Woman was given death penalty after being found in a car with an unborn baby
A new Netflix documentary will look at a shocking case in which a woman was sentenced to death in Texas after being found in a car with an unborn baby, concealing an incredibly dark secret.
This will mark Netflix’s latest true crime documentary, which will be sure to drag the shocking case back into the limelight.
Interest has only just died down in the case of Mackenzie Shirilla, with The Crash having left Mackenzie’s father Steve jobless after being fired from his role as a teacher for his interviews in the doc.
Now, true crime fans will likely turn their attention to the case of Taylor Parker, a woman who remains on death row in Texas as Netflix is set to release Maternal Instinct.
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In court, Parker was referred to as 'evil piece of flesh demon', and is one of only seven women on death row in Texas.
Warning: This article contains discussion of content that some readers may find distressing.
Parker was pulled over by a Texas State Trooper in 2020 after she was spotted driving erratically.
She was covered in blood and had a newborn baby in the car, umbilical cord still attached and claimed that she had just given birth on the side of the road and was rushing to hospital. This, however, was a lie.
When she got to hospital, it became clear there were no physical signs she had given birth, and a much darker secret was revealed.
Parker was covered in blood belonging not to herself, but to her pregnant friend Reagan Simmons-Hancock, whom she had murdered earlier that day.
The now 33-year-old had stabbed the 21-year-old over 100 times before cutting her baby out of her stomach with a scalpel. The baby was born dead.
Reagan’s three-year-old daughter was found in the house unharmed, hiding under the covers in her bed.
Two years later, in November 2022, Parker was sentenced to death after being found guilty of murder and kidnapping and remains on death row in Texas to this day.
The at-the-time 27-year-old had lied to her boyfriend Wade Griffin, claiming to have been pregnant and that she was the heir to an estate worth millions.
She had previously had a hysterectomy and had gone as far as to stage a gender reveal party.
The attack was brutal, taking place throughout Reagan’s house and resulting in 113 sharp force injuries.
The cause of death was concluded to be ‘homicide from traumatic extraction from the uterus with both sharp and blunt force injuries’, and she used both a knife and a hammer to inflict the horrific injuries.
Her defence lawyers never argued that she had not committed the murder, but instead argued against Texas laws, which stated that a fetus is an ‘individual’, trying to claim that the aggravating charge of kidnapping which led to the death penalty was invalid since the child was dead when she had taken it.
This was unsuccessful, and Reagan’s mother, Jessica Brooks, said after she was sentenced to death: “We are just glad justice has been served, not only for our family, our friends, the prosecution team, our community.”
Her sister, Emily Simmons, said: “I’m overwhelmed with happiness it’s over because she has been such a burden in our life for so long now that I haven’t been able to think about my sister without thinking about her.”
A timeline of Taylor Parker’s crime
2014
Mother-of-two and wedding photographer Taylor Parker decides to get her tubes tied after suffering pre-eclampsia, a dangerous condition which raises blood pressure, during her last pregnancy.
2015
Parker goes to her doctor with bleeding, who concludes she has had an ectopic pregnancy. She undergoes a hysterectomy, permanently removing her ability to conceive children.
July 2019
Parker, who is now twice divorced, meets hog trapper Wade Griffin at a local rodeo and they start a relationship. She lies to him that she is the heir to a $6 million estate.
September 2019
Jessica Brookes hires Parker as the photographer at her daughter Reagan Hancock’s wedding to longtime boyfriend Homer Hancock. Parker also previously took their engagement photos.
January 2020
Parker tells Griffin she’s pregnant, who doesn’t know about the hysterectomy. To maintain the ruse, Parker wears a fake pregnancy bump, takes maternity photos and throws a gender reveal party. She claims her due date is September.
Staffers at the hospital where Parker had her hysterectomy are ‘very confused’ about her social media updates, but are bound by privacy laws.
May 2020
Hancock tells her mum Jessica that she’s pregnant with her second child. Jessica later says that after Parker finds out Hancock is pregnant and expecting a girl, she starts to have more contact with her.
September 2020
After her ‘due date’ passes, Parker tells Griffin she will need to be induced or have a C-section.
9 October 2020
Parker watches a video on how to deliver a baby pre-term at 35 weeks, the length of Hancock’s pregnancy. She tells Griffin she is travelling to Idabel, Oklahoma to be induced. Instead, she travels to Hancock’s home, killing her and cutting her unborn child, Braxlynn Sage, from her womb. Hancock’s three-year-old daughter is later found in the house unharmed.
Parker is later pulled over by a Texas State Trooper for erratic driving. As the trooper is approaching her car, she calls 911 and asks for an ambulance, saying: “I’m starting to have my baby.”
The trooper finds Taylor covered in dried blood and holding Hancock’s dead baby, with the umbilical cord still attached.
She is taken to hospital, where it is soon determined she has not given birth. She is arrested the same day.
December 2020
Taylor is indicted by a grand jury on charges of capital murder and kidnapping.
October 2022
Parker is convicted of capital murder.
November 2022
Parker is sentenced to death. Jessica says a ‘heavy burden has been lifted’.
May 2026
The Supreme Court says it will not review Parker’s case. She remains on death row. A date of execution has not been set.
12 June 2026
Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct is released.
Topics: True Crime, Netflix, Documentaries, Crime
Michael Slavin