NC NC - Kim Thomas, 32, Charlotte, 27 July 1990

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Charlotte Magazine's Case Analysis is a highly detailed account on the story behind Kim's homicide.

Late in the evening on July 27, 1990, Edward Friedland returned to his Wendover Hills home to find his wife, Kim Thomas, lying on her stomach, her face turned to one side, on the floor of the dark dining room. Staying fifteen to twenty feet away from the body, he told a 911 operator that, as a doctor, he knew his wife was dead and that she appeared "handcuffed and it looks like someone blew her brains out."

In fact, Thomas, a thirty-two-year-old National Organization of Women activist who had recently adopted a ten-month-old baby with Friedland, had died of blood lost from more than twenty stab wounds to her neck, some of which penetrated to her spinal cord. Her nightgown was hiked up around her waist, exposing bare buttocks, and her legs were widely splayed. The baby, Elliot, was unhurt, but distressed, in the crib in his room. Rags, the family's small terrier, was shut inside the master bedroom.

The case captivated the city for weeks after it occurred and again in 1995 when The Charlotte Observer ran a four-part series on the crime and its investigation. Although the case remains open, legal proceedings assert that the killer is almost surely one of two men: Marion Gales, one of several African-American handymen who at the time wound their way from the nearby low-income neighborhood of Grier Heights to Thomas’s primarily white, middle-class subdivision, or her husband, Friedland.

Family and friends mark 25th anniversary of Charlotte woman’s unsolved killing

“My family and friends have persistently been working with the police to resolve this,” said Lynn Thomas, who was 34 when her sister died. “I’m the most optimistic I’ve felt in years. No new information per se, but they’re looking at it from a different perspective, and I hope it will come to a resolution very soon.”

She will never give up, she said, for the sister she loved “more than anybody else on the planet.”

Husband talks about wife’s unsolved murder, 25 years later

Woman continues search 23 years after sister's killing - September 2013

Police looking at 'person of interest' in 1990 murder case - March 2010

 

[LouLou74]

July 2020

‘I miss her, enormously’: Young mother’s murder remains unsolved 30 year later

The murder of Kim Thomas in her Charlotte home has remained unsolved for 30 years.

www.wsoctv.com

 

[dotr]

Dec 9, 2022
Investigators said Kim Thomas, 32, was found inside her Cotswold home on July 2, 1990. She was handcuffed and her throat was repeatedly slashed, police said, and her 10-month-old son was in his crib nearby. A Charlotte defense attorney told WSOC TV police have uncovered evidence that could finally solve the case.

December 31, 2023
CMPD releases DNA evidence from 33-year-old cold case to public after judge’s order

''CHARLOTTE — Officials with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released the results of DNA evidence from a 33-year-old cold case murder investigation on Sunday, following an order by a judge.
UNSOLVED: Police have new DNA evidence in Charlotte mom’s 1990 murder, attorney says
The announcement comes a year after police announced new DNA evidence in the 1990 killing of Charlotte mother, Kim Thomas.

According to investigators, Thomas, 32, was found dead in her Cotswold home on July 2, 1990. She was found handcuffed, and her throat had been slashed multiple times.''

A handyman named Marion Gales and Thomas’ husband, Dr. Edward Friedland, have been suspected of committing the crime.''

 

[dotr]

Jan 2 2023

rbbm

New DNA Evidence Released In CMPD Cold Case Murder of Kim Thomas - WCCB Charlotte's CW

Has a high-profile cold case in Charlotte finally been solved? A prominent local attorney says newly-released evidence clears his client in the 1990 murder of Kim Thomas. But the victim's sister says she's not so sure.

www.wccbcharlotte.com

''CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Has a high-profile cold case in Charlotte finally been solved?

A prominent local attorney says newly-released evidence clears his client in the 1990 murder of Kim Thomas.''

''But the victim’s sister says she’s not so sure.''
Monday, Kim Thomas’s sister Lynn told WCCB Charlotte she believes the DNA results are inconclusive, saying, “I believe if police had enough evidence to indict Gales they would have done so,” and “I urge detectives on this case to investigate it more aggressively.”

 

[cyclotech]

The Charlotte Observer Article online has the full DNA report from Labcorp as well

Charlotte Observer Article

 

[dotr]

March 14, 2025

Man linked to Charlotte cold case homicide will be released from prison Friday

Marion Gales was never charged in connection with the case despite DNA evidence linking him to the crime scene.

www.wcnc.com

'CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Marion Gales, a person connected to the 1990 killing of a Charlotte woman, is set to be released from prison on Friday.
Gales, who has been serving time on an unrelated charge, hasn't been charged in connection with Thomas' death despite DNA evidence that connected him to the crime scene. '

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Authorities found Thomas, the wife of well-known Dr. Ed Friedland, in their Charlotte home in July 1990. Investigators said she'd been handcuffed and that her throat was slashed multiple times.

Man linked to Charlotte cold case homicide will be released from prison Friday

Marion Gales was never charged in connection with the case despite DNA evidence linking him to the crime scene.

www.wcnc.com