Left inset: Frederick Durham (Upson County Sheriff's Office). Right inset: Margaret Dubinion (Upson Beacon/Obituary). Background: Frederick Durham being taken into custody for the murder of Margaret Dubinion (WAGA/YouTube).
A Georgia man told cops he killed his girlfriend after she started "disrespecting him by calling him vulgar names" — beating and strangling her to death — before wrapping her up in a comforter and stuffing the woman into a suitcase. He then left for work and "went to buy lottery tickets," according to prosecutors.
Frederick Durham, of Upson County, was found guilty last week of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and concealing the death of another in connection with the brutal slaying, according to the Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office.
Durham was sentenced to serve life in prison without parole. He was accused of killing his girlfriend, Margaret Dubinion, in October 2023.
"[Dubinion] was at her home in Thomaston with the defendant, her live-in boyfriend," a press release from the DA's office says. "Per the Defendant's own confession, he claimed that Ms. Dubinion was disrespecting him by calling him vulgar names and that she would not stop fussing at him. His response was to hold her down with his left hand while he beat her about the head with his right hand."
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Dubinion suffered numerous injuries during Durham's vicious assault, including bleeding on the brain, swollen eyes, broken ribs, and broken cervical bones. He strangled her to death after the beatdown and then "folded her up into a suitcase," per the DA's office.
"After leaving the suitcase in the closet, [Durham] went to work, went to buy lottery tickets and then went to Atlanta in the victim's car," according to prosecutors. "He told the police he was not sure if she was alive or dead when he put her in the suitcase, but when pushed on the issue, would not give the family peace with a definite answer."
Dubinion's relatives had been the ones who first notified police after she disappeared on a Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. A welfare check was conducted that night at the home where she was living with Durham, and neither she nor Durham were present.
The family went over to the couple's apartment and found Dubinion stowed in the closet the following morning.
"This defendant had a malignant and abandoned heart," Senior Assistant District Attorney Audrey D. Holliday said in a statement after Durham's conviction. "He left Ms. Dubinion in a suitcase and refused to give this family an answer on whether she was alive or dead when he did so. I am grateful the family helped us bring Frederick Durham to justice by their persistence in searching for Ms. Dubinion and by testifying against the Defendant."
Holliday added, "This was an evil act from a person who had no compassion for this family."
