Warning: This article contains discussion of violence, baby loss and pregnancy loss which some readers may find distressing.
Netflix’s documentary Maternal Instinct revisits the case of Taylor Parker, the Texas woman convicted of capital murder after pretending to be pregnant and killing a young expectant mother in order to take her unborn baby.
The film looks back at the killing of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock and the elaborate deception Parker maintained for months before the attack.
Before the murder, Parker had already woven major lies into her personal life. After two divorces, she began a relationship with hog trapper Wade Griffin and falsely told him she was set to inherit a $6 million estate.
She later claimed she was pregnant in January 2020 and told Griffin the baby was due in September. Griffin was unaware that Parker had previously undergone a hysterectomy after serious medical complications, leaving her unable to have more children.
At the same time, Simmons-Hancock was genuinely expecting her second child.
Parker had met Reagan through photography work, including shooting her wedding and engagement photos. As Reagan’s pregnancy progressed, Parker increased contact with her and presented the relationship as a growing friendship.
To support the false pregnancy, Parker used a silicone bump and continued the story online and in person, convincing people around her for a time.
In the documentary, Griffin explains how Parker kept him from discovering the truth.
“She would go to a doctors appointment, but I couldn’t ever go in with her because it was COVID at the time.
“When I did try to go, she said the doctor had an emergency, or he couldn’t meet us, and we had to reschedule.”
Parker also shared photos and videos online to reinforce the lie, while some people around her became increasingly suspicious. Griffin’s friend Stephanie Ott even contacted medical providers in an effort to verify the pregnancy, but staff could not disclose private health information.
When the supposed due date came and went, Parker told Griffin she would need to be induced or have a c-section.
Investigators later said Parker had watched videos about premature delivery and searched for information connected to childbirth in the weeks before the attack, with prosecutors arguing she was planning to steal a baby that would match the timeline of her fake pregnancy.
On the morning of 9 October 2020, Parker told Griffin she was traveling to Idabel, Oklahoma, to be induced. Prosecutors said she instead went to Reagan’s home in New Boston, Texas, where Reagan was around 35 weeks pregnant.
According to evidence later outlined in court, Parker attacked Reagan throughout the house, inflicting extensive sharp-force and blunt-force injuries before cutting her unborn daughter from her womb. Reagan’s three-year-old daughter was found alive inside the home.
When Parker was stopped by a Texas state trooper later that morning for driving erratically, officers found her with the newborn, whose umbilical cord was still attached.
She claimed the baby was hers and said she had just given birth, but doctors at hospital quickly determined that was not true. The baby, Braxlynn Sage Hancock, later died.
During questioning, Parker later admitted she had been involved in a “physical altercation” with Reagan. Authorities ultimately concluded that she had murdered the young mother and abducted the unborn child.
The medical examiner testified that Reagan suffered 113 sharp-force injuries as well as dozens of blunt-force injuries, including trauma to her head and face.
Parker was charged with capital murder, convicted in November 2022 and sentenced to death. She was 29 when she entered Texas death row, where state records list her as having no prior prison record.
Reflecting on the case in the documentary, Griffin said:
“It was unimaginable what she did, I don’t even know how to explain it.”
Maternal Instinct is available to stream on Netflix now.
The documentary also lays out the wider timeline behind the case. Parker, a mother of two and wedding photographer, previously underwent a hysterectomy after complications linked to pregnancy and bleeding, leaving her unable to have more children.
She later met Griffin at a local rodeo and began a relationship with him while keeping that medical history secret.
Jessica Brookes had hired Parker to photograph the wedding of her daughter Reagan Hancock and Reagan’s longtime partner Homer Hancock. Parker had also taken the couple’s engagement photographs.
After learning Reagan was pregnant with a baby girl, Parker intensified her contact with her while continuing to tell Griffin that she herself was expecting.
To make the story believable, Parker staged maternity photos and a gender reveal, while employees at the hospital where she had undergone surgery were described as “very confused” by her pregnancy-related social media posts.
On the day of the crime, Parker told Griffin she was traveling to Idabel, Oklahoma, to be induced. Instead, prosecutors said she went to Reagan’s home, murdered her, and took the unborn baby, Braxlynn Sage.
When a Texas State Trooper later approached Parker’s vehicle during the traffic stop, she called emergency services and said:
“I’m starting to have my baby.”
She was taken to hospital, where doctors determined she had not recently given birth. She was arrested that same day.
A grand jury later indicted Parker on charges including capital murder and kidnapping. She was ultimately convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.
Her conviction and sentence were upheld on direct appeal by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in November 2025. In 2026, the US Supreme Court declined to review the case, meaning Parker remains on death row in Texas and, as of June 2026, no execution date has been set.
Following the sentencing, Jessica said a “heavy burden has been lifted”. The case remains one of the most shocking fetal-abduction murders in recent Texas history, and Maternal Instinct focuses not only on the brutality of the crime but also on how Parker sustained a false pregnancy narrative long enough to deceive the people closest to her.