A Texas Woman Faked a Pregnancy — Then, She Killed a Woman and Stole Her Unborn Daughter. Inside the True Story Behind Maternal Instinct

Taylor Rene Parker put on the ultimate façade.

From the outside, it looked like the Texas native was in love with her boyfriend, Wade Griffin, pregnant with their first child together and moving to a sprawling ranch with a multimillion-dollar inheritance she was allegedly set to receive.

However, throughout her supposed pregnancy, several of Griffin's close family members became suspicious of her. Some of them noticed inconsistencies in Parker's story — including that her ultrasounds had incorrect dates and the size of her belly didn't seem to align with her timeline. Soon enough, Parker's supposed due date came and went in the fall of 2020. As it turned out, Parker had never been expecting.

She became desperate to maintain her lies, so she attacked and murdered her friend Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock — who was 35 weeks pregnant with her second child — on Oct. 9, 2020, in her home in New Boston, Texas. Afterwards, she cut out the unborn fetus in an attempt to pass the baby off as her own.

Her murder spree finally came to an end when she was pulled over by a state trooper in Oklahoma for speeding, where authorities soon found her with the baby. Parker and the baby were both rushed to the hospital, but staff grew suspicious of her when she refused to be checked out by doctors. The baby was declared dead at the hospital.

Parker was soon arrested and charged with capital murder, murder and kidnapping, per CBS News. She was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death in November 2022. The tragic ordeal was retold by Parker's former friends and Simmons-Hancock's family members in the Netflix documentary, Maternal Instinct, which hit the streamer on June 12.

Here's everything to know about Taylor Parker's murder of Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock.

Taylor Rene Parker is a mother of two who lied about her background

Taylor Parker was from a small town in Texas and became pregnant with her first child when she was 17 years old in 2009, according to court documents.

She welcomed her first child, Emersyn, with then-boyfriend Donald Whiteside. They eventually broke up, and she moved on with another man, Tommy Wacasey, whom she would later marry. She and Wacasey welcomed her second child and their first child together, son Trey, when she was 21 years old.

After giving birth to her second child, Parker made the decision to undergo a "permanent sterilization — physically blocking the tubes so that you can't have children anymore," Dr. Christopher Mason said in Maternal Instinct.

However, about 18 months later, Parker experienced bleeding. Doctors soon discovered a cyst on her right ovary and an ectopic pregnancy on her left fallopian tube. Therefore, "the decision was made to do a hysterectomy and removal of both tubes and the right ovary," per Mason.

According to court documents, Wacasey gave his approval for Parker's hysterectomy — and when she woke up, she "flew off the handle and asked why [Wacasey] didn't wake her up so she could make that decision."

Parker and Wacasey got divorced in 2017, and she got married for a second time to Hunter Parker in 2018. They got divorced the following year, and she subsequently started dating hog trapper Wade Griffin in 2019.

When she started dating Griffin, she started lying about various aspects of her past, according to the Maternal Instinct documentary. Parker alleged that she was waiting to receive a multimillion-dollar payout, as she was an heiress to a syrup company. As part of her lies, she told Griffin that she wanted to buy a $4.7 million plot of land and property. She also claimed that she was sick with various diagnoses, including cancer and a stroke.

However, Parker was not an heiress and had only ever worked at a staffing agency. Prosecutors later argued that Parker's relationship with Griffin was falling apart, so she concocted the lie to "keep" Griffin, per court documents.

Reagan Simmons-Hancock was a pregnant mother who met Parker at her wedding

After Parker was fired from her staffing job, she picked up photography. Parker was hired by Simmons-Hancock to photograph her wedding to her husband, Homer Hancock, and they hit it off.

Simmons-Hancock's mother, Jessica, recalled in Maternal Instinct that her daughter felt sympathetic to Parker, who claimed that she was going through personal "difficulties."

"They had gotten close, closer, more acquainted throughout the process, and so Reagan invited her to hang out with everybody after the reception," she said.

