Warning: This article contains discussion of themes which some readers may find distressing.
Taylor Parker is said to have written to Jimmy Griffin, the father of her former partner Wade Griffin, in a letter expressing sorrow over the killings that led to her death sentence.
Parker, a mother of two, was sentenced to death in November 2022 after being found guilty of murdering 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock, who was eight months pregnant, along with her unborn daughter.
In the years since the crime, the case has continued to draw national attention, including through the Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct, which revisits Parker’s elaborate pregnancy hoax and the events that ended in Hancock’s killing.
At the time, Parker had been pretending to be pregnant herself. Wade Griffin believed they were expecting a baby together, and in the Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct, he explained that her story at the time “made sense to me”.
Investigators said Parker cut Hancock’s unborn baby from her womb and then tried to pass the child off as her own. Hospital staff later determined she had not given birth, and she was arrested that same day.
A handwritten note obtained by TMZ from Bowie County court records shows Parker appealing to Jimmy Griffin for forgiveness.
The letter was dated 20 September 2022, about a month before Parker was convicted of capital murder and roughly two years after the attack.
It opens with the words: “Mr Jimmy. I’m sorry,” and says she had delayed writing because she had ‘a lot on my mind and heart’.
In the note, Parker asks Jimmy to forgive her while admitting she ‘does not deserve it’.
She also writes about how much she cared for him and asks him to ‘be patient with Wade,’ saying the two men ‘don’t always see eye to eye’.
Elsewhere in the letter, Parker claims Wade ‘has felt like a disappointment,’ and says he never believed his father was proud of him.
Near the end, she wrote: “I don’t know how this happened or why but I miss my kids and family, but I’m ok.”
Parker then asks once more for forgiveness and says she still had not sent a letter to Wade, asking Jimmy to ‘keep it between us’.
In the documentary, Wade also described how Parker maintained the deception despite the fact she had previously had her tubes tied after suffering pre-eclampsia in 2014 and later underwent a hysterectomy in 2015.
“She would go to a doctors appointment, but I couldn’t ever go in with her because it was COVID at the time,” he said.
“When I did try to go, she said the doctor had an emergency, or he couldn’t meet us, and we had to reschedule.”
According to the documentary, Parker used a silicone pregnancy bump and shared images online showing off her supposed pregnancy.
On 18 May 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Parker’s case, leaving her conviction and death sentence in place. She remains on Texas death row with no execution date announced.
Parker, who worked as a wedding photographer, decided to have her tubes tied after experiencing pre-eclampsia during her final pregnancy, a serious condition linked to high blood pressure.
Later, after suffering bleeding, she saw a doctor who determined she had experienced an ectopic pregnancy. She then underwent a hysterectomy, leaving her unable to have more children.
By then twice divorced, Parker met hog trapper Wade Griffin at a local rodeo and the pair began a relationship. Prosecutors said she also lied to him about being the heir to a $6 million estate.
Jessica Brookes 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 pictures.
Parker eventually told Griffin she was pregnant, despite him not knowing about the hysterectomy. To continue the lie, she wore a fake bump, posed for maternity pictures and even held a gender reveal party, claiming the baby was due in September.
Hospital staff where Parker had her hysterectomy were reportedly confused by the pregnancy updates she was posting online, but privacy laws prevented them from intervening.
Hancock later told her mother she was pregnant with her second child. Jessica would later say Parker’s communication with Reagan increased after Parker learned she was expecting a girl.
When Parker’s supposed due date came and went, she told Griffin that she would need to be induced or have a c-section.
Evidence presented in the case showed Parker watched a video explaining how to deliver a baby pre-term at 35 weeks, which was the stage of Hancock’s pregnancy. She told Griffin she was heading to Idabel, Oklahoma, to be induced, but instead went to Hancock’s home, where prosecutors said she killed her and removed her unborn daughter, Braxlynn Sage, from her womb. Hancock’s three-year-old daughter was later found unharmed inside the house.
Not long after, a Texas State Trooper stopped Parker for erratic driving. As the trooper approached the vehicle, Parker called 911 and requested an ambulance, saying: “I’m starting to have my baby.”
The trooper found Parker covered in dried blood and holding Hancock’s dead baby, with the umbilical cord still attached.
She was taken to hospital, where staff quickly established that she had not given birth. She was arrested on the 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. After the sentencing, Jessica said a ‘heavy burden has been lifted’.
The Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct has since revisited the case, putting Parker’s crimes back in the spotlight.