'Elimination murder' explained as Netflix doc explores Taylor Parker's killing of pregnant mom and baby

'Elimination murder' has been explained by a psychologist as Netflix resurfaces the heinous crimes committed by Taylor Parker in a new documentary.

Maternal Instinct, the documentary released by Netflix on Friday (June 12), explores the crimes of 33-year-old Taylor Parker, who murdered her pregnant friend Reagan Simmons-Hancock, 21, and abducted her unborn baby from her womb in 2020.

Parker was sentenced to death for her crimes, and is one of seven women in the US currently waiting to be executed on death row.

Her ex-boyfriend Wade Griffin has opened up about the heinous crimes for the first time in the documentary, claiming that the killer faked her pregnancy for nine months before murdering her pregnant friend, who investigators believe was stabbed more than 100 times.

At trial, the judge established that her crimes were elaborately premeditated, and that she had been plotting for months to find a real baby to claim as her own.

The 33-year-old was sentenced to death in 2020. (NBC News)

And forensic psychologist, Gary Brucato, described the specific type of murder he believed was carried out on October 9, 2020.

"There’s a phenomenon called elimination murder, where you have no hard feelings toward the person but they are in the way of something you want," he said, speaking with the Guardian.

And while fetal abduction is rare, it's not unheard of.

Up until 1973, there had never been a single case of fetal abduction by maternal evisceration recorded in the states.

But between 1987 and 2011, the number had risen to 15 in the US.

The psychologist added: "You find a person who is trying to assert predictability into a relationship where they think they think they wouldn’t be able to live without their partner.

"Their sense is that they would become a catch to this person if [they] could just have a child."

She was questioned by police in hospital. (Netflix)

He further noted that this type of murder is typically highly calculated.

The perpetrator plans the crime to minimize risk and advance their own lifestyle or cover up previous crimes.

Speaking in the trailer of the documentary, Griffin said: "It was unimaginable what she did, I don't even know how to explain it."

The killer lied to officers who pulled her over on the day the crime was committed, while she held the dead baby which she claimed to have just given birth to.

When she arrived at the hospital, staff admitted that there was no signs of recent childbirth.

Griffin later revealed that she had two children of her own, and had undergone a hysterectomy in 2019 - making it impossible for her to get pregnant in the years following.