Probe widens into 1990 killing of Charlotte activist Kim Thomas

Published Feb. 18, 2010 at 1:23 p.m.
Saying new evidence has surfaced, police are intensifying their investigation into the 1990 killing of women's rights activist Kim Thomas - one of Charlotte's most enduring crime mysteries.

Police announced their new efforts Wednesday, nearly 20 years after Thomas - a new mother and the wife of a doctor - was found handcuffed and dead on her dining room floor.

Two cold case detectives have been assigned to the case and are "conducting additional interviews of witnesses and/or suspects," according to a statement by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

Police won't say what new evidence has surfaced, but the move by investigators comes nearly two years after the department said it was using the latest "touch DNA" technology on evidence collected in the case.

In "touch DNA" testing, forensic scientists scrape clothing and other evidence for skin cells left by someone who may have briefly touched the items. The genetic material extracted can help identify a suspect. Police departments around the country have used the technology since 2007. In addition, CMPD periodically runs DNA evidence through a national database that is regularly updated in a search for matches.

Thomas, a leader in Charlotte's National Organization for Women and an advocate for battered women, was stabbed to death in her southeast Charlotte home on July 27, 1990. The killer handcuffed her, chased her through the house and slashed her more than 20 times, leaving her bleeding on the dining room floor.

Through it all, her 10-month-old son, Elliot, lay in his crib, unharmed.

Police charged Thomas' husband, Dr. Ed Friedland, with murder four years after the crime. But the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence.

Court papers that were unsealed in 2003 spoke of Friedland's two-year affair and a troubled marriage he didn't think he could escape without a hefty divorce bill.

And police documents indicated the physician talked of murdering his wife. They also contain an allegation that he made a joke about his wife after her death.

In 1997, Friedland won a wrongful-death lawsuit accusing Marion Gales of the killing. Gales was a laborer who had done yard work for the couple and had been previously convicted for burglary and in the 1979 nonfatal shooting of a Charlotte woman.

Gales was never criminally charged in Thomas' killing, but has since pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the killing of a female acquaintance. He is now in prison in Tabor City with a projected release date in 2016.

Friedland also unsuccessfully sued the city for malicious prosecution.

The city spent $4 million defending the police department and its investigators; its insurer picked up $2 million of that tab.

Friedland, a kidney specialist, moved away to practice medicine in Florida.

Kim Thomas's sister, Lynn, said Wednesday she was delighted by the news that the case was progressing.

She said she has called police in Charlotte since last July and was stunned to get a call from a detective last week.

"He said they came upon a new piece of information and they were working on that," she said. "I'm assuming it's not insignificant for them to call me."

"It's time to put it all to rest," she said, "and whoever did kill her to have that person prosecuted and put in jail."

Staff researcher Maria David contributed.

Cleve R. Wootson Jr.: 704-358-5046

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