Wade Griffin has described how his life was affected after years of deception and manipulation by his former partner, convicted killer Taylor Parker.
Parker, who was once in a relationship with Griffin, later carried out a shocking crime in what prosecutors said was part of her desperate attempt to stop him from leaving.
The case is revisited in the Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct, which began streaming on June 12, 2026.
According to KTAL, Parker first met Griffin at a rodeo in 2019, shortly after her second divorce.
Griffin was working for a roofing company in Daingerfield, Texas, at the time, and also had experience as a livestock manager, welder, and hog trapper.
After the two connected at the rodeo, they stayed in touch through social media before their relationship developed further.
Griffin said that he had been ‘excited’, falling for Parker, 33, as she was a ‘good cook’, saying she was ‘pretty much the best I ever had’.
As time went on, however, the reality of Parker’s behavior became far more disturbing.
Her deceptions reportedly included multiple scams and false claims involving millions of dollars, along with efforts to purchase land.
The lies escalated to fake pregnancies, and Griffin was later sent away on a supposed hog-selling deal while Parker claimed she was heading to a hospital.
Instead, she drove to the home of her 21-year-old friend Reagan Simmons-Hancock, whose wedding photos she had previously taken.
There, she killed Reagan before cutting her unborn baby from her body and trying to pass the child off as her own.
Griffin has rarely spoken publicly about his life since the case, but he did address the damage it caused.
“Pretty much ruined my whole reputation,” he said. “Slandered my name, my brothers, my mom.
“Worst thing I’ve ever had to live through, for sure.”
At the time of his 2022 testimony, Griffin was 27, placing him at about 30 or 31 years old in 2026. He also said he lost his job after becoming entangled in Parker’s lies.
Following Parker’s conviction, Reagan’s father, Homer Hancock, also brought a negligence and wrongful death lawsuit against both Parker and Griffin.
The suit alleged that Griffin let Parker drive a vehicle registered in his name and that he ‘knew, or through the exercise of reasonable care should have known, that Defendant Parker was a reckless and incompetent driver prior to permitting her to operate his vehicle’.
No published outcome for that lawsuit has been widely reported, and little else is publicly known about Griffin’s life today.
Maternal Instinct revisits the case in depth and is now available to stream on Netflix.