Simmons-Hancock welcomed her first child, daughter Kynlee, when she was 17 years old. She became pregnant with her second child with Homer in 2020.

"It was like she was always meant to be a mother, that was her thing," her stepfather, Marcus, said in Maternal Instinct. "She was the best mother that I think I've ever met."

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Parker lied about being pregnant

Shortly after Parker began dating Griffin, she moved in with him and allegedly became "obsessed with him," per court documents. However, several witnesses at Parker's trial testified that they "could tell he didn't feel that way about her" and that she feared he was going to leave her.

In January 2020, Parker told Griffin that she was expecting their first child together. Since Parker underwent a hysterectomy several years prior, she was unable to conceive and was never actually pregnant.

For the following nine months, Parker went to extreme lengths to convince Griffin and her family members that she was pregnant. She wore a pillow and silicone moon belly under her clothes, bought a customized ultrasound, held a pregnancy photoshoot, posted updates on social media and even held a gender reveal party that claimed she was having a girl.

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Although Parker went to great lengths to conduct the pregnancy hoax, some of Griffin's family members noticed some red flags in her story. For instance, one of the documents had the incorrect date of 2016, but Parker chalked it up to a misprint, per the documentary.

Parker claimed that she was due in September 2020, but she continued the pregnancy hoax for another month — further drawing suspicion, as she would have been 10 months pregnant.

On Oct. 5, 2020, Parker told Griffin that a bomb threat at their Texas hospital stopped them from inducing labor. Four days later on Oct. 9, she claimed to Griffin that she would be traveling to a hospital in Oklahoma to give birth and he should meet her later in the day, according to court documents.

Parker killed Simmons-Hancock and stole her unborn daughter

Instead of going to the hospital, Parker drove to Simmons-Hancock's home in New Boston, where she was home with her then-3-year-old daughter.

Around 7:30 a.m., Parker brutally "slaughtered" Simmons-Hancock and stabbed her several times throughout her home as she tried to escape, per court documents. A medical examiner later determined that Simmons-Hancock had a total of 113 wounds and 39 blunt force injuries that may have been caused by a hammer.

After murdering Simmons-Hancock, Parker performed a crude C-section and cut a "large incised wound going across [her] lower abdomen with her uterus coming through it," according to the documents.

Parker then conducted a "fetal abduction" by stealing the unborn baby, placenta and umbilical cord.

Simmons-Hancock's mother found her daughter's deceased body in her home and alerted authorities. She was 21 years old.

Meanwhile, her toddler daughter, Kynlee, was hiding under a blanket in her bed and was physically unharmed.

Parker received a death sentence for murder and capital murder

Less than two hours after killing Simmons-Hancock, Parker was pulled over by a state trooper for speeding and erratic driving in De Kalb, Texas. She held the unborn baby in her lap and alleged to the trooper that she had given birth about "35 minutes" prior and was on her way to the hospital.

Parker was transported to a nearby hospital, where Simmons-Hancock's daughter, Braxlynn, was pronounced dead.

At the hospital, staff members became suspicious of Parker when she refused medical treatment. A doctor later determined that she had not given birth to the child, as shown in Maternal Instinct.

Parker was soon arrested and charged with capital murder, murder and kidnapping.

She went to trial in September 2022, and she was found guilty of murder and capital murder the following month. Prior to her sentencing, the prosecution argued that Parker should receive the death penalty, because she is "a future danger" to society, per the Texarkana Gazette.

Meanwhile, Jessica gave a victim impact statement where she called Parker an "evil piece of flesh demon."

“[My daughter] was one of the very few people on this Earth who cared about you. Now, who cares about you?” she said. “My baby was alive still fighting for her babies when you tore her open and ripped her baby from her stomach.”

Parker was sentenced to death in November 2022. She is currently on death row at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas, per inmate records.

She appealed her conviction in 2022, but it was upheld in 2025, per KETK. In May 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would not review her case, per the Texarkana Gazette.

Parker's date of execution has not been scheduled.