Newly released jailhouse calls from convicted killer Taylor Parker have resurfaced following the release of Netflix's Maternal Instinct.

The documentary examines the killing of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock, a pregnant woman from New Boston, Texas, whose unborn child was cut from her womb in a horrifying attack in October 2020.

Taylor Parker murdered her pregnant friend. Credit: Texas Department of Corrections

Details of the horrific crime that shocked the nation

Parker began a relationship with Texas roofer and hog trapper Wade Griffin in 2019 and soon told him she was expecting a baby.

Prosecutors said she maintained the deception for months, staging medical appointments and even hosting a gender reveal party.

Griffin explained that pandemic restrictions helped the lie go unchecked, as Parker told him COVID rules prevented him from attending prenatal appointments with her.

At the centre of the tragedy was Simmons-Hancock, who was 35 weeks pregnant with her second daughter when she was murdered.

The young mother had previously hired Parker for photography work, and the two had become acquainted over time.

On October 9, 2020, Simmons-Hancock was found dead inside her home in New Boston. Investigators later determined she had suffered multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma before her unborn baby was removed from her body, Time Magazine reported.

Her three-year-old daughter was inside the home during the attack but was not physically harmed. Her newborn daughter, Braxlynn Sage, was taken from the scene.

Hours later, Parker was pulled over by a Texas state trooper for driving erratically near De Kalb.

She told officers she had just given birth and that the newborn in her vehicle was not breathing.

Emergency responders transported her and the baby to a hospital in Oklahoma. It was there that her story quickly began to crack.

Doctors found no evidence that Parker had recently given birth. DNA testing later confirmed that the infant was not hers but Simmons-Hancock's daughter.

"I didn't really have no words for nothing at that point," Griffin recalled in the documentary. "It was unimaginable, what she did."

Reagan Simmons-Hancock was pregnant when she was tragically killed. Credit: Facebook

Complaints about makeup and court appearances

After Parker's arrest, she was held at Bowie County Jail, where she regularly spoke with her mother, Shona Prior.

According to recordings obtained by The US Sun, prosecutors later used the calls to argue the convicted killer displayed narcissistic behaviour and little remorse for her brutal crimes.

In one conversation, she is heard talking about not being able to wear makeup during court proceedings.

Discussing a member of her legal team, her mom asked: "So did she say anything to you about makeup?" to which Parker responded: "Did you say anything to her about makeup? Because she doesn't think that makeup is going to be an option for you."

The 33-year-old then replied that someone on her legal team was "taking care of it".

Prior then defended her daughter, saying: "So the thing about it is if they try to discriminate you as a person, that will work in your favor in the long run because they're not giving you a fair chance.

"You know, they're wanting you to look like a homeless criminal," she continued. "They're not wanting you to look like a human because that would be beneficial to you and detrimental to them."

Parker agreed and continued complaining about the legal proceedings.

Emotional clash over her own children

In another call, Parker got emotional while discussing her two children.

Her daughter is now being raised full-time by her mom, while her son lives with Parker's ex-husband.

Parker became upset that she was struggling to contact her son. "Mom, that really upsets me," she said through tears.

Her mother responded bluntly. "I'm sure it does, but you know what? I hate to say this, but if you'd have been thinking about the children that you had on earth, you might not be in the situation you're in.

"But, I mean, that's what's done is done. And you have to go forward and deal with the consequences as best you can," she said. "You're not the only one dealing with them. We're all dealing with them."

Perhaps the most shocking exchange came when Parker appeared to downplay the murder while discussing the charges against her.

"Mom, they would charge me with sh****ng on a fly right now if they could, literally, that's what it comes down to," she said. "I mean, there's another girl that's here, and they literally just threw some bogus bulls**t on her just because they could, just because it makes them look better."

"I mean, it's like [you do] one horrible thing, they'll do anything and whatever...I mean, that's just what it comes down to. They don't give a sh**," she reportedly added.

Her comment prompted an immediate response from her mother.

