Cold-case killer finally nabbed by water bottle tossed in airport trash, police say

Leslie Preer was found dead in the bathtub of her home near Washington DC in 2001

Eugene Gligor, 44, who was arrested on June 18 in connection with a 2001 cold-case murder. Police have revealed new details on how he was tracked down (Montgomery County Police Department)

A humble, plastic water bottle thrown in the trash at Washington Dulles Airport has provided the key to a 23-year-old cold case.

Eugene T Gligor, 44, was charged with the murder of Leslie J Preer back in May 2001 by police in Montgomery County, Maryland on June 18.

Preer, 50, was found dead in the bathtub of her home near Washington DC. Signs of a struggle were throughout the house and another person's DNA was found under her fingernails but police were never able to match the sample.

Then, in 2022, investigators found a partial match in commercial genetic databases assembled by ancestry research companies from the millions of samples sent in by customers.

According to The Washington Post, the DNA in the database belonged to a relative of Gligor, who had dated Preer's daughter when they were both students at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda, Maryland.

Leslie J Preer (pictured) was murdered in 2001 at her home in Bethesda, Maryland. Police have identified her killer after 23 years (Montgomery County Police Department)

As it happened, police had received an anonymous tip-off nine months after the 2001 murder claiming that Gligor, who was 21 at the time, "may be somehow related" to the case.

An investigation subsequently tracked Gligor to Dulles Airport. Investigators watched through airport surveillance cameras as the suspect drank from his plastic bottle and threw it away in a trash can.

Officers then retrieved the bottle and obtained a DNA sample, which matched the genetic material found under Preer's fingernails more than two decades beforehand.

“It’s been a hell of a day!” Preer’s daughter, Lauren Preer said, after finding out that Gligor was arrested. “He was my ex-boyfriend.”

Montgomery County assistant police chief Nicholas Augustine said the work of tracing Gligor had been very tedious but that his department would work for however many years or decades it took to “find the answers and hold people accountable”.

Gligor was due to have his first appearance in court on Monday.