Suspect arrested 35 years after Kim Thomas’ killing in Cotswold home

CHARLOTTE — Police made an arrest in the death of Kim Thomas, 32, a mother who was killed in her Cotswold home on July 2, 1990.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department arrested Marion Gales, 63, someone who has been on CMPD’s radar the entire time.

He was a handyman who had been suspected of committing the crime for decades.

Thomas’ husband, Dr. Ed Friedland, found his wife’s nearly dismembered body on the floor. The medical examiner ruled the death as a homicide.

Friedland was charged a few years later with the crime, but the charge was dropped. He has maintained his innocence.

“I can tell you one thing: I’m innocent,” Friedland said in 2015. “I was innocent. I am innocent. I will always be innocent, and I should never have been charged.”

Gales spent 20 years in prison on an unrelated manslaughter charge and was released in March 2025.

New DNA testing last year found that Gales’ genetic profile matched pubic hairs recovered from Thomas’ body, and DNA on a rug also aligned with his.

When that new evidence came out, Channel 9’s Glenn Counts spoke with Gales, who stood firm, denying his involvement.

“I had nothing to do with Kim Thomas’ death,” Gales had said. “I don’t know anything about who did it, or how it happened.”

The arrest

On Tuesday, CMPD Cold Case detectives got a DNA lab report from the department’s Crime Laboratory containing new information obtained from analyzing existing evidence using innovative technology.

According to an affidavit obtained by Channel 9 on Friday, detectives said the DNA lab report showed Gales’ DNA was present on a rug next to Thomas, and on Thomas’ body.

Channel 9’s Hannah Goetz asked for more details on how they cracked the case and is waiting to hear back.

Detectives then obtained warrants for the arrest of Gales for the murder of Thomas.

On Thursday, CMPD’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Team officers located and arrested Gales.

Detectives interviewed Gales at the Law Enforcement Center.

Officers took Gales to the sheriff’s office and charged him with first-degree murder.

Criminal past

Gales has a long criminal history stretching back to the late 1970s when he was only 16.

He spent 20 years in prison for manslaughter in the death of Lacoya Martin, a pregnant homeless woman.

He served three other prison sentences for burglary, stealing, and assault.

When he was 16, Gales was convicted of shooting a woman during a break-in on the same street Thomas lived on.

‘It was a shock’

Former Channel 9 reporter Mark Becker said he remembers covering the Kim Thomas murder case vividly.

“Kim Thomas was a young mother who was involved politically, really, with the National Organization for Women,” Becker said on Thursday after police announced the arrest. “People knew her name around Charlotte, and so when she was murdered in her home overnight. It was a shock.”

He reported the story 35 years ago and in the years after.

Thomas was handcuffed behind her back, throat slashed, and she was stabbed multiple times. Her husband found her when he got home with their infant child bawling nearby.

“When police got there, they found a baby who’d been in the crib all day,” Becker said. “I believe it was 13 hours.”

Becker said the couple had issues and many pointed the finger at her husband, Friedland, for decades while others blamed Gales, the handyman who, at times, did odd jobs for the family.

Police were stumped finding a motive for Gales.

“There was no robbery and there was no sexual assault,” Becker said. “So, why would Marion Gales kill her if he wasn’t trying to sexually assault her or to rob them.”

VIDEO: Former attorney reacts to arrest in Kim Thomas cold case

Former attorney reacts to arrest in Kim Thomas cold case

Channel 9 asked CMPD if the charges against Gales clear Thomas’ husband’s name.

Dep. Chief Ryan Butler said their “cases are never complete until they’re complete. Until detectives feel all evidence is obtained, all questions have been answered. I will tell you, we will never say our investigation is complete

Channel 9’s Glenn Counts also talked to Friedland’s attorney who believes this could get the doctor’s good name back.

“(Friedland) is very, very happy to have this cloud lifted, but also very very disappointed that the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department has not come forward and said he’s innocent, which he clearly is,” said attorney David Rudolf.

Counts spoke with Thomas’ sister on Thursday over the phone.

She said she still has questions about how Gales was involved, so she has mixed emotions on the arrest.

We will see how it plays out in court with a murder that happened 35 years ago.

Channel 9 will continue following this case.

COLD CASE: DNA evidence points to possible suspect in Charlotte woman’s 1990 killing

COLD CASE: DNA evidence points to possible suspect in Charlotte woman’s 1990 killing

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