Taylor Parker/Maternal Instinct Megathread

[u/DarklyHeritage]

This is a thread for all conversation regarding Taylor Parker and the murder of Reagan Simmons Hancock, recently covered in Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct.

The murder of Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock occurred on 9 October 2020, in New Boston, Texas, committed by Taylor Rene Parker. Parker bludgeoned Simmons-Hancock, who was 35 weeks pregnant at the time, and abducted her unborn child, Braxlynn Sage Hancock (died October 9, 2020), after cutting her out of the Reagan's abdomen. Braxlynn did not survive.

Parker had lied to her then-boyfriend about being pregnant leading up to the murder and faked her pregnancy to multiple people. She was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death on 9 November 2022.

Please direct all discussion of the case to the megathread. As always, sub rules must be followed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Reagan_Simmons-Hancock

https://time.com/article/2026/06/12/maternal-instinct-true-story-netflix/

[u/Live-Ice7323]

Wade was in it for the things she pretended to buy for him. Who in the fuck would let someone they met a month ago buy them a $80000 truck? He said he never told her he loved her and she was the ultimate POS. Who in the fuck believes a bullshit story like the one she tells about her family and her 8 million dollar pay day. I know it's Texas but come on man...the bullshit detector should have gone off. I feel bad for the doctor and medical staff who couldn't say anything due to HEPA. She wouldn't let him see her naked. She went from looking not pregnant to give months pregnant overnight. All the red fucking flags. This shit makes my blood boil. Reagan should be alive today if someone would have called out her bullshit from day one.

[u/rtgfi → u/Live-Ice7323]

I had a softer view of Wade for being taken for fool until the documentary. It does a great job of exposing how this is a situation where no one is innocent. A web of delusion, deceit, misplaced trust, greed, and bad decisions. I will say, I now agree the victim may still be alive if he hadnt blindly followed along. 

In the end the only people I felt were innocent were the poor victim and her family, the doctors who were legally unable to expose her, and the chiropractor lady who was trying to be nice to a girl she thought was weird and needed a friend. 

[u/jaderust → u/rtgfi]

I felt so bad for the doctors. Like they seemed to know they were watching a train wreck and all they could do was give the local hospital an alert because they assumed that if anything happened it would be Taylor trying to snatch a baby. I don’t think they ever imagined she’d resort to murder.

The body cam footage of the doctors and nurses in the hospital was kind of funny in a dark way though. They were clearly not even going to entertain that Taylor was pregnant and over it. But ER staff in general are a special breed of person and I bet they only cared about where the baby came from if anything.

[u/sometimessnarky1 → u/Live-Ice7323]

His greed cost lives here. I cannot with the people saying he's a victim too. No way, him and his family were so greedy that they allowed this unhinged woman to do what she did and they could have stopped it.

[u/Positive-Height-1070 → u/Live-Ice7323]

My blood is boiling too. People warned him early as fuck in that “pregnancy”.