"Well, Taylor, you know, I understand what you're saying, but I don't think you're thinking about that like you should be thinking about that," Prior told her. "I mean, it's not just you do one horrible thing and they try to throw the book at you."

She then suggested her daughter undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

"When you see your attorney, you need to find out when they're going to be able to do a psychiatric evaluation because something is not right here."

Parker replied by changing the subject: "Well, I found out yesterday that I'm actually due for a bond reduction because I've been here 90 days."

Taylor Parker was interrogated by police in the hospital. Credit: Bowie County District

The only apology

One of the few moments where Parker appeared to acknowledge the consequences of her actions came during a conversation about the burden being placed on her mother.

As Prior spoke about being unable to balance court proceedings while caring for her granddaughter, Parker became emotional.

"I'm sorry," she said. Her mother replied: "I know you did not think about the consequences of your actions. I know that."

Prior then ended the discussion, aware that the calls were being recorded.

Prior testified at her daughter's 2022 trial, telling jurors she was used to her daughter lying. She also said she had warned Griffin's family that Parker was not pregnant and had previously undergone a hysterectomy.

Griffin told the jury that his ex-partner frequently made excuses and that he often did not know whether to believe her or his own family.

Parker was convicted of capital murder on October 3, 2022, and later sentenced to death.

She is currently being held on death row at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas.

Featured image credit: Texas Department of Corrections

Taylor Parker is the Texas woman who murdered her pregnant friend, cut her unborn baby from her womb, and tried to pass the child off as her own.

She is currently on death row, although no execution date has been set, and thanks to a Netflix documentary called Maternal Instinct, which landed on 12 June 2026, her case is being seen by millions of people for the first time.

If you have just finished watching it and have questions, this is everything you need to know.

Where is Taylor Parker now?

Taylor Parker is currently held at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas.

This is the facility where the state of Texas houses its female death row inmates.

Parker is 33 years old and, as of June 2026, the youngest woman on Texas death row.

Her day-to-day existence on death row is a world away from county jail, where she spent the period between her arrest and trial.

Parker herself has said as much. According to court documents and reporting that has emerged since the Netflix release, Parker told people that the O'Daniel Unit was 'the Hilton compared to the county jail,' adding that during her pre-trial detention she had been housed alongside inmates who 'ate faeces and blood.'

Texas death row for women is a small population.

There are currently seven women on the unit. Inmates are held in single cells, have access to educational programmes, and are allowed limited contact visits.

It is, by any measure, a more controlled and quieter environment than general population.

For Parker, who had caused chaos throughout her time in county jail, that structure appears to suit her.

Prosecutors alleged that while in custody awaiting trial, Parker fabricated medical emergencies, attempted to tamper with witnesses, tried to frame another inmate, and altered jail clothing in order to pursue relationships with other inmates.

She was accused of making threats toward staff. The pattern of manipulation, they argued, never stopped.

Taylor Parker murdered her friend and baby. Credit Texas Department of Corrections

Does Taylor Parker have an execution date?

No. As of June 2026, Taylor Parker does not have an execution date.

Texas does not set an execution date until a prisoner's appeals are fully exhausted.

Parker's direct appeals are now spent, but she still has habeas corpus review ahead of her.

That is a separate, often lengthy strand of the appeals process, and it commonly takes several more years to play out.

Only once that concludes, and assuming she loses, would Bowie County's trial court set a date.

Here is where her appeals currently stand.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld her conviction and death sentence on 6 November 2025.

Her lawyers then filed a petition asking the United States Supreme Court to review the case, arguing she had not received a fair trial and challenging the kidnapping conviction in particular.

On 29 May 2026, the Supreme Court declined to hear it. Her death sentence stands.

Parker became the seventh woman sentenced to death in Texas, and the first woman in the state to receive a death sentence in 12 years when she was sentenced in November 2022.

What did Taylor Parker do?

Taylor Rene Parker was born on 8 December 1992.

She grew up in East Texas, had two children from two previous relationships, and had been married twice by the time she committed the crime that put her on death row.

