Stassi is back. Most people know me from Vanderpump Rules, but I am a mom, a wife, a podcaster. I'm traumatized by reality TV, but I can't stay away from it.
It's like, if they're not on your payroll, they don't get to be in your life.
Wow.
Reality has never been this real.
Not everyone is built for this.
I'm not here to ice anyone out, but when you said that— Don't cut me off. This time I get to do it on my terms. I showed up for you! What could go wrong?
Ugh.
House of Stassi, July 29th on Freeform and next day on Hulu.
Hi there, everybody. I'm Deborah Roberts, and welcome to 20/20: The After Show, where we pull back the curtains, um, some of our reporting at 20/20 to give you a sense of what happens behind the scenes. And today we're gonna take you to an affluent Maryland suburb, Chevy Chase. And our story begins with a 50-year-old married mom who fails to show up for work. Police would find her body on the second floor of her home in the shower. And this was a case— that just went unsolved for 23 years until recently. And there were so many questions around this case. Well, of course, we had to dive in. We focus on this story in 2020's episode called "First Comes Love, Then Comes Murder." And of course, you can listen to it right here on your podcast feed or watch on Hulu and Disney+. The correspondent in that story is Stephanie Ramos. Hello, Stephanie.
Hello.
I thought I was the Energizer Bunny. Oh my gosh, you are on World News Tonight. You're on ABC News Live, on Prime, you're on Nightline, and now you're on 20/20. What was that like for you switching gears? Because doing these shorter stories is so different from an in-depth 2-hour investigation.
Oh, absolutely. And as a national correspondent here at ABC News, I mean, a lot of the work that I do is day-of news coverage. So this is actually something that I had wanted to do for quite some time, be part of a project, a long-term project where you can really get into the details and sit down for these interviews and spend some time with the individuals that are really sharing their life story. So it was, it was great to be a part of this team, and it's, it, they brilliantly put together all of the pieces, and it took several months, but, uh, we were able to tell this, this story, um, what happened to Leslie Prier, and, and speak to friends and family and just really get into it.
Well, to call your team brilliant, I got to tell you, you're already scoring some points here in 2020 because, you know, they do— they do a great job. Well, let's jump into this because, Stephanie, this story I remember reading about in a couple of magazines and I thought, wow, that's very strange. Leslie Prier found murdered in the shower in her home. The shower is still going. And, you know, it was just such a bizarre mystery. There were little clues here and there. But what was your first take when you heard about this story down in Maryland?
I found it fascinating that after so many years, more than two decades, these two detectives, these two women, moms, just hard-charging women, were able to put the pieces together. Of course, there are a lot more technological advances now compared to in 2001 when this murder took place, but just fascinated that there was justice at the end of this, even though It was an unsolved case, a cold case for so long. Lauren Prier, who we spent a long amount of time with, her life was just turned upside down. The daughter of Leslie Prier. Just to see it all come together because these two women were assigned to this case and they said, we're gonna help this family. We're gonna find out who did this.
We're gonna solve it. You know, I've done stories before with a pair of female detectives and it's always interesting sometimes the women's intuition might be a little bit different from some of their male detectives in the same department. And sometimes there's something there that they just can think of and see that others don't. Let's talk about Lauren Prior. She was about 23 years old when this first happened. Obviously, her world was turned upside down, shattered, very close to her mom. Investigators, as they often do, began looking at her father, Sandy Prior. They started looking suspiciously at him, but she was not having it. She defended both of her parents vigorously, didn't she?
Oh, absolutely. I mean, she told us that it crossed her mind that perhaps her father may have had something to do with it, but it, it— she did not think about that for long. She said her parents loved one another, and after giving it further thought, she said there's absolutely no way that her father could have hurt her mother. And like you said, she mentioned, and officers mentioned, that Sandy himself even said that there were some marital issues and, and that Leslie had a problem with drinking, and that also that that kind of became a point of frustration for him. But Lauren was confident that her dad would never do this to her mom. She was confident that, that he couldn't. Even after a year or so, when police sat down with Lauren and said, this is what we think happened, we think Sandy did this to your mother, here's why, here's how, and we need to get it out of him. And she's— she, she can see her in that interrogation room, just shaking her head. She's like, "I just can't, I can't." She couldn't fathom it. And she was right all along.
