Warning: This article contains discussion of themes which some readers may find distressing.
Phone calls from jail indicate Taylor Parker spent much of 2021 and 2022 voicing minor frustrations to her mother about prison life.
Parker, from Texas, was sentenced to death in November 2022 for the murder of her friend Reagan Simmons-Hancock, 21, who was eight months pregnant. Prosecutors said Parker had been pretending to be pregnant herself before carrying out the attack.
Authorities said Hancock suffered more than 100 stab wounds before Parker removed the unborn baby from her womb and later tried to pass the child off as her own.
The case has since been revisited in the Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct, which premiered in June 2026 and prompted strong reactions from viewers.
While being held in Bowie County Jail, Parker remained in regular contact with her mother, Shona Prior. Reports have described their relationship as ‘rocky’, although Prior is also said to have provided financial help after Parker’s arrest.
According to material obtained by the U.S. Sun, several calls between Parker and her mother from 2021 to 2022 were later cited by prosecutors to ‘argue Parker’s apparent lack of remorse and narcissistic tendencies’.
In one of the calls, Parker reportedly discussed whether she would be allowed to wear makeup during court appearances.
“So did she say anything to you about makeup?” Parker reportedly said to her mother, referencing someone on her legal team.
“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,” her mom responded.
“You know, they’re wanting you to look like a homeless criminal. They’re not wanting you to look like a human because that would be beneficial to you and detrimental to them.”
Another call obtained by the publication reportedly captured Parker brushing off what she had done as ‘just one horrible thing,’ while focusing instead on the charges she faced.
In the same reporting, it was said that Parker avoided the issue when her mother asked ‘whether something is psychologically wrong with her’.
Elsewhere in the calls, Parker, who has two children, was reportedly upset that her former husband would not let their son speak with her.
Prior, who has full-time custody of Parker’s daughter, responded bluntly.
“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,” her mother said, later telling her daughter to ‘deal with the consequences as best you can’.
Call records also suggest Parker complained about the ‘lights being on for 24 hours,’ inside the jail.
On that occasion, her mother appeared more sympathetic, warning that ‘jail is going to have more problems than they have right now,’ if the lighting triggered a migraine.
In June 2026, Parker’s case remained on death row after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed her conviction and death sentence in November 2025. Court records and state prison listings show she is still housed on Texas death row, and no execution date has been announced.
How the case unfolded
Taylor Parker, a mother of two who worked as a wedding photographer, chose to have her tubes tied after developing pre-eclampsia during her last pregnancy, a serious condition linked to high blood pressure.
Later, after seeking medical help for bleeding, doctors concluded she had suffered an ectopic pregnancy. She then underwent a hysterectomy, meaning she could no longer have children.
After two divorces, Parker began a relationship with hog trapper Wade Griffin, whom she met at a rodeo. During that relationship, she falsely claimed to be in line for a $6 million inheritance.
Jessica Brookes hired Parker to photograph the wedding of her daughter, Reagan Hancock, and longtime partner Homer Hancock. Parker had also taken the couple’s engagement pictures.
Parker eventually told Griffin she was pregnant, despite the fact that he did not know she had undergone a hysterectomy. Investigators later said she kept up the lie by wearing a fake baby bump, taking maternity photographs and hosting a gender reveal party, while claiming she was due in September.
Hospital staff involved in Parker’s hysterectomy were later said to be confused by the pregnancy updates she was posting online, though privacy laws prevented them from intervening.
When Hancock told her mother she was expecting a second child, Jessica later said Parker appeared to increase contact after learning Hancock was pregnant with a girl.
Once Parker’s supposed due date came and went, she told Griffin that she would need either an induction or a c-section.
Prosecutors said Parker then watched a video explaining how to deliver a premature baby at 35 weeks, which matched 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. There, she killed Hancock and removed her unborn daughter, Braxlynn Sage, from her womb. Hancock’s three-year-old daughter was later found alive inside the house.
Not long afterward, a Texas State Trooper stopped Parker for driving erratically. As the officer approached, Parker called 911 requesting medical help.
“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 a hospital, where medical staff quickly determined she had not recently given birth. She was arrested that same day.
A grand jury later indicted Parker on charges of capital murder and kidnapping.
She was ultimately convicted of capital murder.
Parker was then sentenced to death. After the sentencing, Jessica said a ‘heavy burden has been lifted’.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later rejected Parker’s direct appeal in November 2025. In 2026, her lawyers filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case, but the court declined to take it up.
The Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct has since brought renewed attention to the case.