Following complications from an ectopic pregnancy, Parker underwent a hysterectomy in 2015.

She was left unable to have more children. After her second marriage ended in 2019, she met a man named Wade Griffin at a rodeo.

Within months of starting a relationship with him, she told him she was pregnant.

She was not. She could not be.

What followed was 10 months of increasingly elaborate deception.

Parker wore silicone pregnancy bellies, staged a gender reveal, shared fake sonogram images, and told Griffin she was also about to inherit a large sum from a wealthy grandmother.

She forged official-looking documents and cheques to support those financial claims.

She made plans for an extravagant future on land she did not own, with money she did not have, and a baby she could not carry.

Court evidence showed she had searched online for terms including 'order cheap pregnancy silicone belly', 'how to find a birth mother', 'video of c-section', and 'how to deliver a baby pre-term at 35 weeks.'

The prosecution said she had been planning this for months.

Reagan Simmons-Hancock had met Parker when Parker photographed her wedding.

The two became friendly. Reagan was 21 years old and 36 weeks pregnant on the morning of 9 October 2020, when Parker arrived at her home in New Boston, Texas.

Reagan's mother came to the house later that day after her daughter stopped answering her phone.

Inside she found a scene that investigators described as one of the most violent they had encountered.

Reagan had suffered more than 100 stab wounds and blunt force injuries. Her unborn daughter, Braxlynn Sage Hancock, had been cut from her womb.

Reagan's three-year-old daughter was found alive and unharmed in a bedroom.

Taylor Parker was interrogated by police in the hospital. Credit: Bowie County District

How was Taylor Parker caught?

Less than half an hour after the attack, Parker called 911 from a highway and told operators she had just given birth on the roadside and her baby was not breathing.

A Texas state trooper pulled her over near De Kalb and found her performing CPR on the newborn.

She told the officer she had been on her way to meet Griffin at a hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma.

At McCurtain Memorial Hospital, doctors examined Parker and found no evidence she had recently given birth.

She had previously had a hysterectomy. An Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent began interviewing her that same day.

Braxlynn Sage Hancock was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Parker was arrested that afternoon and extradited back to Texas, charged with capital murder, murder and kidnapping.

What happened at the trial?

Parker went to trial in Bowie County in September 2022.

Her defence team did not argue that she had not killed Reagan.

Their focus was on whether the capital murder charge was appropriate, which depended on whether the jury accepted that Parker had also kidnapped Braxlynn.

Prosecutors argued the killing was the result of months of deliberate planning and presented the search history, the faked pregnancy timeline, and the fact that Parker's supposed due date had already passed without a baby.

They also told the jury about Parker's behaviour in custody: the fabricated medical emergencies, the alleged witness tampering, the attempts to frame another inmate.

On 3 October 2022, after roughly an hour of deliberation, the jury found Parker guilty of capital murder, murder, and kidnapping. On 9 November 2022, she was sentenced to death.

Viewers have been left feeling "nauseous" after watching Netflix's new documentary, Maternal Instinct. Credit: Netflix

What happened to Taylor Parker's children?

Parker had two children from relationships before Wade Griffin: one from her first marriage, one from an earlier relationship.

Both were minors at the time of her arrest in October 2020.

Neither child has been publicly identified, and detailed information about their circumstances after Parker's arrest has not been released.

They have not featured in any of the coverage surrounding the Netflix documentary.

Parker also had four adopted children from her second marriage, according to court records, though accounts of the exact family structure differ across reporting.

What is clear is that several children were left without their mother as a result of what she did.

Reagan Simmons-Hancock's three-year-old daughter was also left without hers.

Who is Wade Griffin?

Wade Griffin was Parker's boyfriend at the time of the murder.

He is a roofing company supervisor and hog farmer who met Parker at a Texas rodeo in 2019. Parker told him within months of their relationship starting that she was pregnant with his child.

He was not involved in the crime and has never been charged with any offence connected to it.

Griffin testified at the trial and described the fake pregnancy in detail.

Parker had taken maternity photographs with him, told him the name she had chosen for the baby, and made plans for their life together on the strength of an inheritance she claimed was coming.

None of it was true.

He has not spoken publicly about the case since the Netflix documentary's release.

Why won't Taylor Parker get a last meal?

Texas abolished the last meal tradition in 2011, so Parker will not be permitted to choose what she eats before her execution.

She will receive whatever is on the standard prison cafeteria menu that day.

The reason the tradition ended comes down to one man.

Lawrence Russell Brewer was a white supremacist convicted of the racially motivated murder of James Byrd Jr., who was dragged behind a pickup truck for three miles in East Texas in 1998.

On the day of his execution in September 2011, Brewer ordered an enormous final meal: two chicken-fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, a meat-lover's omelette, a large bowl of fried okra with ketchup, three fajitas, a pound of barbecue with half a loaf of white bread, a pint of ice cream, and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.

When the food arrived, he refused to eat a single bite of it, telling prison staff he was not hungry.

Texas State Senator John Whitmire, who chaired the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, was furious.

He contacted the Texas Department of Criminal Justice directly and called the tradition 'extremely inappropriate.'

The director agreed, and an 87-year custom came to an end overnight.

Every person executed in Texas since that day has gone to their death eating whatever the prison was already serving.

For context on how different this is to other states, some of history's most notorious killers have chosen remarkable final meals in places where the tradition survives.

Texas offers no such option. Even in states that do allow it, the public reaction to elaborate last meal requests can be fierce.

How does Taylor Parker's case compare to Lisa Montgomery?

The parallels between the Parker case and that of Lisa Montgomery are difficult to ignore.

Montgomery was executed by the federal government in January 2021 for an almost identical crime: she had strangled pregnant 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in Missouri in 2004, cut her unborn baby from her womb, and attempted to pass the child off as her own.

Montgomery was the first woman executed by the federal government in 67 years. She said nothing before she died.

The key difference between the two cases is jurisdiction.

Montgomery was a federal case, which is why she was executed despite being a woman, at a time when no state had executed a woman in years.

Parker's case is a Texas state matter, which puts her in line behind the state's own execution schedule rather than the federal one.

Are there other women facing execution in the US?

Yes. Parker sits alongside a small number of women across the country who are either on death row or actively facing execution.

The most high-profile case right now is in Tennessee, where Christa Pike is scheduled to be executed on 30 September 2026, which would make her the first woman executed by any US state in more than 200 years.

Pike was convicted of the torture and murder of a classmate in 1995, when she was just 18.

She has spoken publicly about why she believes she should not be put to death, arguing the sentence is disproportionate given her age at the time and the involvement of others in the crime.

Parker's case and Pike's make an instructive comparison.

One faked a pregnancy and planned a murder over 10 months. The other was 18 and acted in a moment of jealous rage. Both received the same sentence.

What is the Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct?

Maternal Instinct premiered on Netflix on 12 June 2026.

It was directed by Jessica Dimmock and produced by Story Syndicate.

The documentary uses police footage, court testimony, and interviews to tell the story of the fake pregnancy, the murder of Reagan Simmons-Hancock, and the investigation and trial that followed.

Parker herself does not appear in the documentary. Director Jessica Dimmock has said that Parker's legal team declined the interview request, citing her ongoing appeals.

The film's release brought immediate attention from the public and the media.

McCurtain Memorial Hospital, where Parker arrived claiming she had just given birth, issued a statement a week after the documentary went live asking Netflix viewers not to visit the facility.

"The events portrayed were real and remain a matter of public record," the statement said, "but they also represent one of the most painful chapters in the lives of the victim's family, the New Boston community, and the healthcare professionals who responded that day."

Frequently asked questions about Taylor Parker

Where is Taylor Parker now?

Taylor Parker is held at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas, on the state's female death row. She is 33 years old and the youngest woman currently on Texas death row.

Does Taylor Parker have an execution date?

No. As of June 2026, no execution date has been set. Texas does not schedule executions until all appeals are exhausted. Parker's habeas corpus review is still ongoing, a process that commonly takes years.

What did Taylor Parker do?

Parker murdered 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock on 9 October 2020 in New Boston, Texas. Reagan was 36 weeks pregnant. Parker stabbed and bludgeoned her to death, then cut her unborn daughter Braxlynn Sage Hancock from her womb and tried to pass the baby off as her own. Braxlynn died at hospital. Parker had spent ten months faking a pregnancy, including wearing silicone bump prosthetics and staging a gender reveal, despite having had a hysterectomy in 2015.

Why won't Taylor Parker get a last meal?

Texas abolished the last meal tradition in 2011 after white supremacist Lawrence Russell Brewer ordered a massive meal before his execution and then refused to eat any of it. All Texas death row inmates now receive the standard cafeteria meal on the day of their execution.

What is Maternal Instinct on Netflix?

Maternal Instinct is a true crime documentary directed by Jessica Dimmock, released on Netflix on 12 June 2026. It tells the story of Taylor Parker's fake pregnancy, the murder of Reagan Simmons-Hancock, and the trial that ended in Parker's death sentence.

What happened to Taylor Parker's children?

Parker had two biological children from previous relationships at the time of her arrest in October 2020. Neither child has been publicly identified and their current circumstances have not been disclosed. They have not featured in the coverage surrounding the Netflix documentary.

Who is Wade Griffin?

Wade Griffin was Parker's boyfriend, a roofing company supervisor and hog farmer who met her at a Texas rodeo in 2019. Parker told him she was pregnant within months of their relationship starting. He was not involved in the crime, was never charged, and testified against Parker at trial.

How many women are on death row in Texas?

Seven women are currently on death row in Texas as of June 2026. Parker, at 33, is the youngest.

Sources and further reading

1. Wikipedia — Murder of Reagan Simmons-Hancock
2. TXK Today — The Taylor Parker case, explained (updated June 2026)
3. Oxygen True Crime — Where is Taylor Parker now?
4. Biography.com — Where is Taylor Parker now? (June 2026)
5. The Guardian — Case of Texas woman on death row over grisly murder (June 2026)
6. USA Today — Where is Taylor Parker now? (June 2026)
7. Texas Court of Criminal Appeals — Parker v. State of Texas (2025)
8. Texas Department of Criminal Justice — Taylor Parker death row information

Netflix viewers have been left stunned by the disturbing case at the center of Maternal Instinct, the new documentary examining the murder of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock and the actions of Taylor Parker.

Parker, 33, is one of the youngest women on Texas death row after being convicted of capital murder in connection with the October 2020 killing.

The documentary features interviews with Reagan’s loved ones, Parker’s former boyfriend Wade Griffin, and members of his family, while revisiting a case that drew national attention.

While the film explores the fake pregnancy Parker maintained for months and the devastating impact of the crime, several significant details that emerged during her 2022 trial were not included in the final cut.

From testimony by family members to evidence presented in court, the omitted information provides additional context surrounding the case.

Taylor Parker murdered her pregnant friend. Credit: Texas Department of Corrections

The voices missing from the documentary

One notable absence was Parker herself. Although viewers saw social media clips, home videos, and bodycam footage, the documentary did not include an interview with her from death row.

Director Jessica Dimmock explained the decision in an interview with USA Today.

“What I really wanted to do was include the perspectives of the people that it affected the most,” she said.

“How did Wade feel about it at the time? How does he feel about it now, looking back? How is Reagan’s family altered forever?”

Dimmock also said: “I hope that she is remembered for not just this crime, but for being an amazing wife, sister, daughter and mother.”

Questions have also continued to surround Wade Griffin and whether he knew Parker was not pregnant. During the trial, he admitted he had doubts but said Parker always had an explanation when concerns were raised.

He testified, “I’ve got my mom telling me one thing, Taylor telling me another. But I’ve been with Taylor this whole time, so I’m going with her.”

