Kim Thomas’ sister doubts potential new evidence in 1990 Charlotte murder case
The sister of 1990 Charlotte murder victim Kim Thomas says she doubts the existence of new DNA evidence tying the unsolved killing to handyman Marion Gales, a claim made by the attorney for Thomas’ former husband.
Thomas, 32, was found handcuffed and savagely slashed in her home in the Cotswold community in south Charlotte.
Charlotte lawyer David Rudolf says in a new court filing that he was told last month by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police homicide detective that investigators have matched DNA found in Thomas’ home to Gales, a career criminal with a history of violence toward women, who did odd jobs for Thomas before she was killed.
Rudolf has asked a Mecklenburg County judge to order police to release any new information, saying Thomas’ former husband, Dr. Ed Friedland, Thomas’ family and the general public deserve to know if the 32-year-old murder mystery has been solved.
Members of Thomas’ family have long believed Friedland was responsible for her death.
Friedland, now remarried and living in Florida, was charged with capital murder in connection with his wife’s murder. The charges were dropped in 1995.
In 2010, CMPD announced it had discovered new evidence in the case, and that the “person of interest” being investigated at that time was not Friedland and that the ongoing investigation “does not involve Dr. Friedland as a suspect.”
Gales, long a suspect, is scheduled to be released from prison in 2025 after serving 16 years for a series of convictions, including one for voluntary manslaughter tied to the killing of a Charlotte homeless woman in 2008. He has long denied any role in Thomas’ death.
In an emailed statement to The Charlotte Observer, Kim Thomas’ sister, Lynn Thomas, cast doubt on Rudolf’s claims that possible break-through evidence has been found in the case.
Among her claims:
▪ That Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have told her they have no knowledge of any new DNA findings besides those reported publicly in 2010, and that the detective who talked to Rudolf has never worked on the Thomas case.
▪ That given the age of the case — and the number of trials in which it has been used — there’s a high risk that any remaining DNA evidence having been contaminated by multiple handlings. The same goes for the handcuffs found on her sister, Lynn Thomas says.
▪ That police investigated Gales as “their prime suspect” and, in fact, told the Thomas family early on that “they had the man who killed Kim.” However, police never found any evidence that Gales was ever in the Thomas shouse — “no hairs, semen, or fingerprints,” Lynn Thomas says. And while witnesses put Gales near the home, no one ever saw him inside it.
This story was originally published December 11, 2022 at 5:53 PM.
