Blood and Water: Face to Face

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“Here's the next episode of Blood and Water.”

One morning, in the summer of 2024, Eugene Gleegor was sitting on his stoop in Northwest Washington, DC. Gleegor was 45 with wavy brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He wore glasses and a polo shirt with a logo of the company he worked for stitched above the heart. Gleegor lived on a charming street lined with pre-war buildings and a red brick sidewalk.

Just down the block was the main drag, a trendy stretch dotted with brunch spots and a trader jose.

It was in this picturesque setting. That Gleegor was abruptly arrested. Gleegor was surrounded by five plain clothes officers who handcuffed him and led him to a car.

“Can you tell me what this is about? You have a warrant for what?”

Five officers arresting one man, what have been an unusual sight on this street?

This is absolutely embarrassing here.

Not only was Gleegor embarrassed, he also said he was in pain from the handcuffs. On my right hand this is really cutting off. In the body camera footage, the officers don't tell Gleegor what he's being arrested for. But he'd find out later that day. Gleegor was about to come face-to-face with the cold case detectives who spent years trying to find Leslie Priors' killer.

Now that Gleegor was in custody, the detectives would confront him with what their investigation had uncovered. And as you'll hear, Eugene Gleegor didn't take it well. From ABC Audio and 2020, I'm Stephanie Ramos. This is Blood and Water. Episode 6, face-to-face. After Eugene Gleegor was arrested, he was taken into an interrogation room.

You can get some water. This interview would end up being the only time detectives sat down with Gleegor. The stakes were high. The detectives began by reading Gleegor his rights and asking some standard questions. What is your physical condition today? I'm feeling a little bit caught off guard. I'm from the handcuffs. There seems to be a lump on my hand.

It's a blood clot. I don't know. I've been holding my hand above my heart, just so hopefully it helps to heal. The detectives began telling Gleegor about the case they had been working on.

“So that's the case that we are investigating. What was your relationship with Lauren?”

We had dated. When did you guys date? Exactly. I'm not entirely sure. There were lots of details Gleegor said he didn't remember. When he did answer questions, he didn't reveal all that much.

When you guys were dating how close were you with a family? Did you spend a lot of time at their house or did you know them real well?

Yeah, for sure.

Were you close with her parents?

I wouldn't say close with them. I don't know if close would be the right word, but they were friendly with me and nice to me. Were you at her house a lot of the time? Or did you guys spend more time at your house? What did you guys do when you... I mean, it was a mix. My house, her house, going out. Young teenagers, so there's going out.

Watching the footage, Gleegor seems to be holding back. But he's not the only one.

“When detectives began telling Gleegor about the case, they left out key details.”

They did not immediately say we have your DNA and it matched the crime scene DNA.

Instead, what they told them was a little more cryptic. From the crime scene, we have DNA from the person who was there when Leslie died. So there's Leslie's blood all over the place, obviously. But then there's also another DNA profile that was picked up from the crime scene. And we wanted to find out more about you.

And if there was any kind of situation where you could have been at the house at that time. What's fascinating about this interview is that it feels like Gleegor and the detectives are doing a sort of dance. Like both sides are trying to figure out what the other knows without revealing too much about what they themselves know. And it's not just the detectives who are asking questions. I'm just a little confused to find out more and talk to me. Why not just call me and ask me to come in and talk to me versus have marshals come and arrest me and bring me in.

I'm just confused as to why that's the case. Well, because we needed to talk to you in a controlled environment. And because there's a little bit more to it than what we've told you so far. Could you tell me? We're getting there. I'm trying to give you an opportunity to be a little bit forthcoming before we mean I I feel very I feel a little bit trapped here like.

“Well, you're under arrest, so you should be right.”

And so I think, you know, I mean, probably asking for a lawyer is my best course of action at this point. With that, the detectives tell Gleegor, okay, no more questions. That's totally fine. And we don't have to ask you any more questions, but we are going to just tell you some stuff, okay. And then the detectives lay their cards out on the table. We actually have a sample of your DNA and it was compared to the crime scene DNA and it matched.

So we know that you were there at the time when Leslie died.

I never gave a sample of DNA.

That's correct. We obtained a sample from a discarded water bottle that you drank out of. And we collected it after you discarded it into the trash and it was swabbed and it was compared. So your DNA matches the crime scene DNA. I don't know what to say. I have no recollection. I have no memory. I have no, I don't know what to say.

“Okay. Well, that's why we wanted to talk to you to find out if there's any other explanation.”

