Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Debra Roberts. You're about to hear the first episode of the latest true crime original podcast from 2020 and ABC Audio, a shocking six-part series called Blood and Water, the story of loss, loyalty, and a family nearly shattered by tragedy. In 2001, Leslie Prier, a mom living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., was found murdered in the bathroom of her own home.
Suspicion fell on her husband, Sandy, and investigators had him in their sights for years. But decades later, innovations in forensic technology give detectives a chance to reexamine the DNA of another unknown person at the scene of the crime. Finally...
After more than 20 years, these cold case detectives were able to piece together evidence that revealed the real killer and brought justice to Leslie's family. Here's what really happened to Leslie Prier. We'll be sharing weekly episodes on Wednesdays right here on the 2020 podcast feed over the next six weeks. Starting right now with Episode 1.
But if you want to get started, you can get new episodes early by following Blood & Water on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you're listening now. Now, here's Episode 1 of Blood & Water. This show is sponsored by Deadly Nightmares, a podcast from i-D. Picture yourself alone in the middle of nowhere and somebody's following you.
On Deadly Nightmares, a podcast from i-D, you can hear real stories from ordinary people who were stalked by predators. On each episode, survivors describe the moment they sensed something was wrong and how they managed to escape. Then investigators and family members speak to the details of each case, sharing exactly what happened. These terrifying stories are the stuff of nightmares.
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Chapter 2: What happened to Leslie Prier on May 2, 2001?
And they're all completely real. Listen to Deadly Nightmares wherever you get your podcasts.
May 2nd, 2001 was 25 years ago, but Linda Lyle still remembers what the weather was like that day.
It was a beautiful, beautiful May day. The sun was shining. It was just a beautiful day.
Back then, Linda was working at an advertising company on the edge of Washington, D.C. It was a small office, and Linda knew all her colleagues by name, including a woman named Leslie Prier.
Leslie was a part-time employee.
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Chapter 3: Why did investigators suspect Sandy Prier for Leslie's murder?
She had been brought in. We were desperate for someone to file.
Leslie helped with the administrative side of the business. She'd been with the company for four years. She was in her late 40s, but looked a lot younger.
Chapter 4: How did advancements in forensic technology impact the investigation?
A classic, Grace Kelly-esque beauty, with dark hair and fine features.
Oh, she was beautiful. She had a quiet manner. She was dainty to me.
But on this particular spring morning in 2001, Leslie was not at work as scheduled. She didn't show up. This was a problem from a business perspective. It was Leslie's job to mail invoices. If no invoices went out, no money was coming in.
This was 2001, where the company had a lot of still paperwork, if you will, because we weren't in quite the digital age.
Brett Reedy was the operations manager in the office. He was also Leslie's boss. Brett had recently had a talk with her about punctuality. Leslie lived nearby, just a few miles away, but she'd been turning up late a lot.
It was odd that she wasn't there, only because she was kind of on probation, if you will, with me. It wasn't a handwritten probation or anything like that. It was just like, look, you got to make it by 10.
So when 10 a.m. came and went, Brett took notice.
When she didn't show up at 10.15, I just assumed she had a doctor's appointment or something held her up in the bus or something like that.
Brett Reedy is a pretty even-keeled guy. But Leslie's absence that day, it clearly got his attention. At 10.15, he asked around the office, did anyone know where Leslie was? Everyone said no. At 10.30, Brett had his secretary call Leslie's house. No answer. He said, darn it, you know, where the hell is Leslie? Linda says Brett was annoyed, but he was also concerned.
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Chapter 5: What were the initial reactions of Leslie's coworkers to her absence?
Brett didn't want to move. He didn't want to find Leslie, he said, in some kind of compromised position. So he stayed in the foyer while Sandy walked up to the second floor, calling for his wife. Brett looked into the dining room and saw something peculiar, a pool of water on the floor. He bent down to take a closer look.
And I'm still kind of knelt down And as I'm knelt down, I noticed something move down the hall. It was the door to the basement. And that door was slowly opening. I was like, oh, no. You know, the way it slowly opened, again, I'm thinking, uh-oh, it's Leslie. She's probably hurt, and something's happened. But it was not. It was the dog.
the prayer's elderly black lab, Boomer.
A dog had pushed its nose, opened the door, and then started walking towards me. So there was a little bit of that heart palpitation there for a second.
Sandy went down the basement steps to check things out, but soon came back up. Still no sign of Leslie. Brett started pointing out the blood smears to Sandy. Blood on the floor, blood on the walls, blood on the stairs. Sandy had noticed them, but he kept insisting that there had been an accident, perhaps on the stairs, and that Leslie had been hurt.
To Brett, it felt like Sandy hadn't grasped the seriousness of the situation.
And he goes, she must have fallen. Well, that's, you know, my reaction probably was a hell of a fall.
Where Brett found the situation shocking, he says Sandy seemed calm.
Sandy did not seem to react to what I was pointing out. It was a little strange. I remember saying to him, look, Sandy, they tried to clean this up. So I think intuitively, I just somebody hurt somebody and tried to clean it up. Sandy's reaction was she must have fallen down. He kept going that route.
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Chapter 6: What did Brett Reedy discover upon entering Leslie's home?
Seems like you guys, you both had a very good relationship.
Oh, yeah. My mom and I were best friends. She was everything to me. Everything. And I just couldn't believe it.
On May 2nd, 2001, in the afternoon, Lauren tried to call Leslie.
My mom and I talked on the phone every single day. That was our routine. I mean, seriously, I would call her office and her friend Gail worked there and I called the office and Gail answered the phone. And I was like, hi Gail, it's Lauren. I was like, can I talk to my mom? And she was like, oh, she's not in yet. But I was told to tell you that if you called to call your father.
And then I knew something was weird.
Lauren called Sandy on his cell.
I said, Daddy, I was like, hi. I was like, mama's not at work. What's going on? I was confused. And I looked out the window, and I saw a police car pull up. And I said, what's going on? And I saw my dad and a police officer get out of the car. And I said, oh, god, what the hell's happening? My dad is like, he was just talking, but everything was in slow motion.
He's like, Lauren, your mom has been in an accident. I think we're seeing like a bus accident or she got in a car. Like, you know, I wasn't thinking the word that. And then he said, she's no longer with us anymore.
I was like, what? And so I ran into my bedroom and he screamed, like scream, screamed. Like what you hear on like the horror movies, like deep down in your stomach scream. And I just waited for a few minutes. I said, I don't understand.
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