's like, "No, it was never mentioned. The two of them loved each other.
24:13 Payton Moreland? They were willing to work through anything. Divorce just wasn't on the table for either of them, despite this rough patch." Now meanwhile, Sandy's doing everything he can to cooperate with the investigation on his end. He hands over his watch and his glasses to be tested for blood. He allows them to photograph his hands and face and analyze for any injuries or scratches to his body because they know Leslie fought back, which they don't find any. So the police figure there's only one good way to learn more, and they strap Sandy up to a polygraph test.
24:47 Garrett Moreland? Okay, which, I mean, come on.
24:49 Payton Moreland? It doesn't do it.
24:50 Garrett Moreland? I mean, it's early 2000s, so I get it. No one really understands that polygraph tests are...
24:56 Payton Moreland? Yeah.
24:56 Garrett Moreland? I don't want to say either word useless, but you know what I'm saying?
24:59 Payton Moreland? I mean, yeah, they're not admissible in court. And it doesn't end up doing him any favors. Sandy ends up failing. So between the problems in the marriage, the weird story about going to the dump and now his failed polygraph. Well, I think it's safe to say at this point, the police have basically firmly planted eyes on Sandy.
25:21 Garrett Moreland? Okay.
25:21 Payton Moreland? But they're not exclusively considering him a person of interest. They are claiming to look at all options. Were there any enemies, any affair partners, anyone in Leslie's life that might have wanted her dead at all? And at one point, the daughter Lauren mentioned that a neighbor had made some strange comments about her mother in the past. Apparently, according to Lauren, he had flirted with her a few times. He was handsome and had invited her to go walk their dogs together. But none of these leads, according to police, go anywhere. The only person that really seemed worth considering at this point to police was Sandy Preer.
26:04 Payton Moreland? But two months later, that all changed. Around July, the police finally get the results back from the DNA that was found under Leslie's fingernails and all around the crime scene, honestly. And it is not a match for Sandy. It belongs to an unknown male. But when they run it through CODIS and FBI databases, there's no match, which means there's no priors for this person. And that's confusing to investigators because the medical examiner believes it's very possible Leslie was killed before 7:45 a.m. that day, which would be before Sandy left for work,
26:45 Payton Moreland? which would have put Sandy at the scene of the crime if that were true.
26:51 Garrett Moreland? Okay.
26:51 Payton Moreland? So this, obviously, they start to consider maybe Sandy hired someone. They came, he let them in. That random person killed.
27:01 Garrett Moreland? Dang, so they're, at this point, they're convinced no anders or buts that Sandy is involved.
27:06 Payton Moreland? Well, they're just thinking because the medical examiner said, this is what I think the time of death was roughly. They're like, we think he was home, which means he hired someone if it's not his DNA under her fingernails and at the crime scene and it's someone else's. But there's no, there's no way to prove this. So at this point, at least, so in the meantime, they just kind of put Sandy on pause and the investigation starts to go cold. With the rumors and suspicions about Sandy hiring someone, they're saying she was killed while he was still there. Especially from family and friends, like people who knew stuff about the investigation.
27:47 Payton Moreland? It lingers over the years. For the rest of Sandy's life, he kind of is treated sort of like a social pariah. Like it gets around town that police believe he's a suspect. They just can't really prove it. And also, there's no other known suspects in the case and actually continues that way until 2017. Imagine being the sole suspect in your, in your wife's murder for that long.
28:16 Garrett Moreland? That's crazy.
28:17 Payton Moreland? I mean, that would ruin your reputation.
28:19 Garrett Moreland? Does that, I mean, I guess nothing goes on his record, but.
28:22 Payton Moreland? No, he wasn't even like.
28:24 Garrett Moreland? You'd have to, you'd have to move states or coun- across the country.
28:28 Payton Moreland? Well, especially because it seems like even friends and family were kind of like, we believe.
28:32 Garrett Moreland? We think it's him.
28:33 Payton Moreland? Yeah, we believe the police, like we think he was involved. Except, here's the thing. It's not because 2017 came and a new suspect came to be. The reason this stopped affecting Sandy in 2017 was because that year he passed away. After his battle with an illness. And until his dying breath, he insists he's innocent. Like it, it followed him that long.
29:01 Garrett Moreland? Wow. That would be, that would, I mean, that's horrible. If he's not involved, that would. I mean, now it's suck.
