Introducing "Blood and Water"

[0:00] Hello, hello. Happy Saturday. We have something a little bit different for you today. As you know, [0:04] the team at ABC Audio produces lots of podcasts. And if you like true crime, this latest new series [0:10] is a fascinating story you're not going to want to miss. It's called Blood and Water. [0:14] It's hosted by Stephanie Ramos, whose voice you've heard before here. And in this six-part [0:18] series, Stephanie tells the story of Leslie Prier, a mom who was living in the suburbs of Washington, [0:24] D.C. before she was found brutally murdered in her bathroom. For years, investigators suspected [0:30] her husband, Sandy. But it took two decades and groundbreaking developments in forensic technology [0:35] to uncover the real killer and bring justice to Leslie's family. Keep listening to hear the first [0:41] episode right here. That's right. It is a special drop. If you like it, you can follow the show for [0:45] free on whatever podcast app you're using right now. Just search Blood and Water. All right, [0:50] here's the first episode. May 2nd, 2001 was 25 years ago. But Linda Lyle still remembers what the [0:58] weather was like that day. It was a beautiful, beautiful May day. The sun was shining. It was [1:05] it was just a beautiful day. Back then, Linda was working at an advertising company on the edge of [1:11] Washington, D.C. It was a small office. And Linda knew all her colleagues by name, including a woman [1:18] named Leslie Prier. Leslie was a part-time employee. She had been brought it. We were desperate for someone [1:26] to file. Leslie helped with the administrative side of the business. She'd been with the company [1:31] for four years. She was in her late 40s, but looked a lot younger. A classic Grace Kelly-esque beauty [1:38] with dark hair and fine features. Oh, she was beautiful. She had a quiet manner. She was dainty [1:47] to me. But on this particular spring morning in 2001, Leslie was not at work as scheduled. She didn't show [1:58] up. This was a problem from a business perspective. It was Leslie's job to mail invoices. If no invoices [2:08] went out, no money was coming in. This was 2001, where the company had a lot of still paperwork, if you will, [2:17] because we weren't in quite the digital age. Brett Reidy was the operations manager in the office. [2:23] He was also Leslie's boss. Brett had recently had a talk with her about punctuality. Leslie lived nearby, [2:30] just a few miles away. But she'd been turning up late a lot. It was odd that she wasn't there, [2:37] only because she was kind of on probation, if you will, with me. It wasn't a handwritten [2:43] probation or anything like that. It was just like, look, you got to make it by 10. So when 10am [2:51] came and went, Brett took notice. When she didn't show up at 1015, I just assumed she had a doctor's [3:00] appointment or something held her up in the bus or something like that. Brett Reidy is a pretty [3:06] even keeled guy. But Leslie's absence that day, it clearly got his attention. At 1015, [3:14] he asked around the office, did anyone know where Leslie was? Everyone said no. At 1030, [3:22] Brett had his secretary call Leslie's house. No answer. He said, darn it. You know, where the hell [3:29] is Leslie? Linda says Brett was annoyed, but he was also concerned. He wondered if Leslie's bus had [3:38] broken down. I know it only takes about 20, 25 minutes for her to get to the office. So I said, [3:45] something must have happened. By 1115, Brett called Leslie's husband, Sandy Preer. [3:55] I said, well, you know, I'm calling you because Leslie's not here. And did she have a doctor's [4:00] appointment? I don't know about. He goes, no, very quickly. And he goes, that's not good. [4:08] So I'm like, well, wait, okay. So this now something's something's really wrong. [4:16] So on that warm May morning, 25 years ago, Brett made the decision to go to Leslie Preer's home and [4:23] try to find out why she hadn't shown up. It was a decision that would land Brett in the middle of [4:29] a gruesome scene and a bewildering mystery that would take decades to solve. [4:34] What happened was a violent secret carefully kept for years until a revolution in how crimes are [4:54] investigated finally brought the truth to light. From ABC Audio and 2020, I'm Stephanie Ramos, [5:02] and this is Blood and Water. Episode one, Looking for Leslie. Leslie Preer and her husband, Sandy, [5:19] lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It's a prestigious suburb of Washington, DC, [5:25] full of picturesque neighborhoods. And it's a place I know well. When