20/20 - Blood and Water: Eugene

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

An old flame comes back into the picture. Investigators realize he's not what he seems. To get new episodes early, follow "Blood and Water" for free on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon Music⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Deborah Roberts, here with another weekly episode of our latest true crime series, Blood and Water. Remember, you can get new episodes early by following Blood and Water on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you're listening right now. Here's the next episode of Blood and Water. The Montgomery County Cold Case Unit began re-examining Leslie Prier's murder in 2022. It was around this time that Lauren Prier, now in her 40s, ran into an old flame at a restaurant in D.C. There was some type of, not like a party, but just a gathering. And Eugene was there.

Eugene Gleegor, her high school boyfriend. The two had split up, amicably, some 25 years earlier. And I was probably like three years ago. It wasn't that long. ago, let me put it that way. This chance encounter was before detectives had the breakthrough we discussed in the last episode.

Before genetic genealogy led police to a blog, written in Romanian, containing a family's history, and the name Gleegor. What was he like? Did he say anything to you? What was his demeanor?

He just came up and he was like, hi, I was like, hey, I've seen you in so long, looked me right in the eyes. The conversation, Lauren says, was perfectly civil, a brief catching up between two 40-somethings who'd known each other a lifetime ago. And I was like, how have you been?

He was like, I got married again. I said, well, this is great, you know, just casual conversation. And it wasn't a big deal. I didn't think anything of it. We hugged, like, good to see you, bye. This would not be the last time Lauren Prier would see Eugene Glegoor. And the next time would be under vastly different circumstances.

Because not long after this chance run in, detectives set their focus on Eugene Glegoor. He would put one persona out there and try to make himself look like one type of person, but behind closed doors, he was a different person. So who was Eugene Gleegor? And did he kill Leslie Prier? From ABC Audio in 2020, I'm Stephanie Ramos, and this is Blood and Water. Episode 5, Eugene.

As I mentioned, Eugene Gleegor and Lauren Prier broke up a few years prior to Leslie's murder. Before the breakup, the two were inseparable. They were part of a close-knit friend group. Lauren and her high school friends still remember those times fondly, including one particular night in the spring of 1995. So here you are. This is the night of prom. Correct.

And that's Bryce. Bryce Thomas, one of Lauren's friends from high school. Yeah, this was the night of prom, class of 95. We got all gathered at Lauren's house. a couple of the parents were out front taking pictures. The photo shows three young couples. The boys are dapper, if a little awkward, and what might be rented tuxedos.

The girls look pure 90s, with spaghetti-strap mini dresses and face-framing curls. Lauren remembers Leslie playing cool mom that night. My mom had got us, which she shouldn't have done what she did. gotten us a thing of wine cooler. So we were having fun, even though we were obviously under 21. I remember just getting a limousine after then and dancing more than I've ever danced in my life.

The song atop the Billboard charts for seven weeks that spring was Montel Jordans. This is how we do it. So yeah, lots of dancing. We had fun. We stayed up all night. It was a beautiful evening. We had a blast. That was our prom name.

And that's my best friend, Lisa. That's me. That's Eugene. There were couples, and then there was Eugene and Lauren type of couple. They were together, always. The two began dating in Lauren's junior year. After that, Bryce says, they started seeing each other all the time. It was always, let's go hang out.

It was Eugene and Lauren, not just Eugene. It wasn't hanging out with Lauren. Let's go hang out with Lauren. He just became part of the group. We just became a crew. It was us. It was like, I was against the world. Friends remember Eugene as a talker, a conversationalist, good with girls and good with parents.

He was very charismatic. He was a ladies' man. All the girls loved him. But I got him. So we just became a thing. I mean, I loved him. Back then, I really did. Another friend, Lisa Wood, saw this young love up close.

I would say the relationship between Eugene and Lauren was as serious as one could be for high school. The couple stayed together, even after Lauren left for college. I know for her, it was, you know, it felt very special and she loved him. They were in a long-term committed relationship for years. Lauren's parents, her mom in particular, was definitely very welcoming of Eugene. Lauren says Eugene even joined the prayers on a couple of family vacations. My mom was just open door, you know.

She loved him. She adored him. And he had come to my parents' house, and I wasn't even at home yet. So he would be there at the house sometimes kind of waiting for you to come home. So he'd be there with your parents, just hanging out. Absolutely. Without you there? Correct.

So they had their own relationship. I'm sure they had their own conversations. Your mom would engage in conversation. Right. I'm sure my dad wasn't part of that. But my mom and Uteen, my dad was like, I'm going to watch sports or something. Like we said in our last episode, Sandy Prier never liked Eugene. Whether that paternal instinct was justified or not, it was true that Lauren and some of her friends were no strangers to some light mischief.