29:08 Payton Moreland? Also heartbreaking for Lauren. She's now lost both of her parents, especially because she this whole time has continued pushing for her father's innocence. Like she believed her father. She stood by him. And so she is still pushing this case. She wants to make sure this giant question mark doesn't become her father's legacy and her mother's. So she stays in contact with the police. She keeps her mother's case in their ear. And she does this for five more years after her father's death. When finally in 2022, it does all start to pay off. Now that year, the Montgomery County Cold Case Unit reopens Leslie Preers case.
29:53 Payton Moreland? And can we just give like a round of applause for the fact that they made cold case units a thing?
29:59 Garrett Moreland? Yeah.
29:59 Payton Moreland? Recently that they were like, we're going to create investigators who solely look at cold cases.
30:04 Garrett Moreland? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:07 Payton Moreland? Now, there were two female detectives in charge of this case. Allison Dupoy and Tara Augustine. And their approach basically is to assess the evidence without relying on old assumptions. So they're like, we go in not even suspecting the husband. We go in completely bias free and relook at everything, including that small possibility that Leslie was killed before Sandy left for work that day. Now this time they want to focus solely on the facts. They're like, we're not going to, we're not going to base our opinions off of anything that's a maybe. And they are prepared to use new technologies that weren't around when the case was first examined. So new ways to identify DNA.
30:50 Payton Moreland? As I mentioned, when the DNA from Leslie's fingernails and the crime scene first came back in 2001, it was run through criminal databases. It didn't turn up a match. However, now in 2022, there was a way to identify DNA, even if someone didn't have a prior record. You might know where I'm going with this.
31:13 Garrett Moreland? Yep.
31:13 Payton Moreland? Genetic genealogy.
31:15 Garrett Moreland? Which. Talked about this before. It's controversial for a lot of people. You can't sell my DNA. You're selling my data.
31:23 Payton Moreland? It's also catching killers and closing cases.
31:25 Garrett Moreland? Garrett's opinion is if you're not a killer and you've done nothing wrong, then you ain't got nothing to worry about.
31:31 Payton Moreland? Right.
31:31 Garrett Moreland? If you are a killer, then cry, cry, cry.
31:34 Payton Moreland? Be scared.
31:35 Garrett Moreland? Yep.
31:35 Payton Moreland? Now luckily, DuPoy and Augustine had three samples to work with, still in evidence. They collected quite a bit of DNA. So they sent those off to a forensic genealogist for analysis. I mean, it's 2022. They're like, we might as well. Now, as we know, it is very rare that this will result in a direct match. Typically, someone that's committed a crime knows better than to submit their DNA to a place like ancestry.com. So it's not like they get the immediate match. So what they get is a list of low matches and high matches. Low being they share a little bit of DNA, high meaning your unknown killer shares a lot of DNA with this person. And after going through an extensive list, they find someone with a pretty high match.
32:18 Payton Moreland? But it's someone who's living in Romania, which means the next steps are building out a family tree. This is pretty normal. So when you get like a high match, you start building out a family tree and then looking at the people they're related to. Not all these, you don't have all these people's DNA. So you have to like manually build out a family tree by doing research.
32:37 Garrett Moreland? Which is crazy because I mean, it can go, I mean, I guess you're just looking at people who are probably alive, depending on how old the case is.
32:45 Payton Moreland? Yeah, and you're gonna base it off the highest match.
32:48 Garrett Moreland? But imagine someone has a ton of kids and that person has a ton of kids.
32:52 Payton Moreland? And if it's like, oh, this match is three times removed.
32:55 Garrett Moreland? Yes.
32:55 Payton Moreland? That is a large family tree. You're gonna start looking through.
32:58 Garrett Moreland? It would take a long time. Granted, you might get lucky sometimes where it's like, oh, this is small, this is a small family tree.
33:04 Payton Moreland? We know it's a, we know it's a guy. So that does help, but it does take a while to put these trees together and start investigating, narrowing down who was living where during what was this person even here at this time? Because again, you don't have their DNA. So you're using other evidence to try to pinpoint who it could be to then collect their DNA.
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36:09 Payton Moreland? As they're trying to connect this Romanian family member to someone living in the United States that could have murdered someone years ago, they keep seeing the same surname pop up on this family tree. It's someone with the last name Gilgore. So they look back at the case files. They're like, hey, this name's popping up a lot. Maybe they're already listed. And they actually find someone named Eugene Gilgore had been mentioned to police back in 2002 by one of the Priors neighbors. So they're like, okay, we can kind of stop
36:50 Payton Moreland? with the family tree because we're just looking for this name and it is in our case files. Now, this was mentioned about nine months after the murder took place. They didn't have a specific reason to think this Eugene Gilgore had committed murder, but one of the neighbors tells police, yeah, in regards to this murder, I've always had a weird feeling about this Eugene Gilgore guy. So the lead went nowhere at the time because it was just a random neighbor nine months later saying this guy's a little weird. But it's interesting for sure now because Eugene Gilgore, like, how is he even brought up by the neighbor?
37:31 Payton Moreland? He was Lauren, Leslie's daughter. He was Lauren's high school boyfriend.
37:37 Garrett Moreland? Okay, wait.
37:38 Payton Moreland? So nine months after the murder, police are talking to a neighbor and the neighbor is like, eh, I don't really know anything except their daughter Lauren. Yeah, she's had this boyfriend Eugene Gilgore and he gives me the creeps.
37:50 Garrett Moreland? Okay.
37:51 Payton Moreland? And then the police are like, yeah, that lead went nowhere like, but now looking through the family tree Gilgore is popping up and they're like.
37:57 Garrett Moreland? Which is crazy because it's crazy that like they had the person that could have potentially be.
38:01 Payton Moreland? In their case file.
38:02 Garrett Moreland? In the case file, but then it's like, ah, nah. I mean, how are you supposed to know?
38:06 Payton Moreland? No, you don't. At that time, there's no idea.
38:08 Garrett Moreland? There's no way. And also you couldn't have proved it.
38:10 Payton Moreland? They could have followed up and if no one else is saying anything and there's no evidence.
38:13 Garrett Moreland? It wouldn't have happened.
38:14 Payton Moreland? It's like, okay. Now, by the time police caught on to him, it was 2024. He was 46 years old, working at a real estate firm in the DC area. Now Eugene had been living a rather low key life all of these years after high school, after dating the daughter Lauren. He moved to New York, got a job in the restaurant industry, got married, got divorced, got married again, got divorced again. He struggled with addiction for a while. Apparently he's pretty open about it though. People who knew him said he was proud of his sobriety. He spoke about the AA meetings he went to. He even mentored others, but let's go back even further. We need to look at his relationship with Lauren.
38:59 Payton Moreland? We need to understand why he was brought up in the case and how his name is coming up now. It was clearly a pretty pivotal relationship in his life. The two started dating when she was about 15 and he was 13 or 14. Lauren said Eugene was popular. He was charming. A lot of girls had crushes on him. He came from a good family. His mother was a consultant for the World Bank. His dad was a professor at the University of Maryland. And their house was another popular hangout spot for the friend group, which was convenient for Lauren because she and her parents lived only a 10 minute walk away from the Gilgore's house.
39:40 Garrett Moreland? All right.
39:40 Payton Moreland? And even Leslie, the mother, loved Eugene when the two young little preteens started hanging out. He was always welcomed over for dinner. Sometimes he would hang around the house with just Leslie, waiting for Lauren to get home.
39:53 Garrett Moreland? Why would he kill the wife?
39:55 Payton Moreland? He even went on family vacations with the priors as the like relationship lasted.
40:01 Garrett Moreland? I'm just trying to figure out motive because that's crazy to kill the wife. I mean, it's crazy to kill, but
40:06 Payton Moreland? Yeah.
40:07 Garrett Moreland? Like what, like what happened?
40:09 Payton Moreland? Now, things were so good between the two, Lauren and Eugene, that they stayed together when she graduated high school and went to college. In total, they were together for about five years, but they decided to part ways in 1999. Now, remember, the murder doesn't happen until 2001, but they're breaking up in 1999. And apparently it was like a mutual breakup. Lauren said they didn't really keep in touch afterwards, especially when her mom died in 2001 and Eugene didn't even come to the funeral. When friends asked him, like, hey, you dated her pretty recently. For five years, you knew this family, you've gone on vacations. Like, why didn't you go support Lauren
40:54 Payton Moreland? or her family at the funeral? He told friends it was too painful for him. Instead, he went on a road trip across the country to Portland, Oregon to meet up with a friend while his parents and brother attended the services for Leslie. Really, this entire thing, like not going to the funeral, seemed out of character for Eugene. And also, they broke up two years earlier. Why is he now a suspect in killing his ex-girlfriend's mother two years after breaking up? Like,
41:24 Garrett Moreland? Which I get, but there's DNA.
41:26 Payton Moreland? Like, why would he even been at Leslie's house? Why even be considered a suspect?
41:32 Garrett Moreland? There's some, I mean, I could be wrong. Okay, let's hear it.
41:35 Payton Moreland? There's more to the story.
41:36 Garrett Moreland? Obviously.
41:36 Payton Moreland? Truth was, there were some red flags about Eugene that Lauren didn't really seem aware of at the time. Again, they started dating when they were so young, but for starters, Sandy, her dad, didn't really like him. Couldn't put his finger on why, but he did tell Lauren he felt something he'd always just been a little off about Eugene. And while it might have taken a while to manifest, Sandy was ultimately right because in 2021,
42:04 Payton Moreland? Something happened between Eugene and his second ex-wife that really alarmed detectives when they heard about it now while investigating this case. Well, a lot happened, actually. According to his ex-wife, Eugene was battling with drug addiction at the time. He owned two guns in 2021. His behavior was erratic and scary. He would throw things at her, punch holes in the wall, call her names, and then one night after they separated, he came into the home unannounced to get his things. They get into an argument, she calls the police, and after that, she filed for a protective order. Now, what this told detectives, Dupoy and Augustine, was that Eugene was capable of getting violent. And they also learned
42:49 Payton Moreland? that his brother, sometimes dog sat for the priors back in 2001, meaning Eugene's family, or at least the house, had a key to the neighbor priors' house. So even though it had been two years since they broke up, he still would have had access to his ex-girlfriend's home because his brother dog sat for them. But that also led to another possibility. Could that blood have belonged to another Gilgore?
43:17 Garrett Moreland? Oh.
43:18 Payton Moreland? So now that they learned, well, the brother's dog sitting, the families obviously are still close because they trust this family enough to watch the dog even after the breakup. Could it have been Eugene's father? Could it have been a brother? I mean, they still don't know which Gilgore it is.
43:33 Garrett Moreland? At this point, I mean, they're gonna zone in. It's somebody in the family that lives next door. It's just a matter of who.
43:38 Payton Moreland? Yeah, they know. Without DNA, they know this is their suspect.
43:42 Garrett Moreland? And that'll get weeded out so fast because you start approaching all the family members and someone's gonna, someone, something's gonna happen.
43:48 Payton Moreland? Right. So they needed to be totally sure that Eugene was their guy. Now, they did find that Eugene had a couple of run-ins with the law over the years, reports of theft and burglary, but nothing that would have landed his DNA in CODIS. So the only way to confirm for sure that Eugene killed Leslie was to compare his exact DNA to the samples they had. And then if it's not him, they'll move on to the father. And if it's not him, they'll move on to the brother. So a few days later, they learned they were getting Get a chance to do just that without Eugene even noticing it happened, which this is the common way they do this in these cases. Detectives heard he was gonna be flying back from an overseas trip in Dulles International Airport.
44:29 Payton Moreland? So they work with the customs officials and as soon as Eugene gets off the plane at the airport and goes through customs, agents pull him aside for additional random screening. And inside that room, they give bottles of water to Eugene.
44:47 Garrett Moreland? Okay.
44:47 Payton Moreland? He accepts it, he drinks it, he leaves it there. After he leaves, detectives swoop in, say, hey, thank you, airport workers, thanks for doing that random draw and they take the water bottle to the lab.
44:59 Garrett Moreland? I wonder what happens if someone refuses to give you DNA. Can you make someone, can you get a warrant for DNA?
45:04 Payton Moreland? Mm hmm.
45:04 Garrett Moreland? You know?
45:05 Payton Moreland? Yeah, you just have to have probable cause, so there would have to be.
45:08 Garrett Moreland? Would you time down and swab their mouth?
45:10 Payton Moreland? No, you just stake it out like these cops do.
45:12 Garrett Moreland? I know, but like.
45:13 Payton Moreland? Rummage through the trash.
45:14 Garrett Moreland? Someone just like, you know what I'm saying, just stayed in their house.
45:17 Payton Moreland? Yeah, I mean, then, yeah, no, you couldn't.
45:19 Garrett Moreland? Did you not time down?
45:20 Payton Moreland? It would have to be like, cause you can't go into their home. You can look through their trash ass, it has to be on public, like public, so.