Well, because also too, the way, I mean, she was so brutally murdered. I mean, it was really kind of a brutal scene there. And for her to think that her father could have possibly done that, I can only imagine. Well, you spoke with her and your interview was so moving. And we have a clip actually of her talking about the moment that she learned of her mom's death. Let's take a listen.
I looked out the window and I saw a police car pull up. And I saw my dad and a police officer get out of the car. And I said, "Oh God, what the hell's happening?" My dad is like, talk— he was just talking, but everything was in slow motion. He's like, "Lauren, your mom has been in an accident." I think I was thinking like a bus accident or she got in a car, like, you know, I wasn't thinking the word, like, that. And then he goes, um, she's no longer with us anymore. I was like, what? And so I ran into my bedroom and I screamed, like, scream, screamed, like what you hear on, like, the horror movies, like, deep down in your stomach scream. And I said, I don't understand.
And we should point out too that she lived just a few miles from her parents. I mean, she's in her 20s. I mean, she's recalling this, you can still hear the pain in her voice. How, how is she doing all these years later?
This really changed her life trajectory. I mean, you can hear in, in, in her interview and even spending several hours with her, you can tell that the emotion is still very raw, that her mother was her best friend.
Mm-hmm.
And I mean, as you can imagine, as, as a young woman, she's the only child. She didn't have any, she doesn't have any siblings. This, this changed her, and it traumatized her. And the weight of not only the loss of her mom but also not knowing who did this to her mom has been with her ever since.
Her dad had been out shopping for a battery or something, and police thought it was a little strange, his whereabouts. Uh, tell us a little bit about that.
Right, so the night before Leslie's murder, police say that Sandy had been out, and Sandy himself was reported saying that he went out the night before to, to buy something for a camera. He had been out for several hours. He went from store to store, and officers weren't really buying that. It seemed as though he was giving them some sort of an alibi of some sort that just didn't make sense. So officers at this point, when they're meeting with Lauren, they're under the impression that Sandy possibly found Leslie the night before she was killed with someone else murdered her that night, and then police found her the next morning. But we know now that's not the case. That's not what happened.
Yeah, yeah. So that was really kind of the theory they were operating on. So this was years ago. Fast forward a few years later, two detectives pick up this case. When we come back, we're going to talk about the evidence that led them to Leslie's killer. So don't go anywhere.
In a sunny Californian suburb, one family's home is unusually quiet.
When detectives walked into that house, they said that it was like time just stood still.
It's 2010 and the McStay family is nowhere to be found. Inside the home, no clear answer where the family could have gone.
Husband, wife, and two children all gone, like poof, disappeared.
The search for the McStays quickly captures the nation. But for years, the search for answers only brings more questions.
Who's ever heard of an entire family going missing?
A family of 4 doesn't just drop off the face of the earth with no contact.
Is this a family on the run, or is the truth far more sinister? From ABC Audio and 20/20, this is What Happened to the McStays, coming August 11th wherever you get your podcasts. Or subscribe to 20/20 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts for ad-free episodes early access to new episodes, and so much more.
3 decades ago, a young woman named Angie Dodge is found brutally murdered in her bedroom in Idaho Falls.
It was probably the worst case I've ever seen. It is the one that sticks with me.
Police zero in on a suspect and put a man behind bars.
I don't know what the hell you guys want.
Do you think we'd be wasting our time and wasting your time if we didn't think you're involved?
But as the years pass, doubts emerge about whether the real killer was ever caught. That's when Angie's own mother embarks on a decades-long mission to uncover the truth.
23 years I've been trying to put this puzzle together, and the center's missing. I've always been told the truth will come out. You can't hide the truth.
Listen to The Snare, a new series from ABC Audio. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app, and ad-free on Amazon Music.