Bryce remembers smoking cigarettes with Eugene. after school and spending time at his place. His house was very, very nice. Big backyard was concealed in with bushes around the back. So easy to hide from the parents. We would probably end up, you know, we would cut class together eventually and go hang out of his house and play video games the afternoon. You guys were rebels.

I mean, smoking cigarettes, cutting class. Yeah, let's just say, we were a little bit more resourceful than a lot of other kids at that hour age. But some teenage mischief aside, Bryce was clear about who Eugene was. He would have been the last person to jump in. If we got a scuffle with any guys from a different school and like there was any kind of altercation, he would be one of the last people you want to have your back. Not really a fighter?

No, not a fighter at all. And by all accounts, Eugene and Lauren's breakup, after four years or so together, was amicable. We just had a talk and we both kind of agreed like we just had a mutual breakup. We were kids. The two went their separate ways. Their lives went on. And then Lauren lost her mom. By the time Leslie Prier was murdered, Lauren and Eugene had been broken up for about three years.

For all intents and purposes, Eugene was out of the prayer's lives. and had been for years. But as cold case detectives looked into Eugene Gleegor's history, one date in particular stood out, May 11, 2001, the day of Leslie Prier's funeral. I remember the church service,

and my dad and I were obviously sitting together, and we sang Beatles songs. Lauren and her dad were surrounded by loved ones that day. Just the amount of people there, a amount of friends from high school, school. It was very well attended, very well attended. Lauren's friend Bryce was there, along with droves of others, friends, family, acquaintances,

all there to pay their respects. But Bryce noticed one person was missing from the church. I remember asking Lawrence specifically, I was like, where is Eugene? And her saying to me that it was too much for him to handle. And I just remember me so, upset, just being, I can't believe that he would make this about him. That's the most selfish thing I've ever heard. It just rubbed me so wrong. I was like, where the hell is Eugene? Sure, Eugene and Lauren had broken up a few years earlier,

but other members of the Gleegor family did attend the funeral. Eugene's parents and brother were there. Two decades later, when cold case detectives were looking into Eugene, his absence on this day was suspicious. Detective Tara Augustine. His mom and dad and brother went to the funeral. Felt compelled because their families had this close relationship at one point.

But yet Eugene decided he didn't want to go. It made no sense. So where had Eugene been? Just a few days after the murder, he had been pulled over by police in a state in the middle of the country, nowhere near here. And later on, after talking to some of his friends, we realized that he took a spur of the moment trip to Oregon

all the way across the country to visit a friend that had moved there. And he called him while he was on the way and said, oh, I'm in Iowa. I'll be there in however many hours and caught the friend by surprise. So he took off right after the murder. He was on the road headed west. Yep.

It was a troubling detail, and there would be others. Authority scrutinized what Eugene Gleegor had been up to in the years after Leslie Prier's death. What kind of man had he become? And what exactly was he capable of? Hey, it's Lisa and Walter. My new comedy special, It Was an Accident, is now streaming on Hulu. I'm pissed off so often lately. If I had known we were headed toward the hands.

Handmaid's tail and I was going to be wearing that big red cape, I wouldn't have cut out carbs. I mean, I know what mindfulness is because my kids told me, but I've seen the way I eat, and I'm pretty sure I don't practice it. I don't know why I can't find a fella. Don't miss, it was an accident. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for fundal subscribers. Terms apply. Mr. Sugar, we've run out of places to hide our money.

We can do really bad things together. On Thursday, May 28. Crime is on the rise in Philly. Say hi to your wife for me. Hulu's hilarious comedy. We're in the middle of a crisis here. Delhi Boys is back with it all new season. You care more about the business than you do your own brother.

More money, more problems. We rebuild Darko on our own. No help from any man. I'm a man. Deli Boys season two. Streams May 28th on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. Star Wars is back on the big screen with the Mandalorian and Groku.

Gangsters, war criminals. I'll take out every bad guy in your deck of cards. Now, feel the force on the biggest screen possible. The old protect the young, and the young protect the old. This is the way. Buckle up. Always wear your seatbelt. Star Wars, the Mandalorian and Grogh rated PG-13,

may be inappropriate for children under 13. Now playing in theaters. In the years after high school, Eugene Gleegor worked in the food service industry in New York City. At one point, he was a matriety at a Michelin-starred restaurant. He reportedly hosted Super Bowl parties and joined fantasy football leagues. He was married twice, divorced twice, and by 2018, he was back living around Washington, D.C., working at a tech startup. My first impression of Eugene was that he was a very bubbly, friendly, friday, gregarious person. You know, a classic salesperson.

