Newly released DNA evidence points to key suspect in Kim Thomas’ long-unsolved murder

Newly released DNA results provide potentially incriminating evidence in the decades-old mystery surrounding one of Charlotte’s most infamous unsolved murders: DNA consistent with a 61-year-old career criminal named Marion Gales was found at the 1990 crime scene where Kim Thomas was killed.

Defense attorney David Rudolf contends the new information — released late Sunday — exonerates Dr. Ed Friedland, his client. Friedland, Thomas’ husband, was charged with his wife’s death four years after she was found handcuffed and slashed to death inside her Charlotte home.

The charge against Friedland was later dropped and never refiled. Nonetheless, Rudolf says, Friedland has been “living under this cloud for 34 years.”

Gales, who had done odd jobs for Thomas in the weeks before her death, has long been linked to her murder but never charged. He was later imprisoned for killing another woman. The new DNA results, Rudolf maintains, confirm that Gales was the one who murdered Thomas, too.

“The murder is solved,” Rudolf told The Charlotte Observer on Monday. “We now know who killed Kim Thomas.”

DNA test results

The test results, released by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department late on New Year’s Eve by court order, found that DNA from a comb authorities used to collect pubic hair on Thomas’ body was “consistent with Gales’ DNA,” according to an October 2021 test report. A January 2022 test also found DNA on a rug near the crime scene that was consistent with Gales’.

And test results conducted in 2009 found DNA on a stain on a mattress cover at the crime scene was consistent with both Gales’ and Friedland’s. On a rug stain near the spot where Thomas’ body was discovered, the test also found DNA that was consistent with Gales’.

The test results were made public in response to a court order by a Mecklenburg County judge who said that police had to release all completed DNA testing in the case on Dec. 31.

In an email to The Observer Tuesday, CMPD spokesman Mike Allinger said the department is “not providing any comments on the case at this time.” In 2022, however, CMPD told The Observer that their cold case unit “continues to utilize new technology to test evidence collected from the scene.”

In a press release issued Monday, Rudolf said the public deserves to know “why Marion Gales was permitted by the CMPD to avoid responsibility for the crime, which allowed him to commit additional crimes.”

Will new charges follow?

As the Observer previously reported, Rudolf said an unnamed Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police detective told him in 2022 that investigators had obtained DNA that matched Gales’ at the murder scene.

After learning of the new test results, Rudolf asked CMPD attorney Jessica Battle to release the findings to Friedland and Thomas’ family, according to emails shared with the Observer. Battle refused, saying that a cold case investigation into Thomas’ death remained active and ongoing, emails show.

At a court hearing in February, Battle claimed that a release of DNA results could compromise investigative leads and undermine a future prosecution if a new arrest is made. Despite CMPD’s objections, Superior Court Judge George Bell ordered the release of the test results.

Rudolf sharply criticized CMPD for refusing to release the results earlier.

“The failure to publicly exonerate Dr. Friedland despite having the evidence to do so since at least 2010 is inexcusable,” Rudolf said in his news release. “... Dr. Friedland has suffered enormously because of CMPD misconduct and their continued cover up.”

The saga began on July 27, 1990 when Thomas, a 32-year-old activist, was found dead inside her Cotswold home. Her throat had been repeatedly slashed, and her 10-month-old son was in his crib nearby. Her death — and CMPD’s failure to find her killer — has reverberated through the city for decades.

Rudolf contends police ignored or concealed evidence that pointed to Gales: That he had a history of attacks on women; that he lived a five-minute walk away from Thomas’ home and had done odd jobs for her before her death; that he had burglarized homes in the area to steal jewelry that he sold to buy cocaine; that he owned a pair of handcuffs identical to the ones found on Thomas’ body; and that he was seen on the street where Thomas lived on the morning of her death.

In 1997, a Mecklenburg County jury awarded Friedland $8.6 million in his wrongful-death lawsuit against Gales. Friedland now lives in Florida, where he moved to in 1998.

Gales, meanwhile, is scheduled to be released from prison in March of 2025.

“What’s next, I hope, is an indictment of Gales,” Rudolf said. “That’s up to the police and the DA’s office. I have expectations and hopes they will take this seriously.”