You know, we wanted to try to see if there was another angle or another side to this story. And, you know, we know that. That's what we're trying to figure out. So I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I was in the house, but it was years before. Right. When I dated her. I don't know. I was going to tell you.

I don't know. I found out first. Is there more? I mean, we've told you honey, we can't continue to after questions. Yeah. I can tell you more about, you know, what we think happened.

I don't, I mean, but you think happened. I don't know. I can't verify. I don't know. I don't recall. I don't have any memory. I didn't do anything that you're talking about. So I don't know. And I don't feel like I can, I don't know what it is or go into. I don't want to, to incubate myself with questions. You guys are professionals.

I really do think I need an attorney.

“I need to use the phone and I need to call someone.”

And I need to, I need legal representation before I respond to anything else. I, okay. That's fine. We're not going to ask you any more questions. There's no tears coming out of your face. I'm very dry right now.

You're dry. I'm very dry. I'm very dry. I'm just tired and drained. I don't know what's going on. You haven't got your quarters. I could tear it like that. No, I don't want you to tear it like this.

I just don't want you to say. I'm just trying to say. I'm just trying to say. I'm just trying to say that this seems a little put on. Are you kidding me?

Are you kidding me? No. Oh my God, you're so full of it. You're just, you're after. This is, this is the police.

This is, yes. But like, it makes sense. You know, it's, you're eyes. It's guilty, you don't prove it. It doesn't think that it.

Well, I mean, your DNA was in the crime scene. That's why, like, there's a reason. there's just, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's

If there's an alternate explanation,

“that's why we wanted to talk to you today.”

Okay?

So I feel like you just need to take a breath for a second.

Okay? That's what we're trying to figure out. Why is your blood there? Could it have been, you know, an interrupted burglary?

Did something happen? Where you didn't expect anybody to be at home? I have no idea. I don't remember and I'll recall. Again, you're asking me questions.

I don't know. I asked you, you did. You just asked me a question. And I asked for legal representation. And you guys are very smart, smug looking at me.

Like I've done something and of course, it's innocent until proven guilty, right? Am I wrong or am I right?

“You are entitled to your due process, absolutely.”

This isn't sane. This isn't sane. I don't. You keep saying you don't remember and you don't have any recollection.

Well, but if somebody was not involved, it would be an adamant I didn't know. Oh, I didn't do it. I definitely didn't do it. Eugene Gleegore was adamant.

But the detectives, they weren't buying it. And they later told me what they were thinking as this unusual interview continued to unfold. The Stanley Cup final on ABC is more than a quest for the cup. It's 134 years of putting it all on the line.

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If you were rehearsing in your head, what you would say, 23 years waiting to be caught for a murder,

Last summer, when I interviewed detectives Farrah Augustin and Allison Jepoy,

“we watched the footage of their interview with Eugene Glee Gore.”

The camera was positioned high above the room too far up to read Glee Gore's face clearly. But the detectives insisted, Glee Gore's tears were not real. It was very put on. That was my opinion of it sitting there watching it.

He sounds emotional. He sounds like he's crying. You can't really see it from the single, but you could. Both of you could. You're sitting right across your hands, taking his glasses off, rubbing his eyes,

performance all the way time. The detectives said Glee Gore wanted to come off as someone to feel sorry for an innocent man who just happened to be in handcuffs. And you called him out of that. I guess what was going through my mind was if a jury were to watch this,

it's not close up enough to show that he's really not crying. And his performance to me looked very fake, but I don't know what it's going to look like to 12 people who weren't forfeed away from him. He was very much wanting to be the victim in the situation.

You want to make sure that the focus is Leslie. She's the victim here. He's not the victim. I've been in alcoholic and recovery for years now. I've been sober for years.

And there are many, many times in which it, earlier life was in great. But at the same time, I know I didn't do it. I know I wasn't involved. And I just don't understand how this has come to this.

I really wish I knew. And I really wish I could tell you some, give you some answers and give you more feedback from an honest perspective, because I just don't know. I just don't know.

I don't know. I don't know either. That's why we wanted to talk to you. I don't know why your blood is there. Wow.

The only person that knows is Leslie and she can't tell us. Wow.

“When you walked out of that room, what went through your mind?”

What were you thinking? I was frustrated because I wanted to be able to get the answers to the family, and he just wasn't providing any. At the time of Eugene Glee Gore's arrest, Lauren Prayer had lived through more than two decades of pain and confusion.

From 2001 on, the mystery of who killed her mother remained unsolved, and for years suspicion hung over her father, Sandy Prayer. Sandy died without knowing the truth.