Jordan Wires had just begun working at the same startup as Eugene. People liked him a lot. Everyone was like, oh, you know, that's Eugene. He was like a salesy kind of guy. So I think probably that turned some people off of like, okay, well, you know, he's a fast talker and that kind of a thing in the way that like a lot of salespeople will turn people off, you know. But Jordan liked Eugene. You know, my boss at the time set up some time with him to say, you know, talk to Eugene about what he does and his

job and I just remember leaving the meeting with good vibes. And, like, I mean, I was a young employee navigating how to be a professional. You know, I went to him for advice all the time. Their office had a workplace mentorship program, and Eugene became Jordan's mentor. Over countless trips to a Starbucks near their office, Jordan's mentor doled out what seemed like hard-earned wisdom. I didn't probe too much into his background, but everybody knew it was open knowledge that he didn't drink. He was a recovering alcoholic. He had clearly been to AA and internalized a lot of self-help best practices, so to speak. Jordan described Eugene as having a certain Zen quality. Jordan says that at one point, Eugene gave him a gift.

It was a copy of the self-help classic, The Four Agreements, a Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. Can I remember the four agreements right now? No. Some of the things I remember are you need to agree to not take anything personally. How other people interact with you and go through the world is not a reflection of you. It's a reflection of them. Jordan says Eugene talked about concepts like self-actualization

and the importance of impulse control. I remember distinctly having lunch with him and him telling me, you know, having control over your thoughts and being able to see them as they come in and not just impulsively react to them is, you know, the first step toward being able to have control over your life. He was clearly a guy who had done some readings, some self-help books who had, like, I assumed been to therapy, maybe a little woo-woo, not in the sense of like, you know, he was into, like, mysticism or anything, but he just wasn't afraid to have conversations about difficult topics, egos, setting your ego aside about things. And he really taught me a lot. He did.

But a few years later, as detectives continued their investigation, they found more details that suggested Eugene, might not always have been as Zen as he seemed. This is what everyone's talking about. Everything's on the table. This is what champions come to take. This is what everyone came to see. No do-overs. No second chance.

No more Mr. Nice Guy. This is winner-take-all. And it's all happening now on the home of the NBA Finals. Don't miss it, June 3rd on ABC and the ESPN app. It's my first day of work and I need to make a big impression. From executive producer Mindy Kaling. This is our sexual harassment training. Hands off your co-workers.

Now sign this saying that I trained you or you're fired. Yes, ma'am. Work relationships are too messy. I just met the woman of my dreams. You've got to chill out and not come on too strong. That goes against my entire personality, but I'll try. Watch the new Hulu original series not suitable for work, Premiering June 2nd on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers.

Terms apply. No. Welcome to Get Real. I got something to say. A weekly talk show for the reality TV obsessed. Oh my gosh. It's going to be deliciously desperate. Why do these girls forget her?

She has a soft spot for troubled men. This is your show. Find Get Real wherever you get your podcast. Love runs deeper than we know. and stream new episodes Thursdays on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. Cold case detectives, Tara Augustine and Alison Dupoy had their big breakthrough in June 2024. That was when genetic genealogy led them to the name Gleegor.

As I looked into Eugene, they found hints of a volatile past. So this is a petition for a protective order, and this was from his second wife after they got divorced. The petition was one of the documents laid out on a table during my interview with detectives last summer. It was filed in Maryland court in 2021. There's a lot of details in here about the verbal and emotional abuse. So she was frightened.

Yeah, yeah. She was afraid of something. She thought he might go after her. Detectives Augustine and DuPoy would interview the woman. who filed this petition. I felt scared when I went to do the protective order. It was actually because he had threatened my boyfriend at the time. In the petition, she said Eugene came into her home unannounced,

the home they used to share, to collect his belongings. He had moved out, and he showed up. He was supposed to let me know and get my approval before coming over, and he just came in. And it was very scary, and I ended up calling the police. And I ended up leaving that house that night. I did not stay there again because I was a freedom. Yeah.

It was probably the only time that I was like, oh, my God, like, this is really scary. She wrote in the petition, Eugene is an addict and has two guns. His behavior has been erratic and scary for a couple of years off and on. Eugene repeatedly calls me a whore and yells into. my face. He throws objects, punches walls, and I fear for my safety when he has these outbursts. I am seeking protection from this verbal abuse and escalation. The petition was ultimately denied by the court, which said there were, quote, no reasonable grounds to believe that abuse as to find in the statute occurred. Detectives also spoke with Gleegor's other ex-wife. She said Gleegor,

could be a different person when he drank. Was he, like, a danger to himself, like, saying he would, like, harm himself or just being impulsive, going out, drinking and driving, or what kind of stuff? Second? Okay. Okay. We definitely started taking two different directions where Mike Rudge was making celery juice. His was hiding a bottle under, you know, a bitch encounter while working kind of thing.

