Maternal Instinct: Documentary Review

Taylor Rene Parker is a name that, if you're familiar with it, that means you're familiar with one of the most disturbing cases the United States of America has seen in the last decade. On the 9th of October 2020, Taylor Parker bludgeoned and murdered a woman called Reagan Simmons-Hancock, who was nine months pregnant at the time. After murdering Reagan, Taylor Parker proceeded to cut her abdomen up and abduct her unborn child, Braxlyn. Tragically, Braxlyn did not survive either.

On the 9th of November 2022, Taylor Parker was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death in the state of Texas. As of today, she remains incarcerated on death row at the Patrick O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville, where she awaits her execution.

It's not at all surprising that Netflix jumped at the chance of turning this real-life case into a documentary, as the details of Taylor Parker's life and her story are truly disturbing.

Taylor Parker first became a mother at the age of seventeen. Her and the father of her first born child broke up not long after that, and she went on to have a second child at the age of twenty-one, during her first marriage. After a failed tubal ligation, she suffered complications from an ectopic pregnancy, which led her to get a hysterectomy, leaving her unable to have any more children. Taylor would go on to get married a second time. Throughout her second marriage, she tried to get her friends to be surrogate mothers for her, in the hopes of having another child. Her second marriage also ended in divorce.

The documentary focuses on Taylor Parker's relationship with Wade Griffin, who she met and pursued at a rodeo in 2019. Their relationship became very serious very quickly, in spite of the doubts and question marks Wade's family and friends had about Taylor. Despite having worked in an OB-GYN clinic and a staffing agency, Taylor lied to Wade, claiming to be the heiress of an oil fortune. Not long after their relationship began, Taylor told Wade that she was pregnant. This was, of course, another lie. Over the next nine months, she used a silicone pregnancy belly, faked ultrasound images, and even hosted a gender-reveal party and a maternity photoshoot. In her mind, she began to believe that she really was pregnant.

Taylor Parker would sometimes work as a photographer for some extra money, and it was through that job that she met Reagan Simmons-Hancock. Reagan hired Taylor to be her wedding photographer, and the two of them became friends after that. They would go for coffees or have lunch together often, and Reagan's family remember Taylor being a warm, friendly presence in their daughter's life.

By late September 2020, Taylor's fake due date had passed, and she had, of course, not given birth yet. Wade's family and friends were all telling him that she was lying and faking her pregnancy, and he was slowly starting to see that they were all right.

On the 9th of October 2020, Taylor Parker drove to Reagan Simmons-Hancock's house, where she was at home with her three-year-old daughter. Taylor viciously attacked Reagan, causing her blunt force trauma and multiple stab wounds. Despite putting up a fight, twenty-one-year-old Reagan passed away whilst her daughter was hiding in her bedroom. Taylor Parker then proceeded to perform a barbaric C-section on her body, removing Reagan's unborn child from her abdomen and kidnapping her.

Taylor fled to Oklahoma in her car, but was pulled over by the cops for driving erratically. She lied to the police, claiming that she had given birth in her car and was trying to get to the hospital. After being brough to the hospital, it was quickly revealed through a physical exam that Taylor had not given birth and had, in fact, at no point been pregnant. Reagan's baby girl died shortly after being brought to the hospital.

Autopsy reports later showed that Reagan Simmons-Hancock sustained 5 stab wounds and 98 incised wounds, as well as 39 blunt force injuries. Both Reagan's death and the death of her unborn child were rulled as homicide.

Taylor Parker was sentenced to death on the 9th of November 2022 after an unanimous vote from the jury. Before her sentence was read out, the mother of Reagan Simmons-Hancock gave a statement, calling Taylor "an evil piece of flesh demon" and condeming her for murdering her daugher and slicing her body open to steal her baby.

As of today, Taylor Parker remains incarcerated, awaiting her execution.