He never got closure, and Lauren thought she might not either.

But when we spoke, Lauren told me there came a moment, sometime in the years after her father died, where she felt like she might finally be able to make peace with everything that had happened. If I have to accept this, then I have to,

because my parents took together, and I can't live the rest of my life, every single day in pain and in fear and scared and sad, that's not the right path.

“The right path is, it happens, and you have to give yourself grace.”

But you can't live every single day with tear and fear and sadness. You're never going to get through. So you were already telling yourself, I need to accept this. Correct. Both my parents are gone, I lay too long. Great. And then you get the call.

And then my world was once again upside down. Throughout the investigation, the cold case detectives had followed standard procedure. They told Lauren little to nothing about what they were uncovering. She had no idea that her high school boyfriend was a suspect. So when her phone rang on June 18th, 2024,

the day of Glee Gore's arrest, that was the moment

that Lauren finally learned the truth.

She calls you. She says, Eugene Glee Gore, killed your mom. What goes through your mind? You can't even process it. I was in shock. I said, what? I'm still in shock, total shock. I was like, are you sure? It's like, yeah.

Did you ever think Eugene would be capable of something like this?

“Nobody did. No one. I mean, I love him. Back then, I really did.”

It's got a hurt to know that he's the person responsible for the loss of your mom. Right. And the fact that somebody knew that I dated what's wrong with? It's insane. As Lauren grappled with this news, detectives asked what she remembered about Eugene and their relationship, detective Allison DuPoy. Lauren said, you know,

my mom would have given him anything he wanted if he had just asked.

You know, meaning this was unnecessary. She would have helped him if he needed help.

My mom has just opened door. You know, when he was he who he was when I dated him, she loved him. She had ordered him. My mom totally took him in.

“That really stuck with me because that was the kind of person Leslie was. I think she was just a sweetheart”

that was just trying to do the best she can and would have helped any of her daughter's friends if they needed it. The news of Eugene Glee Gore's arrest spread quickly among the people who knew him. Lisa Wood, one of Lauren's friends from high school, remembers Lauren calling her. I answered the phone and she said, it was him.

When she said it was him, I'm like, what are you talking about? And then she said, it was Eugene. And still at that point, I'm thinking, what are you talking about? And she's like, Eugene, Eugene killed my mom. And I still, I still cannot, I just still can't wrap my head around that.

“This copicetic Zen person who had all this advice murdered someone?”

Jordan Wires, Eugene's former colleague and mentee. He showed us photos of him and Eugene smiling with their colleagues. Jordan struggled to make sense of his memories of Eugene, given what he knows now. It's just a little scary knowing that the person who had our cat and the person that, you know, was just standing here in this photo with me, extinguish the life of another human being. I'm looking at him now through a different lens of what I know and the person that back then

wouldn't have thought twice about being enough picture with him, right? It's like, oh, it's Eugene. And now, I'm just wondering what's going on behind those eyes. After 23 years, someone was in custody for the murder of Leslie Prear, but Eugene Gligor's arrest didn't answer the question at the core of this case. Why? Why was Leslie Prear killed?

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In June 2024, Eugene Glygore was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

If convicted, he faced a possible life sentence. In the months after Glygore's arrest, the run-up to a trial began. With prosecutors and Glygore's attorneys making a flurry of filings.

When Eugene Glygore pled guilty to murder in the second degree.

As a result, Glygore would avoid life in prison, and there would be no trial. I asked Lauren about Eugene's plea. What was your reaction to that? Thank God, they didn't want to go to trial. No, that would have been hell.

No trial meant avoiding long days in court. Days likely spent looking at gruesome evidence. Plus, there's no guarantee that a trial would have answered the big question at the center of this case.

“Why on earth did Eugene Glygore murder Leslie Prior?”

Still, in digging through court filings and evidence collected by police,

there are hints that might help explain how the grizzly events of May 2, 2001 came to pass. I asked Detective Tara Augustine for her theory of the case. Based on all of this evidence, what do you think happened to Leslie that morning when she was killed? I think that Eugene thought no one was at home and didn't expect for Leslie be there, and she came downstairs and confronted him. I think in his mind, he realized he was caught because

it's not just a stranger, somebody who knows exactly who he is. Instead of just admitting that he was wrong or talking to her about it, I think that he just panicked and only thought about himself and made a selfish decision to kill Leslie in the heat of the moment just so he could get away. Prosecutors would later file a sentencing memo, a quoted an account of that day from Glygore. It reads, "On May 1, 2001, Mr. Glygore remembered drinking both shots and mixed drinks.