I first joined ABC News 11 years ago, [5:33] I worked out of the DC Bureau, just a few miles away. Chevy Chase is a place that always seemed to [5:39] radiate calm, quiet respectability, and wealth. Even in 2001, the average house in Chevy Chase cost [5:48] three times the national average. It's in one of the most educated, high-earning counties in the country. [5:55] So how far are we from where you and Leslie worked at the time? [6:00] Uh, probably at the most two miles. About two miles away. [6:04] Last year, I asked Leslie Preer's boss, Brett Breedy, [6:07] to show me the neighborhood where the Preer's lived. Now in his 60s, [6:12] Brett drove me, retracing his journey from all those years ago. [6:15] This is a nice, easy one. On that day in 2001, when Leslie didn't show up for work, [6:21] Brett had driven the long way to her house, checking side streets and Leslie's bus route. [6:26] If her bus had broken down, perhaps she'd been stranded by the road. [6:30] In 2001, is this basically, this is what it looked like back then? [6:35] Well, absolutely. [6:37] Like many other suburbs across the country, Chevy Chase is full of lush green lawns and lots of [6:44] helpful signs telling you to look out for children playing and neighborhood watch. [6:50] The Preer's lived on Drummond Avenue, where a row of large houses sit behind tall trees. [6:57] It's an area Brett Breedy knows like the back of his hand. [7:00] That's, and this is my house where I grew up in. [7:03] Oh, this one right here? [7:04] The next one on the right. [7:05] Oh, it's lovely. [7:07] But this is, uh, yeah, great neighborhood. I had about, uh, probably six friends that lived on this [7:13] street from elementary school. And right here at this intersection, um, I was off on a patrol, [7:19] uh, for our elementary school right here for this crossing. [7:24] I remember those days too. I was a patrol. I was a fifth grade patrol, patrol kid. [7:30] Right. I was, mine was sixth grade. You had to, you had to fold the patrol, uh, uh, belt a certain way. [7:36] Leslie's daughter, the Preer's only child, had attended that same elementary school. [7:41] Brett said the reason he went to Leslie's house that day is because he knew the neighborhood so well. [7:48] Even the street they lived on was familiar. Brett drove me the length of Drummond Avenue to where [7:54] the cul-de-sac ended. [7:55] Okay. This is where the house would have been. [7:56] This is where the house would have been. So you see, it's obviously redone. [8:00] The Preer's home was knocked down a few years ago and a different, modern house now sits in its place. [8:06] Crime scene pictures show that the Preer's house was a colonial style red brick home, [8:14] two stories tall with white columns flanking the front door. [8:18] In the photos, the house looks perfectly symmetrical, neat as a pin. Brett and I [8:28] stopped right out front where the Preer's house once stood. [8:31] And then if I get right here, this is where I would think about Leslie. [8:39] Brett's tour of the neighborhood had ended right where he was 25 years ago, looking up at a perfect [8:46] house on a perfect street, totally unaware of what was lurking inside. [8:52] On the morning of May 2nd, 2001, it was sunny, warm, and approaching 1130 AM, [9:02] when Brett Reedy pulled up at the Preer house and walked up to the front door. [9:07] Brett recognized Leslie's husband when he pulled into the driveway just after him. [9:12] Sandy Preer was broad-shouldered with reddish hair and thick glasses. [9:16] The two men weren't friends, but they'd met before. Sandy worked in an office nearby. [9:23] When Brett told Sandy that Leslie hadn't shown up at work, [9:27] Sandy told his boss he had a family emergency and left immediately to go to the house, [9:32] arriving moments after Brett. [9:33] He walked up to me and he said, hey, Brett, how you doing? [9:40] He opens the door and he's yelling, Leslie, Leslie, Leslie. [9:44] And as soon as I walk in, I look to my right and there's a large pool of blood. [9:51] I mean, it's a significant amount of blood, maybe about a three-foot diameter of pooled blood. [10:03] Brett later told police that he felt he saw the blood moments before Sandy. [10:08] When Sandy did notice it, he said, oh, my God. [10:13] The men were standing in the foyer. [10:15] From there, they had a view of most of the house. [10:18] The living room was on their left. [10:20] The stairs to the second floor were straight ahead, [10:23] and the dining room was to the right with a view of the kitchen toward the back of the house. [10:28] In the foyer, blood was smeared around