Murder Under the Friday Night Lights: What happened to Hurley Fontenot?

Murder Under the Friday Night Lights shows how in April 1985, Billy Mac Fleming disappeared under strange circumstances, leaving behind more questions than answers. When investigators searched his home, they found no sign that he had ever returned before vanishing.

The last person to see him alive was Hurley Fontenot, a school principal. Hurley claimed he dropped Billy off at his car but had no idea what happened to him afterward.

Hurley told investigators that on the day Billy disappeared, he borrowed a camper shell for his pickup truck to help his daughter move furniture. Later, he went to pick her up at Hobby Airport, but when she didn’t arrive, he drove to Intercontinental Airport instead.

Hurley also said he made a phone call from the airport, but investigators couldn’t find any phone records to confirm this. To add to the confusion, his daughter never arrived as expected. Assuming he had mixed up the schedule, Hurley decided to spend the night at his sister’s empty house in Raywood, Texas. However, police had a hard time verifying his story.

---

The investigation featured in Murder Under the Friday Night Lights

As seen in Murder Under the Friday Night Lights, when detectives looked into Billy’s life, they learned he was in the middle of a tough divorce. Just before he disappeared, he was told that his legal proceedings would be delayed, which upset him because he wanted the divorce to be over.

One important detail caught the police’s attention, if Billy died, his wife, Linda, would receive a $50,000 life insurance payout. This raised suspicions that his disappearance might have been motivated by money.

Another theory was that Billy’s murder could be linked to drugs. The way he was killed resembled execution-style murders seen in drug-related crimes. His boots had been removed, a common practice in such killings.

Police also found a small amount of cocaine in his bathroom cabinet. Though it wasn’t a large quantity, they wondered if it had been planted to frame him or create a false connection to drugs.

Rumors in town suggested that Billy might have been having an affair with Laura Nugent, a clerk at the junior high school where he worked. This raised the possibility that jealousy or personal conflicts played a role in his disappearance.

---

Murder Under the Friday Night Lights: The trial and controversy

In 1986, Hurley Fontenot was charged with Billy’s murder. Prosecutors claimed the crime was the result of a love triangle gone wrong. However, the defense argued that Hurley was being unfairly accused because of his race. They also pointed out that there was no physical evidence connecting him to the crime.

Murder Under the Friday Night Lights explores how during the trial, a hotel worker testified that someone had used the hotel’s registration pages to send Billy a note about his alleged affair. Another witness claimed they had seen Hurley near the hotel. However, there wasn’t enough solid proof to convict him. In the end, Hurley was found not guilty of Billy’s murder.

After his acquittal, Hurley continued with his life, but the rumors never truly faded. He passed away on May 17, 1989, in Lufkin, Texas, at the age of 52 due to a heart attack. Though the case is officially closed, many people in the town still wonder what happened to Billy Mac Fleming.

Keep reading Soap Central for more such pieces on Murder Under the Friday Night Lights.