Double Homicide: The House on Benchor Road - Part 01

A two-year-old boy was found dead in his crib in Clinton Township, Michigan, starved to death while his mother streamed on Twitch. Featuring real court audio from the sentencing, Obscura examines the 2023 case of Sierra Pearl Zaitona and Jonathon Matthew Cheek, two parents who let their child waste away in silence.

The boy had been in foster care before being returned to his biological parents, Sierra Pearl Zaitona and Jonathon Matthew Cheek, both of Clinton Township. According to court records, the child was healthy and thriving under state care. The decision to reunify the family would prove fatal. What happened after his return would become one of Macomb County's most disturbing neglect cases in recent memory.

On Thursday, March 16, 2023, Zaitona discovered her son dead in his crib and called 911. Cheek was not home at the time, instead visiting his own mother's residence. When first responders arrived at the Clinton Township home, they found the toddler beyond saving and living conditions that told a story of prolonged neglect. The Macomb County Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy and determined the cause of death was fatal starvation. A child who had once been healthy had slowly wasted away, unfed and unnoticed, while ordinary life carried on around him.

Zaitona had established a presence on Twitch as a livestreamer. While the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office did not draw a direct line between her streaming activity and the neglect, the case drew national attention on social media. The contrast between a screen glowing with followers and a crib growing silent became the defining image of this tragedy.

Both parents were arrested and charged with second-degree murder, a life felony, and second-degree child abuse, a ten-year felony. Bond was set at one million dollars cash for each defendant. The case moved through the Macomb County Circuit Court, with District Court Judge Jacob Femminineo Jr. binding both parents over for trial in March 2024.

Rather than face trial, both parents entered no contest pleas. On December 18, 2024, Jonathon Matthew Cheek, then 26, was sentenced to 24 to 50 years for second-degree murder and 86 months to 10 years for second-degree child abuse, served concurrently. On April 9, 2025, Sierra Pearl Zaitona, then 29, received the same sentence of 24 to 50 years for murder and 43 months to 10 years for child abuse. She was placed on Michigan's Central Registry for Child Abuse and Neglect.

Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido spoke at sentencing. "When parents betray the sacred trust to nurture and protect," he said, "we must ensure that the scales of justice tip in favor of accountability." Neither parent will be eligible for release before 2047.

This episode features court audio from the sentencing hearings and examines the child welfare system decisions that preceded this tragedy. Listener discretion advised.

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Leslie Preer was murdered in her Chevy Chase, Maryland home on May 2, 2001. For 23 years the case sat cold. This episode features court audio from the August 2025 sentencing and the genetic genealogy breakthrough that finally identified her killer.

Leslie Ann Jennings Preer, 48, was a wife, mother, and former University of Florida journalism student. Born in North Kingstown, Rhode Island in 1952 and raised across the country in a large military family, she settled in Chevy Chase in 1982 with her husband Sandy and their daughter Lauren. She volunteered at a local library teaching English to immigrants and newcomers. Friends and family remembered her as gentle, intelligent, and kind.

On the morning of May 2, 2001, Leslie did not show up for work. A welfare check at her home on Drummond Avenue revealed she had been beaten and strangled inside the house. There was no forced entry. Blood and skin cells from her attacker were recovered from the dining room, hallway, and near the kitchen. DNA under her fingernails told investigators exactly who did it. The problem was, he was not in any database. Suspicion fell on her husband, Sandy Preer. He was cleared, but the cloud of suspicion followed him for years. Sandy passed away in 2017 before he ever saw justice for his wife.

In 2022, Montgomery County investigators Tara Augustin and Alyson Dupouy reopened the file. They uploaded the crime scene DNA to a public genetic genealogy database. The search traced a distant relative in Romania, which narrowed the field until one name surfaced in old case notes. Lauren Preer's high school boyfriend, Eugene Gligor. For five years he had sat at the Preer family dinner table. He had shared their holidays, their game nights, their home on Drummond Avenue. In June 2024, investigators followed Gligor to Washington Dulles International Airport and retrieved a discarded water bottle. The DNA matched.

On June 18, 2024, federal marshals arrested Eugene Gligor at his apartment in Washington, D.C. In May 2025 he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. On August 28, 2025, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge David Lease sentenced him to 30 years with all but 22 years suspended, followed by five years of supervised probation. Prosecutors Donna Fenton and Jodie Mount handled the case. Gligor remains incarcerated at the Maryland Correctional Training Center. Sandy Preer was posthumously vindicated.

This episode features court audio from the 2025 sentencing hearing and archival case reporting. Listener discretion advised.

Support Obscura:

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast/

Website: https://www.mythsandmalice.com/show/obscura/

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