Welcome back to 2020: The After Show, and I'm here with my colleague Stephanie Ramos, who reported on the case of Leslie Prier, a woman, a Maryland woman who was found dead in her shower, and a case that went unsolved for years. Stephanie, This happened in 2001. The case goes cold. And then in 2022, two new detectives are assigned to the case, Montgomery County Police Department Detectives Tara Augustine and Allison DuPois. And things start to advance in the investigation. You talked to both of these detectives. And, you know, what I thought was so fascinating, you know, these are women who are very tough and fierce. They're both moms, but they had some instincts that were a little bit different that allowed them to go in some different directions. Right.
They had also worked with genetic genealogy in the past. They had taken courses here and there. They were patrol officers, they moved through the ranks, were now detectives. They joined the Montgomery County, uh, department, and they're assigned to the cold case unit. They're assigned to this particular case, the Leslie Prier case. And as they're looking through it, they realize we have the tools where we can figure out who did this. At the time, at the crime scene, DNA was found underneath Leslie Prier's fingernails that had been sent to a private lab, kept all of these years.
So they were able to And it was unknown DNA. It certainly was not her husband, and it certainly caused a little bit more of a mystery around this case.
Exactly.
This is why they were never able to charge Sandy Preer with the murder. That DNA, that unknown DNA, didn't match his. They had nothing on him. So these two detectives, they called Lauren Preer and said, we're not making any promises, but we can promise you that we will try to find out who did this. We're going to work on this. We're going to open this up again.
And that's where the plot began to thicken. What is so fascinating in so many of our stories is DNA and where we've come now technologically and how they are able to pinpoint. Now we're talking 20+ years and they are able to find this DNA and track it to a family in Romania?
Right, things are so much more advanced now than in 2001. There were no Ring cameras back then. There were really no cell phones. It was, maybe a few people had cell phones, but it wasn't a common thing. But what they did have from the crime scene was unknown DNA. So what they used in 2022 was genetic genealogy to find the name Caligor, to find this distant relative, which happened to be in Romania.
Ah, and that's where the mystery really just began to deepen. And then there's this kind of a sting operation and they get some of his DNA from a water bottle. This thing actually takes them on speed big time. And it's just so shocking because who would've guessed an ex-boyfriend of Leslie's daughter could be connected to this case. And then he apparently, when they start talking to him, he seems a little weak, sort of crying. He seems a little confused, but they don't buy the emotion there.
Not at all. And in the interrogation room, you can see these two detectives, Detectives Augustine and Detective DuPuy, and they are just talking to him straight.
Let's listen to a clip. There's no tears coming outta your face. I'm very dry right now.
You're dry?
I'm very dry. I'm parched.
What would you like to know?
I'm dehydrated. You can probably see my eyes are bloodshot red because I'm just tired and drained. I don't know what's going on. You want me to drink water so I could tear? I don't want you to tear. I just don't want you to— What are you trying to say? I'm just trying to say that this seems a little put on. So they were talking to him, and he is telling police that he's dry. They don't really buy his story, and they think something is up during that interrogation. Right.
He's saying things like, I don't want to incriminate myself. I don't recall. He says, I'm dry because he's not shedding any tears. After some time where the detectives are saying, but you're—
did you—
didn't— you're not saying you didn't do it. Then he starts to say, I didn't do it. I did— I didn't do this. But it took some time, which is odd.
And that was a— that was a red flag for them. Well, of course, Gligor is eventually charged, and then he would later claim in court that his violent actions toward Leslie were due to drugs and alcohol. And investigators talked to him, they talked to two ex-wives, What exactly did they uncover about his past?
This was Lauren's ex-boyfriend. And from what she told us is that he was welcomed into the Preer family. He would come over for family dinners. He would go on vacation with them when Lauren and Eugene were dating. And he, even in court, Eugene talked about how kind Leslie Preer was to him. In court, when we finally did hear from Eugene Gligor, he, he said he did— he doesn't remember that morning. He says it's an absolute blur because he was— he had been drinking the night before, he had been using drugs the night before, possibly that morning as well, and doesn't remember anything. Now, police, they believe that he went into the home because he was familiar with the home with the intent to steal.