He stated that he vaguely remembered driving to work in stopping off at the Prior House around 9.30 a.m. on May 2, 2001. He recalled a vague memory of going into the house, and he and his prayer having some sort of a physical altercation. He does not recall placing her in the shower or trying to clean up the crime scene. On the day Glygore appeared in court, enter his plea. Lauren was in the room.

She was once again in the presence of her high school boyfriend. But this time,

“under vastly different circumstances. Who was it like to be so close to him?”

It was a horrifying. Did he look at you? No. Nothing. He didn't look at anybody, but he knew. At this time, Mr. Glygore, you do have the absolute right to address the court before I sent you in this matter. A few months after Glygore took a plea deal, in August of 2025, he appeared before judge for his sentencing. It was there that Glygore made a statement.

Good honor. I want to express my deepest regret, shame and remorse, the devastating tragedy that I caused, taking the life of Leslie Prior. In his statement to the court, Glygore said he wanted to atone for the pain and suffering he had caused. He also said he had buried and suppressed his thoughts of the tragedy for most of his adult life. "I'm sorry it's taking me this long to take forward responsibility.

“I'm grateful that time has come and release the secret is over."”

Glygore also spoke about his mental state around the time of the murder. I had many blackouts leading up to the evening of May 1st in the morning of May 2st, 2001, but none that resulted in the most regretful and devastating event of my life.

I've never been a violent person. I vaguely remember leaving the Prior house in the morning,

but the rest is a blur. I know Lauren and Leslie's family want to know why I was there and what happened. I'm sorry I'm unable to remember and provide explanation. I've asked myself the same questions many times. I never had any issue with Leslie. No it will, or mouse, or malevolent intent. If anything, I owed her a debt of gratitude for being so kind to me when I dated Lauren. I was later I remember hoping and praying that she was not dead that she would revive.

I felt so sick and disgusted with myself for what I had done. Lauren and Leslie's family. I'm so sorry for causing so much misery in hardship.

in my heart. I only have positive memories of us in your mom.

You're a part of my family and I felt that I was a part of yours. I know this must have been a nightmare. To prosecutors, Gleehor's recollection of the day in question was a little too tidy.

“In a filing, the state wrote, quote, "The defendant's account of what he does and doesn't remember”

conveniently allows him to avoid taking full responsibility for the most gruesome and calculated aspects of the murder. The state finds the defendant's selective memory implausible."

At the sentencing, Lauren Prier also spoke, she addressed Gleehor directly. She called him

a monster and a wolf in sheep's clothing. And she asked, "Why would you kill my mom?" Eugen Gleehor was sentenced to 22 years in prison, with five years of supervised probation. He's currently serving time in a state prison about two hours northwest of Chevy Chase.

“After 24 years, Leslie Prier's killer is behind bars and Lauren Prier has answers.”

But talking about her mom and dad is still a bit of sweet. You said someone's

had things about your mother. She seemed like a wonderful, wonderful mom.

He's no idea. She was my hope, my pride, my joy, my beauty. I just love to start much. I became a different person in my world changed completely. I had this like perfect world before this all happened. Perfect. I mean, everyone has their ups and downs, but it was a wonderful world. It was happy. I mean, it was still happy. I mean, you know what? I mean,

I'm not just like this person. It sits in the dark and like cries every day, but it's embarrassed. I'm going to serve very much. Your father and we're going to see this case resolved.

“How do you process that knowing that he was so close to seeing the state?”

I mean, I talked to them every day. I had pictures of them and I guess bedroom. I talked to them. I said, I wish you had been here. I said, Daddy, thank you for being such a wonderful father. And I'm so sorry that you didn't get to see justice, but you're getting justice. Blood and water is a production of ABC audio and 2020. Hosted by me, Stephanie Robos, produced by Madeleine Wood, Shane McKin and Kira Powell,

with helped from Emily Schutz 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 Kira Powell. Special thanks to Katie Dendos, Janis Johnston, Sean Dooley, Chris Donovan, Camille Peterson, Christina Corbin, Gale Doicch, Amanda Carr, Ellie Joe Stad, Angie Adam, and Michelle Margulis. Josh Cohan is our director of podcast

programming. Amen McNiff is our Executive Producer. The actor is very good. It's a very cool, cool, very famous. Stift on the wall and test computer build, focus money, chip, finance, and search for something. Mega, but that's not what it's like to complete. Eww, just a few photos of the lone star of the show, make it very good.

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