the floor as if someone had tried to wipe it up. [10:34] It was also spattered on the walls. [10:36] A small welcome mat stained with blood lay in a heap in the living room. [10:42] A table that usually stood in the entranceway had been knocked over. [10:45] I noticed a lot of blood on the steps leading upstairs, splattered blood all over the steps. [10:54] Oh, God, something's happened here. [10:57] It looked bad, like the aftermath of something violent. [11:04] Brett didn't want to move. [11:06] He didn't want to find Leslie, he said, in some kind of compromised position. [11:12] So he stayed in the foyer while Sandy walked up to the second floor, calling for his wife. [11:19] Brett looked into the dining room and saw something peculiar. [11:24] A pool of water on the floor. [11:27] He bent down to take a closer look. [11:30] And I'm still kind of knelt down. [11:34] And as I'm knelt down, I noticed something move down the hall. [11:39] It was the door to the basement. [11:43] And that door was slowly opening. [11:45] I was like, oh, no, you know, this is the way it slowly opened. [11:49] Again, I'm thinking, uh-oh, it's Leslie. [11:53] She's probably hurt and something's happened. [11:55] But it was not. [12:00] It was the dog. [12:01] The prayer's elderly black lab, Boomer. [12:05] A dog had pushed its nose open the door and then started walking towards me. [12:11] So there was a little bit of that heart palpitation there for a second. [12:14] Sandy went down the basement steps to check things out, but soon came back up. [12:22] Still no sign of Leslie. [12:26] Brett started pointing out the blood smears to Sandy. [12:29] Blood on the floor, blood on the walls, blood on the stairs. [12:35] Sandy had noticed them, but he kept insisting that there had been an accident, [12:40] perhaps on the stairs, and that Leslie had been hurt. [12:45] To Brett, it felt like Sandy hadn't grasped the seriousness of the situation. [12:49] And he goes, she must have fallen. [12:54] Well, that's, you know, my reaction probably was a hell of a fall. [13:02] Where Brett found the situation shocking, he says Sandy seemed calm. [13:06] Sandy did not seem to react to what I was pointing out. [13:13] It was a little strange. [13:14] I remember saying to him, look, Sandy, they tried to clean this up. [13:19] So I think, intuitively, I just, somebody hurt somebody and tried to clean it up. [13:28] Sandy's reaction was, she must have fallen down. [13:33] He kept going that route. [13:37] Sandy later told police he believed Leslie had injured herself at home, [13:42] and a neighbor had taken her to a hospital. [13:45] He thought she was hurt, but being taken care of. [13:49] Sandy said that a few minutes after entering the home, [13:52] he decided to call local emergency rooms to see if Leslie had been brought in. [13:56] Sandy and Brett went into the kitchen, where Sandy opened up the yellow pages on the counter. [14:02] But they soon noticed the kitchen also showed evidence of Leslie being injured. [14:08] Blood everywhere. [14:12] Blood on the appliances, blood on the back door, blood a little bit on the table. [14:20] But what I noticed was the back door was ajar a little bit. [14:26] It wasn't fully closed. [14:27] So it's something I remembered really well. [14:32] I thought it was odd. [14:35] By this time, the men had been in the house for around 15 minutes. [14:39] From the top floor to the basement, they'd found no sign of Leslie, but plenty of blood. [14:47] At 11.46 a.m., Brett called 9-1-1. [14:50] 9-1-1, what's your emergency? [14:53] Company, and we didn't hear. [14:57] I just walked in. [15:00] I was better not. [15:09] Okay. [15:09] Not in the house anymore, are you? [15:15] I'm in. [15:19] You're with the husband? [15:20] I'm with the husband, yeah. [15:22] Is there a lot of blood? [15:26] Okay. [15:35] She has to step out of the house. [15:39] I said, okay. [15:43] All right. [15:44] I said to Sandy, we have to get out. [15:47] Brett and Sandy waited in the front yard. [15:50] It only took 10 minutes for the police to arrive. [15:52] And by then, it was approaching midday. [15:55] When they showed up, Sandy, well, he kind of greeted them. [16:01] Again, a little odd. [16:04] And they pulled their guns. [16:05] And Sandy goes, whoa, you guys mean business. [16:11] Like, kind of in a joking way. [16:15] The officers asked Sandy if the door was unlocked. [16:18] And when he said it was, they entered. [16:20] I'm outside talking to Sandy. [16:25] I said, you know, could there's something, you know, anything else that maybe she's, you [16:31] don't know about or, you know, just trying to figure this out. [16:35] And I asked him directly. [16:37] I said, Sandy, you were upstairs awfully quick. [16:42] Did you check everywhere? [16:47] And as soon as I said that, he puts his hand to his head and he goes, oh, I forgot to check [16:54] the bathroom. [16:56] Sandy told Brett that when he had gone upstairs, he'd briefly looked into the doorway of each [17:00] of the rooms, but hadn't gone all the way in. [17:04] But Brett didn't have long to dwell on that. [17:08] I would say within a minute, the police came back out. [17:16] And when they walked out, the policeman was wearing gloves and he was taking them off. [17:24] And I knew right then. [17:28] And he walked right up to Sandy and said, sir, your wife is dead. [17:33] Brett says that Sandy seemed completely shocked. [17:42] Disbelief? [17:43] What? [17:44] I don't understand. [17:45] How can that be? [17:51] Leslie Preer's body was found lying in the shower of the upstairs bathroom. [17:57] Near her head was a large pool of blood. [18:01] The police report from that day described it as a sudden death, undetermined. [18:06] An autopsy would be needed to figure out the exact cause of death. [18:12] The first thing I thought of was Lauren, the daughter. [18:16] This was going to be tough. [18:18] The only daughter. [18:19] And that's all Leslie talked about. [18:21] Lauren Preer was 23 years old when she got the news that her mother had died. [18:37] So talk to me a little bit about your childhood. [18:40] How was that for you? [18:41] Growing up in Maryland with your mom and dad? [18:43] Just wonderful. [18:45] See, I knew it was going to cut. [18:47] It's okay. [18:50] When I sat down with her last year to talk about her mom's death, [18:53] Lauren was almost exactly the same age her mom had been when she died. [18:58] in her late 40s. [18:59] She says until that day in 2001, the Preer's family life had been idyllic. [19:08] We're on Drummond Avenue. [19:10] It's a beautiful neighborhood, extremely safe. [19:13] I never felt scared there. [19:16] And we just, we'd have barbecues and my friends would come over. [19:20] Like I said, my parents would, my dad would cook. [19:22] My mom was actually not the best cook, not to be mean. [19:25] But she wasn't. [19:27] We don't have our strengths. [19:28] Right. [19:29] But so we, it was just wonderful. [19:32] We had a huge backyard. [19:34] And my mom and I would plant tulips in the front of the house and they would grow. [19:38] So. [19:38] Lauren said Leslie was always there when she needed her. [19:43] When I was very young, I always had sleepover parties for my birthday. [19:47] And I had to like eight to 10, you know, there was like a bunch of girls. [19:51] We had all the sleeping bags and we sleep downstairs in the living room. [19:55] It's like a girl's dream. [19:56] Yeah. [19:57] But anyways, my mom, for some bizarre reason, let me rent The Exorcist. [20:03] Actually, it was my dad. [20:04] It wasn't my mom. [20:06] And so my girls and I all watched The Exorcist. [20:10] And then after that, I never slept alone. [20:13] My mom slept in my trundle bed with me. [20:15] So it was like the pullout thing, you know. [20:17] So I had my top part and she would sleep with me until I fell asleep. [20:21] So she always stayed with me. [20:23] And that's a scary but wonderful memory. [20:28] Lauren said that she and her mom spent a lot of time together. [20:33] Even after Lauren moved out of the house and into an apartment in nearby Silver Spring, [20:37] they would take trips to D.C. to visit the museums. [20:40] Lauren said her mom especially liked the National Portrait Gallery. [20:44] Seems like you guys, you both had a very good relationship. [20:47] Oh, yeah. My mom and I were best friends. [20:50] She was everything to me. Everything. [20:54] And I just couldn't believe it. [21:01] On May 2, 2001, in the afternoon, Lauren tried to call Leslie. [21:07] My mom and I talked on the phone every single day. [21:11] That was a routine. [21:13] I mean, seriously, I would call her office and her friend Gail worked there. [21:17] And I called the office and Gail answered the phone. [21:22] And I was like, hi, Gail. It's Lauren. [21:24] I was like, can I talk to my mom? [21:26] And she was like, oh, she's not in yet. [21:28] But I was told to tell you that if you called to call your father. [21:34] And then I knew something was weird. [21:36] Lauren called Sandy on his cell. [21:39] I said, Daddy, I was like, hi. I was like, what? [21:44] Mama's not at work. What's going on? [21:46] I was confused. [21:48] And I looked out the window and I saw a police car pull up. [21:52] And