And he was surprised to find Leslie.
Surprised to find Leslie. Shocked. Leslie recognizes him. He's now caught in the act. What does he do if he was indeed under the influence? Maybe that's where that, that came from.
Gligor was eventually convicted, um, in this murder, and he was sentenced to 22 years in jail. We're gonna take one more break, and when we come back, we wanna talk about the family. Stay with us.
The Hulu original series Furious, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
There are 3 victims we know of. The suspect is female, white, late 20s. Female serial killers kill for power, control. I believe there's a deeper motivation here.
You have no idea who you're dealing with, and you are going to end up dead.
I've been waiting for you.
Watch the Hulu original series Furious, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.
Welcome back to 20/20: The After Show. And I'm here with my colleague Stephanie Ramos. Stephanie, let's talk about the impact on this family because at the core of these stories, when we're telling them, we're always talking about families. These are lives that are ruptured. And this particular family certainly was, um, As you mentioned earlier, Sandy Preer, the husband here, was considered a suspect for a while, even though they didn't charge him. There was a cloud of suspicion over him. He died in 2017. And there was still questions. Many still wondered whether he had anything to do with the death of his wife. Over the years, this had a huge impact on him, and as well as his daughter.
Oh, absolutely. And the one thing that One thing that Lauren shared with me was that even though she has some sort of justice now, knowing who did this to her mother, she's still— I mean, obviously sad because she doesn't have her mother with her, but is upset that her father wasn't able to see this day. He passed away in 2017, and for that entire time there was this cloud of suspicion over him. So this is how he lived his life. This is how Lauren lived her life, where there were issues in the family because they were blaming Sandy. So it affected the Prier family significantly, but also Lauren's friends. She says they were there, they've been a part of this journey. And at the sentencing hearing, a lot of family members were there. They were in person, on Zoom, and they give— they gave some, some really emotional impact statements just sharing what type of person Leslie was.
Yeah. And for Lauren, um, for her to be able to do that, but also to come face to face with the fact that she dated a son who would be a killer later in life. I mean, that had to just be horrific for her.
She just wanted to know why, and that's the one question she will probably never, never get an answer to.
Why?
And she, she discussed this with us. She just, she knew that Eugene had been welcomed into the family. He spent so much time with them. She just didn't know why he would do anything like this. And while they were together, I mean, they were together all the time during those high school years. And she says she never saw a violent side of him. She never saw him rage out. She never saw him in that light. So this all came as a shock to her.
Stephanie, it's a fascinating story. And we just so appreciate your joining us on 20/20, not only on the podcast, but on the program.
I'm so excited. Deborah, thank you so much. And thanks to the 20/20 team.
That does it for us today on the After Show. And Stephanie, it was really just a pleasure to have you here. Don't forget to stream First Comes Love, Then Comes Murder on Hulu and Disney+ along with all of our other 2020 stories. Thanks so much for being with us, and you all take care. Have a good day.
I found out my grandfather's Charles Manson.
A Hulu original true crime documentary.
I submitted my DNA to unlock my grandfather's sealed records.
This is all the phone calls that I had with Charles. She's the key. You're caught up in the biggest lie in the history of lies. To unlock Manson's untold secrets.
How could my blood do something so atrocious?
The Hulu original, My Grandfather Charles Manson, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. For 25 years, the Super Troopers pushed buttons.
Hey, you stop laughing right now.
Pushed limits.
Give me a, uh, liter of cola.
And pushed their luck.
You boys like Mexico?
But at It's never too late to push things a little farther.
Ah!
Farva, that's my mom! From August 7th, the Super Troopers return. No new info on the guy who did it.
Oh, so it couldn't have been a woman?
Sexist!
You ever see Ocean's 8?
Enough! Super Troopers 3, only in theaters August 7th. Rated R. Under 17 not admitted without a parent.
Deborah Roberts and Stephanie Ramos break down the murder of Leslie Preer while investigating the twists, heartbreak, and final justice in this shocking case.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices