Warning: This article contains details of murder which some readers may find distressing.
Interest in the murder of Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock has surged again after Netflix released the documentary Maternal Instinct.
The film revisits the case of Taylor Parker, who faked a pregnancy for months before carrying out one of the most disturbing crimes in recent Texas history.
Parker, a wedding photographer who befriended Reagan through her work, told friends and family she was expecting a baby. As suspicions grew, she continued the deception and repeatedly refused to admit the pregnancy was fabricated.
Before the attack, Parker had met Reagan after being hired as a photographer for her wedding. Reagan believed they were both pregnant at the same time.
On October 9, 2020, Parker went to Reagan’s home in New Boston, Texas. During the visit, she killed the 21-year-old mother, who was pregnant with her second child, and removed the unborn baby from her womb.
Parker then tried to pass the baby off as her own. Neither Reagan nor the baby survived the attack.
A little more than two years later, Parker was sentenced to death for the crime after a Bowie County jury convicted her of capital murder.
At the sentencing hearing, Reagan’s mother, Jessica Brookes, delivered a devastating victim impact statement in court and described Parker as an “evil piece of flesh demon”.
Addressing Parker, she said (per Texarkana Gazette):
“I know you think this all about you. But it’s about Reagan and Braxlynn.
“[Reagan] was one of the very few people on this Earth who cared about you. Now who cares about you? My baby was alive still fighting for her babies when you tore her open and ripped her baby from her stomach.”
Reagan’s younger sister, Emily Simmons, also spoke before the court.
At the time, Emily was engaged and told the court:
“My only biological sister. You need to understand what you took from me and my family. No more celebrating her birthday.
“I was barely 19 when I got the call my sister was gone.”
She continued:
“She will never be my maid of honor. If I visit my sister I have to go to a graveyard and see a headstone. I will never get a text or phone call from again.”
Parker has remained on death row since the sentencing. Her conviction and death sentence were later upheld on appeal, and she remains housed in Texas’s death row system with no execution date set as of June 2026.
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