The DNA speaks for itself.
More than 30 years after Kim Thomas was murdered in her home, that’s the only thing the key players still involved in her cold case agree on.
Police have been working to solve Thomas’ murder since July 27, 1990, when they were called to the southeast Charlotte home where the 32-year-old mother lay on the floor slashed and handcuffed.
Officers soon built a case. Thomas’ murderer had to be either her husband, Dr. Ed Friedland, or her newly hired handyman, Marion Gales, they thought.
One of them was charged with murder in 1994. But that charge was dropped. Neither has been convicted.
Newly released DNA testing results from evidence collected at the crime scene in 1990 show Gales — who had a history of violence against women — and Friedland — who was having an affair at the time of his wife’s death — were in the vicinity of where Thomas died, but it’s unclear when.
Gales’ DNA was found in several places, including on a comb investigators used to collect Thomas’ pubic hair. Friedland’s DNA was also found, his on a stain on a mattress.
So who does the DNA point to as the killer?
Friedland’s attorney, David Rudolf, says that DNA evidence effectively exonerates Friedland and pins the murder on Gales. Rudolph says Gales’ DNA found on the comb is enough evidence for police and the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office to get a conviction.
Thomas’ sister, Lynn, isn’t so sure. If the DNA hasn’t led police to arrest and charge Gales in her sister’s murder, she says, it’s not enough for her.
Chris Mumma, the executive director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, though, says the truth lies somewhere in between.
DNA ‘results should prompt another round of tests’
Kim Thomas’ story doesn’t have an ending — yet.
As technology continues to develop, new DNA testing consistently reveals more complete stories. In some cases, the Observer has previously reported, it points to a clear-cut killer.
But even the most noteworthy evidence in Thomas’ case doesn’t quite do that, said Mumma, whose organization is dedicated to “obtaining justice for people imprisoned for crimes they did not commit” and spreading information about factors that contribute to wrongful conviction, according to its website.
Mumma said the reality in Kim Thomas’ case lies somewhere between Rudolf’s and Lynn Thomas’ interpretations of the DNA evidence found at the crime scene. While the evidence likely isn’t enough to convict Gales, it does point to someone other than Friedland, she said.
Assuming law enforcement used a sterilized comb, she said, there’s no reason why DNA other than the husband’s would be on the victim’s pubic hair.
If anything, Mumma said, the results should prompt another round of tests on all evidence — especially evidence collected from Thomas’ body.
“Science is constantly changing so anything that was tested as little as five years ago should be reconsidered for retesting,” she said.
Mumma, who’s not involved in Kim Thomas’ case, recommended police combine DNA extracted from the hairs to get a more complete profile or retest Thomas’ fingernail scrapings.
Lynn Thomas would like to see new tests and new eyes on the case. After three decades without answers, she often doesn’t know what to think, but she knows one thing.
“It’s not over until it’s over.”
Not enough to charge him with murder
In Thomas’ case, the newest results say DNA on a stain on her dining room rug, where Kim Thomas lay dead for hours, cannot exclude Gales as a match. The same DNA sample would match 1 in 21 million men, according to CMPD’s analysis.
All that does, Lynn Thomas told The Observer, is put Gales inside the home. He could have stepped inside to pick up payment or use the bathroom days before, she said. It’s not strange, and it’s not enough to charge him with murder.
To her, it’s nothing.
The DNA found on the comb used to collect Thomas’ pubic hairs also can’t exclude Gales — nor can it exclude every 1 in 130 men.
The results are “impossible to refute,” Rudolf said.
The DNA results were shared with the public on Dec. 31, but were released to Kim Thomas’ family and Friedland in February, nearly a year ago.
Police have long declined to comment on the case and the DNA results, citing the unsolved murder’s open status. The DA’s office reviews criminal cases for the sufficiency of evidence after an arrest has been made, said spokesperson Mike Stolp.
“This case has lasted longer than my sister’s life,” Lynn Thomas told The Charlotte Observer after new DNA results were released to the public. “It’s become a part of my life. I want it resolved, but that won’t happen until there’s a trial and a conviction.”
Who killed Kim Thomas? Charlotte’s cold case murder
Ellyn Silverman-Linnetz remembers sitting at the end of her driveway with a copy of the Observer in her hand. She sobbed under the late July heat. She was six months pregnant. Her baby would never meet her friend Kim.
She’d been brutally murdered, the paper said.
