MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — A D.C. man will spend 22 years in prison, 24 years after strangling his ex-girlfriend's mother to death inside her Chevy Chase home.

Eugene Teodor Gligor, 45, was sentenced Thursday. In addition to the prison sentence, he will spend five years on probation.

Gligor was arrested last June, after a break in the over-20-year-old cold case. That break — DNA from an a water bottle thrown out at Dulles Airport — finally connected him to the 2001 murder of 44-year-old Leslie Preer.

After not showing up for work, Preer was found dead in her bathroom. Blood was found throughout the house, and evidence that someone had tried to clean it up in some areas.

Investigators also found male DNA under Preer's fingernails and in blood droplets found in the dining room, kitchen a

See Full Page