45:27 Garrett Moreland? That's what I'm wondering, if you can get like a warrant, like go into their house, you tie him down, swab their mouth and leave.
45:33 Payton Moreland? I mean, yeah, if you have a warrant for it, they would probably take him to the hospital and then tie him down.
45:38 Garrett Moreland? Do something?
45:38 Payton Moreland? Yeah, that's what I would guess, cause if you're being unruly when you go to get arrested.
45:43 Garrett Moreland? You're just like, no, like I refuse to.
45:46 Payton Moreland? I'd assume that they would take him to the hospital.
45:48 Garrett Moreland? Crazy.
45:49 Payton Moreland? I don't know for sure.
45:50 Garrett Moreland? I don't know either.
45:50 Payton Moreland? Now, they test this DNA, they're like, is this the Gilgore man we are looking for? We're starting with Eugene, cause he's our best suspect. And a week later, they figure it out. That DNA found at the crime scene 23 years ago, it's a match for Eugene Gilgore, the ex-boyfriend of the daughter. When Lauren hears the news about Eugene. She's speechless. In fact, she said it felt, quote, unreal. She's like, what? Eugene's DNA is at the crime scene? She never suspected Eugene. She claimed he was always so gentle and sweet. None of this made sense.
46:33 Payton Moreland? She even said she had run into Eugene about a year before at a restaurant and everything had seemed completely normal. So she's like, what is going on? I need some more answers. And the good news is with a suspect matching to the DNA that has nothing to do with the family, her father's name could be cleared. Eugene was arrested on June 21st, 2024. It was the first time in Maryland's history that police had arrested a suspect using genetic genealogy. And after being taken into custody, Augustine and Dupoy sat down to question Eugene. Now, he of course denied having anything to do with the case. Still, Eugene was placed behind bars while the prosecutors built a case against him because DNA doesn't lie. Like, his DNA was found underneath her fingernails.
47:19 Payton Moreland? His DNA is found at the bloody crime scene. And for about a year, Eugene continued to maintain his innocence until one day it changed. Eugene admitted, back then, he used to suffer these blackouts sometimes. He claimed on the day of the murder, he'd been drinking pretty heavily in the morning. He'd been doing cocaine. He remembered heading out for work around 9:30 a.m., but then stopping by the Prior's house first. He remembered being let inside.
47:49 Garrett Moreland? Yeah.
47:49 Payton Moreland? This is her daughter's ex-boyfriend. I mean, it's a family friend. He says after that, he does know he went into the house. After that, he couldn't remember a thing.
47:58 Garrett Moreland? Oh, how's that? Okay.
48:01 Payton Moreland? He's like, I blacked out.
48:02 Garrett Moreland? It's such a good, but dumb, just stupid and dumb cop out. Because what are you supposed to say to somebody?
48:08 Payton Moreland? You're also just like not giving answers to people. I mean, maybe it's true. Maybe it's true. Maybe he really did.
48:12 Garrett Moreland? To believe that.
48:13 Payton Moreland? Completely dissociate. I don't know. He says he was on cocaine. He was drinking. I don't know, really.
48:21 Garrett Moreland? Insane. Okay.
48:22 Payton Moreland? But I will also say, the medical examiner is like really pushing, like, no, no, no, she was killed before. And that being like the main reason that Sandy was the main suspect, just to find out that this didn't happen until nine thirty a.m. Is such a bummer.
48:38 Garrett Moreland? Yeah. And also the fact that he died not knowing who killed his wife.
48:40 Payton Moreland? And he died being the number one suspect, like that everyone kind of.
48:44 Garrett Moreland? It's crazy.
48:45 Payton Moreland? Yeah. Uh, so he actually decides to plead guilty to second degree murder. He's like, I blacked out. I know I was there. You have my DNA. I don't remember it, but I'm pleading guilty. During his sentencing hearing in August of 2025, Eugene apologized. He did take responsibility for the murder. And maybe that's one of the most frustrating parts because he's not going to give a why, because he's claiming he doesn't remember it. He says, I vaguely remember leaving the prayer house in the morning, but the rest is a blur.
49:15 Garrett Moreland? How long did he get for the second degree murder charges?
49:19 Payton Moreland? Twenty two years in prison.
49:21 Garrett Moreland? I'm wondering if he's just claiming it because he knows he's going to get out.
