It was just a regular plastic bottle. The kind you buy for four dollars at an airport newsstand because you're thirsty and the dry air at Dulles International is starting to get to you.
Eugene Gligor probably didn't think twice when he tossed it into a trash can near the gate. Why would he? People throw away thousands of them every single day. But for the plainclothes detectives who had been tailing him through the terminal, that Eugene Gligor water bottle wasn't trash.
It was the finish line of a 23-year-old hunt.
The 2001 Chevy Chase Mystery
To understand why a discarded drink matters so much, you have to go back to May 2, 2001. Chevy Chase, Maryland, is the kind of place where people move specifically because nothing "bad" happens there.
Leslie Preer, a 50-year-old mother and local resident, didn't show up for her job at an advertising production company that morning. When her husband and employer went to check on her, they found a scene that looked like it belonged in a horror movie. Blood was everywhere—on the walls, the foyer floor, even the baseboards. Leslie was found in an upstairs shower stall.
She had been beaten and strangled.
It was a brutal, personal attack. She had fought back, though. Investigators at the time found foreign DNA under her fingernails. They had the killer's genetic signature, but in 2001, if you weren't already in a police database, you were essentially a ghost.
Why the Eugene Gligor Water Bottle Became Famous
For two decades, the case sat on a shelf. Leslie’s daughter, Lauren Preer, had to live with the haunting reality that her mother's killer was likely walking free.
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Things changed in 2022. Cold case detectives in Montgomery County decided to try forensic genetic genealogy. This is basically the high-tech version of a family tree search. Instead of looking for a direct match in a criminal database, they look for relatives.
The trail led them to Romania.
After building out a massive family tree, the surname "Gligor" popped up. Detectives recognized it immediately. Eugene Gligor had actually dated Lauren Preer back in high school, just a few years before the murder.
He was a ghost no longer. But they still needed his specific DNA to prove he was the one in the house that night.
The Airport Sting
Police couldn't just walk up and ask for a swab. They needed to be "sneaky" about it to ensure he didn't flee. They tracked Gligor to Dulles Airport in June 2024 as he returned from a trip.
Imagine the tension. Detectives are literally watching a man drink water, waiting for the moment his hand lets go of the plastic. The second that Eugene Gligor water bottle hit the bottom of the bin, it was over.
They retrieved the bottle, sent it to the lab, and the results were a perfect match for the DNA found under Leslie Preer’s fingernails 23 years prior.
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A Shocking Revelation for the Family
The craziest part? Lauren Preer actually saw Eugene at a bar just weeks after her mother was killed. He offered his condolences. He looked her in the eye and acted like a grieving friend, all while knowing he was the one who had literally scrubbed her mother’s blood off his hands.
When the news broke in late 2024 that her ex-boyfriend was the suspect, the community was floored. He had been living a relatively normal life in D.C., working in real estate.
In May 2025, Gligor finally stopped fighting. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
By August 28, 2025, a judge handed down a 22-year prison sentence. Gligor, now 45, sat in the courtroom and heard the details of the "unrelenting attack" he had committed when he was just 21.
What This Means for Privacy and Justice
Honestly, the Eugene Gligor water bottle story is about more than just one murder. It’s a wake-up call about how "abandoned DNA" is changing the legal landscape.
- You don't have a right to your trash: Courts have generally ruled that once you throw something in a public bin, it's fair game for police.
- Family secrets aren't secret: Even if you’ve never taken a DNA test, if your second cousin once sent a vial of spit to a genealogy site, the cops can find you.
- Cold cases aren't "dead": Technology is reaching back through time.
Some people feel kinda uneasy about the privacy implications. Should the government be able to dig through your family tree because of a plastic bottle? It’s a valid debate. But for the Preer family, that bottle represented the only way to finally get an answer after 9,000 days of silence.
Actionable Insights from the Gligor Case
If you're following cold cases or interested in how modern forensics works, here are the takeaways from this specific investigation:
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Understand the power of familial DNA
If you have an unsolved crime in your family history, know that the barrier to entry for testing has dropped significantly. Law enforcement is increasingly using "investigative genetic genealogy" (IGG) to bridge gaps that CODIS (the national database) can't fill.
The concept of abandoned property
From a legal standpoint, the "water bottle technique" is a standard operating procedure now. If you are a person of interest, anything you touch in public—a straw, a cigarette butt, a soda can—is a potential piece of evidence.
Watch for the motive
One of the most frustrating parts of the Gligor sentencing was that he never truly explained why. His lawyers claimed he was under the influence and didn't remember much. It reminds us that even when we get a "who," the "why" often stays buried.
Justice in the Leslie Preer case didn't come from a dramatic confession or a high-speed chase. It came from a detective waiting by a trash can for a piece of plastic.
Next Steps for You
To stay informed on how these types of cases are evolving, you can monitor the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office website for official court transcripts and sentencing documents. If you’re interested in the science behind the capture, look into Forensic Genetic Genealogy (FGG) protocols which are currently being standardized across U.S. law enforcement agencies to prevent future privacy litigations.