How billboards along the Texas road inspired the creation of an Oscar-winning film

His story may have inspired the director of the film, who was nominated for an Oscar, but James Fulton did not plan to watch the awards show on Sunday evening. He did not see the Three Billboards movie on the border of Ebing, Missouri. He did not know that the film was nominated for the 7 Academy Awards. And for him it does not matter much, unless it helps him finally find justice in the death of his daughter.

Photo: YouTube / Inside Edition frame

Fulton's 87-year-old for 27 years lives every day with heartache after her daughter's death. He fought for justice for so long because the thought of loss never left him. He is still waking up in the middle of the night, thinking about it. The fact that the local police will never do anything to arrest the alleged suspect.

For decades, Fulton has been displaying I-10 billboards in the small town of Widor, 100 miles east of Houston. Thus, he wanted to make a call to the city police department, which, according to Fulton, released the suspect after his daughter was found dead in the 1991 year.

English writer Martin McDonagh has seen a series of billboards like this, traveling by bus during a tour in Texas and in the south of the country. He did not remember the details of where they were, but the emotional messages that he saw remained in his memory.

“The Vidor Police Department does not want to investigate this case,” reads one billboard, which is still located along the highway and has already been burned out by the sun. "The attorney general must investigate."

Photo: YouTube / Inside Edition frame

Many years later, seeing the shields, McDonagh wrote the script for his famous film “Three Billboards on the Border of Ebing, Missouri”.

Fulton said that the creators of the film, which is based on fictional events, did not come to him and did not even know about its existence.

The plot of the film is as follows: a few months after the murder of Mildred Hayes’s daughter, the criminals were never found. A desperate woman dares to take a bold step, renting a billboard at the entrance to the city of 3 with a message to the authoritative police chief, William Willoughby. When the deputy sheriff is also drawn into the situation, the infantile mama’s son with a tendency to violence, officer Dickson, the struggle between Mildred and the city authorities is only getting worse.

Photo: YouTube / Inside Edition frame

Fulton's story is slightly different.

Fulton lived in a clean, neat house with a lake behind him in a small Rose city between Beaumont and Vidor. He moved his family here a year after Katie was born.

In the town of Fulton, he succeeded in business, buying real estate along the highway. But over time, everything changed.

At 4 in the morning, Fulton received a call from the police. He does not remember this day, does not remember the age of Katie. All he remembers is that her body was found in a car in a ditch, where the family later installed a metal cross with her name.

Katie worked as a waitress and was married for about ten years, her father said. She had 5 brothers and sisters. She raised two children, one of whom committed suicide after her murder. Her niece remembered her as an amusing aunt. Her father said she was the man who enjoyed life.

Photo: YouTube / Inside Edition frame

As Fulton recalls, the police chief suspected of murdering her husband, but within a week his parents talked to the police chief, after which the suspect was released.

Fulton, with emotion in his throat, says he knows why Katie's husband was released, but he can't prove it. “I believe the police chief took a bribe and made sure the murder went unsolved,” Katie’s father said.

That's why he tried to pay attention to the killing of his daughter with billboards.

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