Dateline: A Perfect Spring Morning - Who was Leslie Preer and what happened to her? Disturbing details of the 2001 murder, revisited 

Dateline NBC once again highlighted a bone-cold true-crime story with its "A Perfect Spring Morning," which reuses the 2001 Chevy Chase, Maryland, murder of Leslie Preer. The case languishes until a surprise tip identifies the murderer. For more than two decades, the case baffled police and left Leslie's community and family struggling for explanations.

Leslie Preer, 49 at the time of her murder, was a wife and mother of three who resided in one of the safest neighborhoods of Montgomery County. That morning was like any other, but soon transformed into a nightmare. Dateline explains how the first investigation was targeting Leslie's husband, Carl "Sandy" Preer, when there was suspicious behavior reported by neighbors, and when he also flunked a polygraph.

Although these were the speculations, the DNA that was found under Leslie's fingernails did not belong to Sandy, and the case came to a halt and remained unsolved for decades.

Who was Leslie Preer?

Leslie Preer was familiar to neighbors and acquaintances as a community-minded and friendly person. She worked hard to balance her personal and family commitments, which earned Chevy Chase residents' respect. Leslie's death found her leading an ordinary life, and the impact was all the more harsh on those who remembered her as such.

Dateline suggests that Leslie's tale is not a crime story, but instead, the abrupt interruption of a mundane existence by an unprecedented tragedy. Her murder was not just a loss on a personal level to her family and friends but also rattled the idea of security in her hometown community, a neighborhood famous for peaceful streets and smiling faces.

The murder and initial investigation

In the early morning hours of Leslie Preer's murder in 2001, police discovered her murdered in her shower in her own home. The crime was atrocious and was coupled with spontaneous publicity because of the unorthodox circumstances. Her husband, Carl "Sandy" Preer, was considered a suspect by the police early on based on the polygraph result and reported inconsistencies in behavior.

But detectives were soon plagued by setbacks. DNA taken from the scene of the crime, even from Leslie's fingernails, did not match Sandy or her next nearest suspect. That key evidence put the case further into a puzzling situation and kept it in a state of dormancy for many years.

Even through lengthy interviews and interrogation, the case could not gather any solid leads and was left cold for over 20 years.

Cold case investigation reopens

Dateline traces back the manner in which the Montgomery County Police Department finally reopened the case through their cold case unit. Investigators Tara Augustin and Alyson Dupouy reopened the case, demonstrating a persistent and systematic approach to long-cold cases. Using cutting-edge forensic techniques, investigators partnered with Othram, a Texas lab that specializes in genetic genealogy, to pursue DNA evidence that had remained unmatched for decades.

This partnership is a testament to a new turn in detective work, showing the ways in which technology can rejuvenate old cases. Dateline notices that after decades of stalemate, the technology enabled detectives to follow a genetic trail that they chased to a suspect whom they could not yet identify: Eugene Teodor Gligor.

Gligor personally knew Leslie's family because he had dated her daughter in high school, which brought him under the radar once DNA evidence began targeting him.

How the suspect was identified

Genetic genealogy was applied in solving the Preer case. Genetic material found at the crime scene was matched with publicly available genetic databases. Where there were matches on distant relatives, detectives filtered out the list of suspects and finally settled on Gligor as being most likely to have committed the crime.

Dateline outlines the cluster of confirmatory evidence, such as a discarded water bottle upon which Gligor's DNA was extracted without him knowing. The test confirmed the DNA from the crime laboratory and matched it to link him for all time to the murder of Leslie Preer. This achievement proves the power of blending old-fashioned police work with new forensic science in solving cold cases.

Arrest, trial, and sentencing

After the confirmation of Gligor's DNA, Gligor was arrested and extradited to Maryland to be charged. Eugene Teodor Gligor pleaded guilty in May 2024 to second-degree murder. In August 2025, he was sentenced to 22 years in prison, ending the law in a case that had tormented the family of Leslie Preer for more than two decades.

Dateline highlights the importance of the verdict in a legal and emotional context. To begin with, to Leslie's family, her daughter Lauren being part of it, the verdict confirmed years of expectation, willpower, and waiting within the investigative process. Furthermore, the case cleared Sandy Preer of suspicion, correcting decades of suspicion and clearing his name in the public domain.

The role of Dateline in revisiting the case

Dateline's report of the killing of Leslie Preer is centered on facts, investigative techniques, and the personal effect of the crime without sensationalism and exaggeration. The program emphasizes law enforcement officers' determination, forensic advances, and the determination of Leslie's family to secure justice.

By going back to the story, Dateline brings the viewer a first-hand account of how cold cases are ultimately solved through persistence, willpower, and technological improvements. The program is a neutral platform on which to serve up the facts and detective efforts and dishes out a neat-told tale without sensationalism.

Lessons from the Leslie Preer case

The Leslie Preer case suggests some general observations that may be transferred to today's true-crime cases:

Cold case perseverance: Decades-old cases can be cracked with new technology and methods.

Cold case forensics: Genetic genealogy has allowed previously impossible crimes to be cracked.

Family consequences: The crimes have long-lasting emotional effects, and closure, years after the fact, is necessary to heal.

Neutral reporting: Objective reporting that is not sensational so that the public is aware of the case and the judicial process.

Dateline, in its objective, fact-oriented reporting, illustrates how journalism can report and inform without bias, applying the right context to the crime and its resolution.

The account of Leslie Preer, reenacted on Dateline, is a bitter reminder of how tragedies go unsolved for decades and of how technology improves today presents new avenues for justice. From the initial probe to suspicion over the years, to the ultimate identification and conviction of Eugene Teodor Gligor, the case is a paradigm of the tenacity that goes into cold cases.

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Dateline's reporting is still strictly factual and just reports on each new development in straightforward, nonaligned terms. Leslie Preer's narrative, the patience of her family, and the hard work of Montgomery County investigators are all a testament to the way in which justice, albeit late, can eventually be served.

Also read: Dateline: A Perfect Spring Morning - Everything we know about the latest true crime episode

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