49:24 Payton Moreland? Doesn't want first.
49:25 Garrett Moreland? And doesn't want first degree, because if he got first degree, life, like he probably gets.
49:29 Payton Moreland? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
49:30 Garrett Moreland? So he goes, oh, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna say I don't remember until my grave. I'm gonna plead guilty. Twenty two years, I'll be out at some point.
49:37 Payton Moreland? Yeah. He says, I know Lauren and Leslie's family want to know why I was there and what happened, but I'm sorry. And I'm unable to remember and provide an explanation. So there he was, admitting to a murder with absolutely no motive, other than that he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. And he knew the family because he dated their daughter.
49:59 Garrett Moreland? Or a chance it was someone else? Probably not.
50:01 Payton Moreland? No, not with that DNA. Forty five year old Eugene was sentenced to 22 years in prison where he remains today. But there is still an unsatisfying ending to this story. Are drugs and alcohol all there is to this? Is there more Eugene isn't sharing?
50:19 Garrett Moreland? Make.
50:20 Payton Moreland? Did he have an obsession with Leslie?
50:22 Garrett Moreland? It could be, it could just be drugs and alcohol. I mean,
50:26 Payton Moreland? Yeah.
50:26 Garrett Moreland? I don't know. People do crazy stuff on drugs and alcohol.
50:29 Payton Moreland? Was he bitter towards Lauren and took it out on her mom? Like, is it simpler than that? Is it that drugs and alcohol? John McCarthy, the Montgomery County State Attorney thinks there wasn't any huge conspiracy here. That day, he believes Eugene went to the Priors' house, looking to score some cash to just stay high. He figured it would be an easy robbery, but things obviously went wrong quickly. Unfortunately, Leslie wasn't the only life he destroyed that day. He also crushed the future of his former girlfriend, who had nothing but kind and caring things to say about him in the wake of their breakup. And Sandy Preer, who until his dying day,
51:10 Payton Moreland? was dodging rumors and accusations, taking the heat for a crime he clearly did not commit. So the next time you hear the case of a husband and a wife who, like most people, did have their ups and downs, don't immediately jump to conclusions. There's a lot of possibilities out there, and the reality is the truth is sometimes more complex than it seems. But hopefully, the truth always comes to light. And that was the murder of Leslie Preer.
51:39 Garrett Moreland? Hmm.
51:42 Garrett Moreland? I don't know. Those are, those are, they're hard ones because it, don't do drugs. I don't know, like.
51:48 Payton Moreland? Also, I mean, the husband is always the first suspect because statistically.
51:52 Garrett Moreland? We, we, we've had a lot of listeners who have been like, I don't know how to say it. It's like, I've done drugs or I've done this and it's never made me want to go kill somebody. Like, just walk in and kill somebody on drugs and alcohol? I mean, maybe. I guess so.
52:05 Payton Moreland? I guess it.
52:06 Garrett Moreland? Maybe I don't understand.
52:07 Payton Moreland? He did struggle with addiction for the rest, basically.
52:10 Garrett Moreland? Why walk into a home, kill someone, then leave?
52:13 Payton Moreland? You know.
52:13 Garrett Moreland? At that part, I just, I'm what?
52:15 Payton Moreland? And like brutally strangled, blunt force trauma, like smashed head into the floor.
52:21 Garrett Moreland? It's like, are you a violent person? Like, because that just doesn't make sense.
52:24 Payton Moreland? Rage.
52:26 Garrett Moreland? Ah, some things still not adding up for me. I don't know. That's just my opinion. It's just horrible.
52:32 Payton Moreland? I think for me, I actually can buy the story. I'm not sure he blacked out. Um, I think maybe he remembers little bits and pieces, but in order to cope with the shame, cognitive dissonance, like.
52:44 Garrett Moreland? Yeah, I blacked out.
52:45 Payton Moreland? Yeah.
52:46 Garrett Moreland? Yeah.
52:46 Payton Moreland? Like, he's not gonna say what actually happened.
52:50 Garrett Moreland? Yeah.
52:51 Payton Moreland? Or maybe he was truly blacked out and doesn't remember. I don't know. I've never blacked out from alcohol or anything. So I don't really know that feeling or what it's like. All right, you guys, that was our episode for this week. Um, thank you for listening. Thank you for always being here and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.
53:09 Garrett Moreland? And I hate it.
53:10 Payton Moreland? Goodbye.
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