Chilling case of woman on death row after disturbing pregnancy secret surfaced
Topics: Netflix, Death Row, US News, Crime, Documentaries
Mia Williams
Featured Image Credit: Bi-State Detention Center
Topics: Netflix, Death Row, US News, Crime, Documentaries
Warning: This article contains discussion of themes which some readers may find distressing.
Taylor Parker, the woman who received the death penalty in 2022 after killing her pregnant friend and abducting her unborn baby, hid a chilling secret from her family when she faked a pregnancy.
New Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct details the heinous crimes committed in 2020 by the 33-year-old, who is currently one of six women on Death Row in Texas.
Parker was convicted of murdering her pregnant friend Reagan Simmons-Hancock, 21, and cutting her unborn daughter Braxlynn from her womb.
Advert
After faking a pregnancy for nine months to her family and partner Wade Griffin, the judge established that her crime was elaborately premeditated, and that she had been plotting for months to find a real baby to claim as her own.
Parker told Griffin that she was 'pretty much pregnant', and began collecting baby clothes and items, as well as hosting a gender reveal party.
But her boyfriend had no idea that the 33-year-old, who already had two children of her own, had undergone a hysterectomy in 2019 - meaning it was physically impossible for her to become pregnant.
On October 9, 2020, officers pulled Parker over for driving erratically, and found the woman covered in dried blood while holding the dead baby with the umbilical cord still attached.
Parker informed officers that she had given birth on the side of the road.
But doctors at a nearby hospital that she was transported to noted that there was no evidence of recent childbirth.
During questioning, Parker admitted she had been involved in a 'physical altercation' with Simmons-Hancock, and had removed the baby from her body.
An investigation into her death revealed that the 33-year-old had stabbed her friend more than 100 times.
At trial, the defense did not try to prove that she didn't commit the crime. Instead, her attorneys aimed to keep her off Death Row - but their attempts were not successful.
In Maternal Instinct, Parker's former boyfriend Griffin speaks out for the first time publicly about her brutal crimes.
"It was unimaginable what she did, I don't even know how to explain it," he said in the trailer.
Speaking with the Guardian, forensic psychologist Gary Brucato said: "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."
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.
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.
Parker goes to her doctor with bleeding, who concludes she has had an ectopic pregnancy. She undergoes a hysterectomy, permanently removing her ability to have children.
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.
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.
Parker tells Griffin she’s pregnant. He 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.
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.
After her ‘due date’ passes, Parker tells Griffin she will need to be induced or have a c-section.
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.
Taylor is indicted by a grand jury on charges of capital murder and kidnapping.
Parker is convicted of capital murder.
Parker is sentenced to death. Jessica says a ‘heavy burden has been lifted’.
The Supreme Court says it will not review Parker’s case. She remains on death row. A date of execution has not been set.
Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct is released.