According to testimony heard by jurors, Parker claimed medical appointments were affected by COVID-19 restrictions and told Griffin she was experiencing serious pregnancy complications.

Family members also testified that Griffin believed he was feeling her stomach through layers of clothing and did not realize she was allegedly wearing silicone.

Reagan Simmons Hancock was pregnant when she was tragically killed. Credit: Facebook

Family testimony revealed more about the deception

Parker’s mother, Shona Prior, also played a major role during the trial but was largely absent from the documentary.

According to testimony, Prior knew Parker could not be pregnant because she had been present when her daughter underwent a hysterectomy. The court heard that she became aware of Parker’s pregnancy claims after seeing a screenshot from a gender reveal party posted online.

“So I sent it to Taylor and said, ‘What am I supposed to tell my girlfriends telling me I’m going to be a grandmother again?” Prior told jurors.

She said Parker responded: “You are.”

Prior also testified: “She knew she wasn’t pregnant. We knew she wasn’t pregnant.

“There was no need to come up with a plan. We figured the lie would be exposed. He [Wade] would figure it out.”

She added: “His mother was aware of it, his brother was aware of it. It’s like everyone around them was aware of it. We did not feel the need to call them up.”

Family members further testified that Parker had a history of elaborate lies and that concerns about her claims had been raised long before the murder.

Graphic evidence and jail calls not shown

While the documentary included some crime scene material, trial testimony provided far more detail about the evidence presented by prosecutors.

Jurors heard that Reagan suffered 39 blunt-force injuries, including five skull fractures and a broken nose. Prosecutors alleged Parker attacked her with a claw hammer and a four-pound glass jar before using a medical scalpel she had brought with her.

The autopsy later found the scalpel lodged in Reagan’s neck, with two wounds having perforated her jugular vein.

The documentary also omitted recorded jail calls played during the trial. Prosecutors argued the conversations demonstrated Parker's lack of remorse. In one exchange, her mother challenged her over concerns about her mental state and questioned why she had not undergone a psychiatric evaluation.

Additional testimony focused on Parker's behavior after she was stopped by first responders. Nurse Amanda Pirkey testified that Parker appeared focused on removing blood from her body rather than asking about the newborn. According to trial coverage cited in the source material, Parker asked, “Can I get this stuff off me? I want to get this blood off me.”

Pirkey also recalled Parker saying it “grosses me out” or “disgusts me” while cleaning herself.

During the sentencing phase, jurors also heard testimony about Parker’s relationship with her children. Family members claimed her children were often not her priority, and court documents showed she voluntarily surrendered custody of her son following her 2017 divorce.

Her brother, Zachary Morton, told the court: “It seemed like when Taylor was chasing another man, instead of the focus being on her children, it was on herself. It was all about her at one specific time.”

Together, the testimony, evidence, and recordings presented at trial painted a broader picture of the case than viewers saw in Maternal Instinct, adding further details to one of the most disturbing crimes examined in the Netflix documentary.

Featured image credit: Texas Department of Corrections

A woman has been handed the death sentence after she was convicted of murdering her pregnant friend and cutting out her baby to take as her own.

Taylor Parker, 29, was found guilty last month of killing the young expectant mother, and on Wednesday jurors in Texas decided she should be given the death penalty for the crime, CNN reports.

Parker killed 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock in October 2020, striking her in the head and slashing her before "cutting her abdomen, hip to hip" to remove the infant, who ultimately died.

The jury had deliberated for just over an hour when they returned with a sentence, according to the Texarkana Gazette. The same jury found Parker guilty of capital murder on October 3.

Per the outlet, after the victim impact statements from the family were read out, Judge John Tidwell told the bailiff: "Take her to death row."

The court was told that Simmons-Hancock, who was 35 weeks pregnant at the time, was still alive after the brutal attack - which happened at her home while her three-year-old daughter was there.

Simmons-Hancock's mother Jessica Brooks branded Parker an "evil piece of flesh demon" in a statement in court.

