Obtaining Gligor: Exactly how investigatives utilized hereditary family tree to fracture open a 23-year-old chilly situation

Investigative Tara Augustin, a long time participant of the Montgomery Area Division of Authorities in Maryland, constantly intended to work with chilly instances.

” Throughout my entire profession, my objective was to reach the chilly situation device,” Augustin informed ABC Information’ Stephanie Ramos for “20/20.” “These are all significant criminal offenses. They’re either murders or rapes and there are ones that have not had the ability to be addressed. And I such as the obstacle of attempting to take a look at every little thing with fresh eyes.”

In 2022, Augustin obtained her opportunity when she was moved from break-ins to the chilly situation device, signing up with pressures with one more experienced police officer, Investigative Alyson Dupouy.

Augustin and Dupouy’s complete examination is exposed in a brand-new “20/20” episode, “First Comes Love, After That Comes Murder,” broadcasting Friday, Sept. 12, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the following day on Hulu.

You can additionally obtain even more behind the curtain of weekly’s episode by paying attention to “20/20: The After Program” regular collection exactly on your 20/20 podcast feed upon Mondays, held by “20/20” co-anchor Deborah Roberts.

Both were quickly designated to the 2001 murder of Leslie Preer, a 49-year-old mom and spouse from the upscale Chevy Chase suburban area of Washington, D.C., that had actually been eliminated in her home. The murder, which shook the peaceful community and haunted those that liked Leslie, continued to be unresolved for over twenty years.

From the beginning of the examination, Augustin and Dupouy claimed they challenged remaining gotten in touch with Leslie’s little girl, Lauren. She had an unbelievably close connection with her mom, whose fatality created destruction and cast a cloud of uncertainty over her late dad, Carl “Sandy” Preer. He passed away in 2017.

” Doing this work, I intend to assist individuals. When you remain in the chilly situation device, you reach reconnect with family members that or else possibly have [been] sensation like they have actually been neglected by the authorities division,” Dupouy informed “20/20.”

Augustin and Dupouy re-examined proof from the initial situation documents. Leslie had actually been found deceased in her upstairs restroom, with the postmortem examination noting her main reason of fatality as candid pressure injury.

Among the difficulties of chilly instances, Augustin described, is not “tak[ing] the initial perspectives of the private investigators that checked out it prior to … you need to take a go back and claim well allow’s simply take a look at the realities.”

For many years, the area and private investigators hypothesized Leslie’s other half, Sandy, might have been the wrongdoer of her fierce and surprising fatality.

In the initial occasion record, next-door neighbors reported uncharacteristic habits at the Preer home leading up to the exploration of Leslie’s murder. One next-door neighbor informed Montgomery Area authorities that the evening prior to Leslie was discovered, “he saw the Preer home and kept in mind that ‘every light got on in your house,’ yet the drapes were all shut. He really felt that was uncommon.”

Simply days after Leslie’s murder, Sandy was talked to on tape and confessed that his marital relationship was stressed.

” Leslie was an outright love, charm, when she really did not consume … She would certainly have a great deal. And in all sincerity, it is just one of the reasons I would certainly type of returned late since … it was obtaining difficult to manage,” he informed private investigators in a meeting recording acquired by “20/20.”

When inquired about the eve Leslie’s fatality, Sandy informed private investigators he had actually been running tasks consisting of quiting at the dump and checking out 3 shops to locate a battery charger. Dupouy informed “20/20” that Sandy’s habits was “simply a little dubious. It felt like he was attempting to develop an alibi for himself.”

Along with the next-door neighbors’ uncertainties and the discovery that the pair had actually been saying, Sandy accepted join a polygraph examination which he fell short. Nonetheless, Augustin kept in mind that lie detectors are “complicated.”

” They’re an indication that the individual is having a feedback in their body, a physical feedback to whatever inquiries are being asked,” she claimed. “And I can see exactly how he would certainly’ve stopped working since it’s a really demanding scenario and the authorities assume that he eliminated his spouse.”

