An empty water bottle helped close a 23-year-old Maryland cold case

WASHINGTON — After 23 years, police say the cold case of a woman found murdered in her Chevy Chase home was solved thanks to an empty water bottle thrown in an airport trash can.

Last week, the Montgomery County Police Department announced the arrest of 44-year-old Eugene Teodor Gligor, of D.C., one first-degree murder charges in connection with the death of Leslie Preer. Gligor was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals and transported to Maryland for his first court appearance in Montgomery County on Monday.

Prosecutors also filed this week an affidavit describing how, after more than two decades, police finally narrowed their search to Gligor.

Preer was found dead in the bathroom of her home after she didn’t show up for work. Blood was found throughout the house, as well as evidence of apparent attempts to clean some areas. Crime scene investigators also found unidentified male DNA under Preer’s fingernails and in blood droplets in the dining, kitchen and back door. Despite an analysis of DNA from any men in Preer’s life that might have reason to harm her, no match was ever made.

The case eventually went cold, until September 2022, when investigators obtained court authorization to submit the unidentified male DNA sample for forensic genetic genealogical analysis. The sample was submitted into Family Tree DNA’s database. The database turned up a list of shared DNA matches, which led investigators to the Gligor name.

Investigators then returned to the 2001 case file, which revealed Preer’s daughter previously had a relationship with Eugene Gligor in 1998. According to the affidavit, Gligor also fit into the family tree of the shared DNA match from Family Tree DNA.

The case file also revealed another lead: Roughly nine months after Preer’s murder, police had received a tip from a former neighbor of Gligor’s who thought he may be somehow related to the case. The tipster said Gligor’s home was “often visited by the police due to noise and nuisance complaints, underage drinking and drug use.” The Gligors had moved out of the neighborhood three or four months after Preer was killed.

Police determined Gligor, who stilled lived in D.C., had previously been arrested for weapons possession, DUI and theft, and had been listed as a suspect in thefts from residences and burglary, but had never been arrested in a case where his DNA was obtained and entered into a national database.

According to the affidavit, MCPD detectives were monitoring Gligor on Jun 9 at Dulles International Airport when they saw him drink from a water battle and then throw it into a trashcan. Detectives quickly grabbed the bottle and submitted it for DNA testing. According to the affidavit, the test concluded that Gligor’s DNA profile was “included as a contributor to the DNA profile obtained from the evidence in the murder of Leslie Preer.”

A warrant for Gligor’s arrest on a charge of first-degree murder was signed on June 15, and he was taken into custody three days later.

Gligior waived his right to an extradition hearing in D.C. and made his initial appearance in Montgomery County District Court on Monday. He was scheduled to appear again for a preliminary hearing  on July 19. Because he is charged with first-degree murder, Gligor was ordered held without bond while he awaits trial.