But he did a really good job of, I guess, juggle and hiding. I don't know what you want to call that. It got to a point with both of them that they ended up getting divorced because of his substance abuse issues. For detectives, an image of Eugene Gleegor was coming into focus. Seeing that one of his ex-wives had filed for a petition for a protection order, immediately that kind of put red flags in my mind because I'm like, okay, well, that's because of either a threat of violence or a fear of violence. When detectives suspected that Gleegor might have killed Leslie Prier, they still needed

more evidence. Remember, at this point, the detectives have the crime scene DNA from an unknown male. They had used genetic genealogy to find possible relatives of whoever's DNA that was. that process led them to the name Glegoor. What detectives did not have was Eugene Glegaur's DNA. Without that, they couldn't be sure that his DNA matched what was at the scene. But as Detective Augustine points out, getting a suspect's DNA is no easy task. It can quickly go sideways.

In similar cases to this, when a suspect has been identified, There have been a couple of times where it hasn't worked out well where a person who thinks they've gotten away with a crime for 20, 40 years, the police are coming to finally ask them for their DNA. They know why because they killed someone and then it turns into a bad situation sometimes. So we wanted to try to do it in the safest way possible before we confronted Eugene with any of the evidence. So we decided that we were going to have some officers follow him and try to obtain a discarded DNA sample. toothbrushes, discarded chewing gum, flicked cigarette butts. Police have surreptitiously recovered DNA from all these objects and used them to crack cold cases.

Detectives Augustine and DuPoy decided to do something similar to obtain a sample of Eugene Gleegor's DNA. Doing our research, I realized that he was a frequent traveler and we got information that he was actually overseas and that he would be returning to the United States on a certain date, and we had the flight information. Detectives learned that Gleegor would be flying into Dulles Airport in Virginia. I relayed that information to our officers,

and they decided, okay, well, we'll pick up on them at the airport and see if we can get him getting rid of anything. According to court documents, when Gleegor arrived at customs, he was pulled out of line by Customs and Border Patrol officers. They took his passport and escorted to... him to an interview room. The room was mostly bare. There was a couch and a coffee table stocked with snacks and miniature bottles of water. Gleegor sat on the couch while a CBP officer interviewed him.

At some point, Gleegor drank one of those bottles of water and left it on the coffee table. Sometime after that, the officers let Gleegor leave. He disappeared among the throngs of anonymous travelers, seemingly unaware that Montgomery County police had collected a potentially key piece of evidence. They were able to obtain a discarded water bottle, and we collected that, submitted it to the lab. We obtained the sample on a Sunday, and by Friday, we had a report saying that it was a match. Finally, after more than two decades, you finally have a DNA match. Yeah.

What was that like? I mean, it's always a huge sense of satisfaction when you can finally say, oh, we solved it, we know who did it. For detectives, there was no longer any doubt. Eugene Gleegor had killed Leslie Prier. The DNA proved it. The news spread to the county prosecutor's office. State's attorney, John McCarthy.

The lead prosecutor, she literally was jumping up and down. My God, we got a hit on this case. If you put two years of your life as an investigator and as a prosecutor into building probable cause for an arrest, it's a pretty joyful moment to realize you've got your guy. Being able to give that answer to the entire family, to Lauren, and to clear her dad's name is huge. It was just really satisfying on multiple levels. But before Detective Augustine could share the news with Lauren and with the world, there was one more thing to do.

Hands up, man. Hands up! With Eugene Gleegor in custody, detectives finally have the opportunity to talk to him face to face and confront him with what they had found. Hi, Gene. Hello.

It's an interrogation, unlike any other. Blood and Water is a production of ABC Audio in 2020, hosted by me, Stephanie Ramos, produced by Madeline Wood, Shane McKeon, and Kiara Powell, with help from Emily Shutz and Caitlin Schiffer. Edited by Gianna Palmer, our supervising producer is Susie Lou. Music by Evan Viola. Mixing and mastering by Bob Mallory. Scoring by Kiara Powell. Special thanks to Katie Dendaz,

Janice Johnston, Sean Dooley, Chris Donovan, Camille Peterson, Christina Corvin, Gail Deutsch, Amanda Carr, Ellie Jostad, NG Adam, and Michelle Margulis. Josh Cohen is our director of podcast programming. Amon McNiff is our executive producer.