She told her: "My baby was alive still fighting for her babies when you tore her open and ripped her baby from her stomach."

The fatal incident took place in New Boston, 160 miles northeast of Dallas. Parker had been pulled over by a state trooper that morning for speeding and dangerous driving.

The baby was in Parker's lap, with the now-convict having tried to make it appear as though its umbilical cord had come from her pants and that she had just given birth.

The baby was taken to a hospital in Oklahoma, where she was declared dead.

It became clear at the hospital that it was not true that Parker had given birth to the baby.

According to prosecutors, leading up to the murder, Parker made herself look like she was expecting a little one, faked ultrasounds and staged a gender-reveal party.

During the trial, a state police investigator told the jury that Parker had carried out a great deal of research on how to successfully convince people that she was pregnant. On the day of the murder, she watched footage of the physical exam of a baby delivered pre-term at 35 weeks.

The victim's husband, Homer Hancock, had explained that his wife was "somewhat friends" with Parker and that Parker had taken their wedding and engagement pictures.

The convicted killer's legal team argued that she had been let down by family and friends who failed to challenge her about the false pregnancy.

"There was no safety net when everyone saw the wheels were off," defence attorney Jeff Harrelson said.

The jurors in Bowie County were shown a harrowing image featuring Simmons-Hancock's bleeding body as the prosecution made its closing statements on Wednesday.

Life without possibility of parole was also on the cards for Parker but the jury decided she must join death row. Her attorney said they plan to appeal.

Featured image credit: Westend61 GmbH / Alamy

A new Netflix documentary is set to revisit a deeply disturbing case involving a Texas woman who was sentenced to death after being discovered in a car with a newborn baby while hiding a horrifying secret.

The film, titled Maternal Instinct, will be the latest addition to Netflix’s true crime catalogue and is expected to bring renewed attention to the case of Taylor Parker. Interest in true crime stories remains high, particularly following recent releases like The Crash, which focused on Mackenzie Shirilla and sparked widespread discussion.

The brutal murder of a mother and baby

Parker’s case stands out as one of the most shocking in recent years. She is currently one of only seven women on death row in Texas and was described in court as an “evil piece of flesh demon.”

Initially pulled over in 2020 for dangerous driving, Parker was covered in blood and had a newborn baby in her car, still attached to the umbilical cord.

She claimed she had just given birth by the roadside and was rushing to the hospital. However, that account was quickly unraveled.

Taylor Parker murdered her friend and baby. Credit Texas Department of Corrections

Medical staff soon determined there were no signs that Parker had recently given birth.

It was then revealed that the blood belonged to her friend, 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock. Investigators found that Parker had murdered her earlier that day in an extremely violent attack, stabbing her more than 100 times before removing the baby from her womb using a scalpel. The baby did not survive.

Reagan’s three-year-old daughter was later discovered unharmed in the home, hiding under her bed covers.

Parker sentenced to death

Parker was subsequently found guilty of murder and kidnapping and sentenced to death, where she remains today. Evidence presented during the trial showed she had fabricated an elaborate story about being pregnant, even telling her boyfriend she was expecting and staging a gender reveal party. In reality, she had previously undergone a hysterectomy.

The prosecution detailed the brutality of the attack, which involved 113 sharp force injuries and both a knife and a hammer.

The official cause of death was ruled as “homicide from traumatic extraction from the uterus with both sharp and blunt force injuries.”

Parker’s defence team did not deny that she committed the killing. Instead, they challenged Texas law, arguing that a fetus should not be considered an “individual.”

They claimed the kidnapping charge, which contributed to the death penalty, was invalid because the baby had already died before being taken. This argument was ultimately rejected.

Following the sentencing, Reagan’s family expressed a sense of relief. Her mother, Jessica Brooks, said: “We are just glad justice has been served, not only for our family, our friends, the prosecution team, our community.”

Her sister, Emily Simmons, added: “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.”

Featured Image. Credit Texas Department of Corrections