As they analyzed the old situation documents, Augustin and Dupouy thought the previous private investigators “were searching for a reason that Sandy was acting so suspiciously, since a great deal of his motions, a great deal of his responses, the stopped working lie detector, they were all totaling possible reason.”

Nonetheless, one item of proof did not fit this concept: 2 months after her fatality, forensic examination results identified there was male DNA discovered under Leslie’s finger nails, and the DNA was not a suit to her other half Sandy.

The situation after that rested unresolved for many years, up until current breakthroughs in forensic hereditary DNA modern technology would certainly end up being vital to this examination. This budding method entails contrasting DNA examples to those easily accessible on public hereditary data sources which police is allowed to accessibility.

” They’ll provide you a listing of accounts that remain in these systems that have a specific level of relatedness to the suspect’s DNA account” Augustin claimed. “Often it can be hundreds of individuals [and] it can be a really, extremely remote connection.”

After obtaining an improved DNA account from Othram, a hereditary family tree firm, the private investigators start assessing and constructing elaborate family history to recognize the partnerships and closeness to their DNA example. For a year and a fifty percent, the investigatives initially came close to a big quantity of low-match DNA results which can be mapped back to existing American family history.

Their inquisitiveness expanded after the greatest DNA suit was discovered connected to a family members line in Romania.

Augustin remembers exactly how in June 2024, she explored openly readily available documents and posts regarding the matching Romanian family members line. She quickly came across the surname Gligor, which was an unforgettable name from the initial situation documents.

The investigator brushed with the initial records once again, attaching the surname “Gligor” to Eugene Gligor, Leslie’s little girl’s secondary school sweetheart. Making use of the family history they had actually developed, investigatives identified Eugene was a very first relative two times eliminated from the hereditary family tree suit discovered in Romania.

Because Gligor’s DNA had actually never ever been participated in a police data source like CODIS (Combined DNA Index System), investigatives needed to check their uncertainties by gathering an example of his DNA to match back to the example discovered at the criminal offense scene.

A week later on, Augustin and Dupouy employed the aid of personalizeds authorities at Dulles Flight terminal to gather a DNA example from a disposed of canteen where Gligor had actually taken a sip. Within a week, DNA examinations verified: Gligor was a suit to the DNA accumulated under Leslie’s finger nails.

The investigatives prepared their apprehension warrants and sent out the united state Federal Marshals to jail Gligor at his apartment or condo in Washington D.C. He was ultimately extradited to Maryland and gave Montgomery Area to encounter costs in link to Leslie’s murder.

While Gligor originally rejected any kind of participation in the event throughout investigations with Augustin and Dupouy, he begged guilty to second-degree murder in Might 2024.

Maybe one of the most pleasing facet of the examination for the investigatives was removing Leslie’s other half of any kind of participation in the murder. Augustin kept in mind exactly how the apprehension had an extensive effect on her little girl Lauren.

” Over the pair of years that I worked with the situation, we ended up being close with the family members” she claimed. “It was a feeling of closure and simply satisfying, allowing them recognize we obtained the individual and we really did not forget Leslie.”

Augustin and Dupouy went to Gligor’s sentencing hearing on Aug. 28, 2025, at the Montgomery Area Circuit Court House in Rockville, Maryland.

There, Gligor informed the court that he had actually experienced power outages because of alcohol and drug usage at the time of the murder.

” I slightly keep in mind leaving the Preer home in the early morning, yet the remainder is a blur. I recognize Lauren and Leslie’s family members would like to know why I existed and what took place. I’m sorry. I’m incapable to keep in mind and offer a description,” Gligor claimed.

Prosectors responded to the case of absence of intention in their sentencing memorandum, claiming “this is a criminal activity without an objective that the accused agrees to confess” and “The accused hesitates to confess his intention and the complete level of his terrible conduct.”

Court David Lease punished Gligor to 22 years behind bars. He has actually submitted a movement asking the court to reevaluate his sentence.

After the sentencing, Investigative Augustin showed to “20/20” outside the court house.

” Today’s a great day … it’s bittersweet since the family members has actually shed a person that was truly terrific and essential to them. However it’s great to see the effort has actually lastly repaid,” she claimed.