‘This is about Kim Thomas, who was murdered’: Husband says after suspect’s arrest
Ed Friedland has been waiting a long time for an arrest in the killing of his wife, Kim Thomas, in their south Charlotte home over three decades ago.
He said he is seeking justice for his wife and to clear his own name, and said the answer to one of Charlotte’s most high-profile and haunting murders has been sitting in police evidence.
He said he has a question: why did it take so long for police to arrest Marion Gales?
“We knew in 2022 that the police had DNA linking Gales to the murder,” Friedland said in a phone interview with The Charlotte Observer on Monday. “The police have had it for years.”
He now lives in Florida.
The arrest of Gales last week was a major development in the longstanding case in which Friedland himself was once charged.
Wrongly charged
Friedland, a doctor, became a main suspect following the killing of Thomas at their Cotswold home on July 27, 1990. Friedland called 911 after finding Thomas handcuffed and with her throat slashed near their 10-month-old baby’s crib, a police affidavit said.
Gales, who was homeless and worked for the family as a handyman, was the other suspect. But police shifted their focus to Friedland after he was accused of having an affair with a nurse.
In 1994, four years after his wife’s death, he was charged with her killing. Those charges were dropped and never refiled. He has always maintained his innocence, but police focused on him for years, even though evidence pointed to Gales, Friedland said.
During Gales’ first appearance in Mecklenburg County court on Feb. 20, an assistant district attorney said Gales told investigators he and Thomas had sex on the day she died, including in the dining room where she was found.
Civil lawsuit against Gales
In 1997, a jury awarded Friedland $8.6 million in a wrongful-death lawsuit against Gales. During that trial, police “informally” acted as Gales’ defense attorney, Friedland said. CMPD ignored or attacked any evidence against Gales that came out during that trial, he said.
North Carolina attorney David Rudolf has represented Friedland and laid out what he said was the key evidence against Gales in a 2022 interview with The Observer. Not only did Gales’ family suspect him of being the murderer, but he had a history of attacks on women and police, Rudolf has argued.
Gales lived a five-minute walk from the Friedland home, had done odd jobs for the couple in the weeks leading up to Thomas’ death, and was burglarizing homes to steal jewelry and buy cocaine, Rudolf has said. Gales owned a pair of handcuffs, identical to the ones on Thomas’ body, and was seen near the Friedland home the morning of the homicide, Rudolf said.
When the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department announced at a news conference on Feb. 19 that Gales had been arrested, a deputy chief declined to say if the arrest cleared Friedland of wrongdoing.
“They wrongly charged me. They were going to put the wrong man in prison for this crime,” Friedland said. “They are aware of the implications of that, so I think they’re being very measured in what they say.”
Long time coming
Friedland said that for him, the arrest of Gales was a long time coming. However, he questioned the timing and why it took police so long.
“This has been 30 plus years and Kim has been waiting for justice,” Friedland said. “I’ve been waiting for justice and her family’s been waiting for justice.”
In 2010, CMPD said new evidence had emerged and that police were investigating a “person of interest” who wasn’t Friedland.
Rudolf, in a court filing four years ago, requested a judge order CMPD to release the DNA evidence. A judge ordered its release in 2024. The evidence showed Friedland and Gales were both in the vicinity of where Thomas died. Gales’ DNA was found in several places, including on a comb investigators used to collect Thomas’ pubic hair. Friedland’s DNA was also found.
At the Feb. 19 news conference, CMPD said new technology enabled investigators to tie Gales’ DNA to the crime. The department did not say what the DNA evidence was.
But if police had focused on arresting and charging the correct person, another death may have been prevented, Friedland said. In 2009, Gales was convicted of manslaughter in the killing of a pregnant homeless woman. He was released in 2025.
“That would have never happened had he been prosecuted after all the evidence brought forward in the civil case,” Friedland said.
The Charlotte Observer has also reached out to the family of Gales to ask for an interview or comment.
Hoping for justice
Damage has been done by the mishandling of Thomas’ case, Friedland said — to him, their son, and Thomas’ family.
Despite this, he hopes CMPD, the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office, and the state of North Carolina will do right by his family and bring his wife justice, he said.
“There are some honest police officers in the cold case squad who thought, ‘Heck, we got to do justice here,’ and that’s why this case is being prosecuted,” Friedland said.
Asked if he planned to go to court if Gales goes on trial, Friedland said this wasn’t about him. It was about his wife.
“This is about Kim Thomas, who was murdered,” he said. “And about somebody who has evaded justice for 35 years while the wrong person was hounded.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