The public long ago became — and has remained — captivated by Thomas. She was a doctor’s wife and a women’s rights activist, who was found slashed to death with her throat cut and her hands cuffed behind her back, in her southeast Charlotte home on July 27, 1990.
Around 10 p.m. that night, Friedland phoned 911.
“My wife is dead on the floor,” he told the dispatcher. “Come here fast.”
Who killed Kim Thomas? The case against her husband, Dr. Ed Friedland
Friedland faced charges for his wife’s death, but they were later dropped. A jury found Gales liable for Thomas’ death in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Friedland. They awarded him $8.6 million in damages, but police have never charged Gales. .
“There is no concrete evidence,” Silverman-Linnetz said. “And the evidence that does exist leaves you scratching your head.”
The handyman
A week before Thomas died, Gales cleaned her walkway and deck chairs, a friend told police.
Gales had a history of violence against women, and neighbors placed him at or near the home in the days leading up to the killing. He owned handcuffs like the ones found clasped around Thomas. He was hooked on cocaine and traded stolen goods to re-up.
Gales has long denied any involvement in Thomas’ death.
Lynn Thomas previously told the Observer that police investigated Gales as “their prime suspect” and told the Thomas family “they had the man who killed Kim.” But they never found any evidence Gales was in Thomas’ house — “no hairs, semen, or fingerprints,” Lynn Thomas says. And while witnesses put Gales near the home, no one ever saw him inside it.
CMPD has never charged him in connection with the crime, but Gales is currently in prison for killing a homeless woman in 2008. She was 16 weeks pregnant.
Gales had admitted he knew the victim and had shared drugs with her, but denies killing her, according to his attorney, Terry Sherrill.
Gales is expected to be released from Piedmont Correctional Institution in March 2025.
The husband
Charlotte attorney Jim Cooney — who defended investigators against Friedland and Rudolf’s failed attempt to sue police for malicious prosecution — previously said police were justified in investigating and charging Friedland.
A 76-page summary judgment from Cooney details why police pursued Friedland for more than five years:
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He was having an affair, had impregnated the woman (who later terminated the pregnancy) and had considered divorce.
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When Friedland learned the cost of a divorce and the amount he’d have to give to Thomas, he abandoned the idea and continued his affair. The divorce would “ruin me financially,” he told the woman with whom he was having the affair.
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Between March 1990 and Thomas’ murder four months later, Friedland asked another doctor if a paralytic muscle relaxer called Anectine could be detected (it normally can’t). Detectives said the drug would not be routinely used in Friedland’s practice.
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Friedland made comments to the woman with whom he was having the affair about how they could have their spouses killed, she told the Assistant District Attorney. “He was not smiling or laughing,” she said.
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Less than 10 days before Thomas died, Friedland’s lover told him she’d told a friend about their affair. He was upset.
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The Assistant District Attorney at the time considered Friedland may have been worried he’d have to pay years of alimony if Thomas learned of the affair and could prove adultery.
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After Thomas’ murder, police received “several Crimestoppers calls indicating Friedland was having an affair, was suspected of using drugs and that Thomas was about to leave him and ‘blow the whistle.’”
Friedland’s 911 call and peculiar behavior
When Friedland called 911 after finding Thomas, he was in the dark foyer of their home, 20 feet away from the room where his wife’s body was, Cooney told a judge. He didn’t rush to her, he didn’t check her pulse, he didn’t try to save her or see if that was a possibility. He didn’t comfort her in what could have been her last moments alive, he said.
And, yet, he described her body and the room with detail investigators don’t believe he could have seen from where he stood, Cooney wrote in a summary judgment.
Friedland told police he could tell she was dead from his spot at the bottom of the stairs. He was a doctor, his lawyers said, he could tell she’d been brutally murdered.
“I’m sure Edward Friedland has pronounced a lot of people dead in his career,” Cooney said in court. “But I doubt very seriously if he’s ever pronounced a person dead without even going into their room.”
Who killed Kim Thomas? The police case against her husband comes crashing down
Members of Thomas’ family have long believed Friedland was responsible for her death, the Observer previously reported.
Rudolf scoffs at any argument against his client.
“They thought he did it, why? Because he didn’t react how they expected?” Rudolf said. “He’s a little bit of a weird guy, a little bit awkward. That’s not reason enough to accuse someone of murder.”
Rudolf maintains investigators didn’t have any concrete evidence to pursue Friedland as a suspect. Now, DNA tests should exonerate him, he says.
“Yeah, the DNA speaks for itself,” Silverman-Linnetz said, “and it doesn’t say anything.”
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