I said something. [21:54] I said, what's going on? [21:56] And I saw my dad and a police officer get out of the car. [22:00] And I said, oh, God, what the hell's happening? [22:04] My dad is like talking. [22:06] He was just talking, but everything was in slow motion. [22:08] Mm-hmm. [22:09] He's like, Lauren, your mom has been in an accident. [22:13] I think seeing like a bus accident or she got in a car. [22:16] Like, you know, I wasn't thinking the word that. [22:21] And then he said, she's no longer with us anymore. [22:24] I was like, what? [22:28] And so I ran into my bedroom and he screamed, like scream, screamed. [22:34] Like what you hear on like the horror movies, [22:36] like deep down in your stomach, scream. [22:39] And I just waited for a few minutes long. [22:44] And I said, I don't understand. [22:46] Sandy told Lauren that Leslie had died in an accident, [22:53] but investigators didn't actually know what happened. [22:56] The scene at the prayer home was full of details that didn't make sense. [23:01] No signs of forced entry. [23:03] Leslie dead in an upstairs shower, her blood downstairs. [23:10] Some of it hastily cleaned up. [23:13] Lauren said she and her dad were in shock. [23:16] And when they went home, they weren't allowed in. [23:20] But I saw her, the gurney with her body going out. [23:25] I never saw her dead body. [23:28] Thank God I'd be in an institution right now. [23:32] Until investigators could find answers. [23:34] They told Sandy he'd have to find somewhere else to stay. [23:38] He moved into a nearby hotel. [23:40] While Leslie's body was moved to the county coroner's office. [23:45] Three days later, on May 5th, Lauren got news about her mother's autopsy. [23:51] The detective came to my place and said this was not an accident. [23:56] It's homicide. [23:57] Authorities would determine that Leslie Prayer was killed in the foyer of her home. [24:06] She had been beaten and strangled with multiple blunt force trauma injuries. [24:11] A large V-shaped wound on her head matched the outline of the baseboards near the front door. [24:17] After her death, investigators believed that her body had been dragged upstairs and put into a scalding shower. [24:26] The water had been so hot, it caused thermal burns. [24:31] Detectives believed that this was an attempt to clean up the scene. [24:37] Shock and fear spread throughout the neighborhood. [24:40] Leslie had been murdered in her own home. [24:44] And the killer could still be out there. [24:46] But something else spread too, intense curiosity. [24:53] Soon, the police would be inundated with tips from Leslie Prayer's neighbors, [24:57] co-workers and friends, all trying to help solve this murder. [25:02] A murder that seemed from the outset, not to make any sense at all. [25:07] Detectives didn't believe that this crime committed in one of the safest counties in the country was random. [25:17] By the time they told Lauren Prayer on May 5th that her mother was the victim of a homicide, [25:25] they already had a number one suspect in mind. [25:28] And the scary part was, is that they tried to put it on my father. [25:34] I said, no. [25:36] I'm like, my dad loved my mom, loved, adored her. [25:40] But under questioning, Sandy showed that there were secrets in the prayer house. [25:46] Arguments between husband and wife that had been getting worse. [25:51] Just bam, bam, bam, just keep coming at you, just keep coming at you. [25:54] And it was, it was, uh, uh, it wasn't fun. [25:59] This was not an open and shut case. [26:05] The investigation was riddled with unexpected revelations and dead ends [26:11] that would prevent justice from coming for a very long time. [26:15] It makes you paranoid in a way to think that there's somebody that could commit this brutal crime [26:22] and then just be walking free. [26:24] In your eyes, it's guilty until proven innocent. [26:27] Honey, your DNA was in the crime scene. [26:30] Blood and Water is a production of ABC Audio in 2020, hosted by me, Stephanie Ramos. [26:41] Produced by Madeline Wood, Shane McKeon, and Kiara Powell. [26:46] With help from Emily Schutz and Caitlin Schiffer. [26:49] Edited by Gianna Palmer. [26:51] Our supervising producer is Susie Liu. [26:54] Music and mixing by Evan Viola. [26:56] Scoring by Kiara Powell. [26:58] Special thanks to Katie Dendaz, Janice Johnston, Sean Dooley, Chris Donovan, [27:04] Camille Peterson, Christina Corbin, Gail Deutsch, Amanda Carr, [27:09] Ellie Jostad, Engie Adam, and Michelle Margulis. [27:14] Josh Cohan is our director of podcast programming. [27:17] Eamon McNiff is our executive producer.