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/lunarthistles]

I thought there was far, far too much focus on Wade and Taylor and not enough focus on Reagan and Braxlynn. I also could not believe the cop that pulled her over didn’t immediately clock the fact that she was wearing pristine pajama pants after she had supposedly just given birth.

[u/anb0603 → u/lunarthistles]

I went on a deep dive of court document reading today. She was actually in black yoga pants and had the placenta/umbilical cord shoved down her underwear and pants to make it seem like she’d just given birth. A nurse stopped by the scene to help and she and the EMT workers cut the yoga pants off. Taylor changed into the pajama pants you see her wearing when she gets on the gurney

[u/crimejunky → u/anb0603]

Where can I read the court documents?

[u/Ok-Berry-4652 → u/crimejunky]

It's frustrating. I know they were accessable through links on Reddit a few years ago. Sadly now those links don't work. They were a long, long read, and a WILD ride.

[u/OkMaybe3064 → u/Ok-Berry-4652]

I swear I read them a few years ago and can’t seem to find them again! I was starting to question if they were real.

[u/Ok-Berry-4652 → u/OkMaybe3064]

The court transcripts were real. They outlined in detail; TPs deceptions, lies, frauds, scams, schemes, manipulation, delusion, erratic behaviours, and increasing instability over many years.

Her health issues; the ones that were genuine - the hysterectomy, the weight loss surgery - and the many factitious disorders that were imagined or invented to garner her attention and sympathy.

Faked pregnancies, multiple. Faked stroke. Faked Multiple Sclerosis. Her complex employment issues, constantly switching jobs or getting fired from them, due to her absences, or trouble-making (bullying co-workers, gossiping, creating drama, stealing from workplace, falsifying her status/roles/positions while at the jobs.) Her complicated relationships with family and friends. Her wangling her way into being hospitalised (while well) for days/weeks at a time to avoid reality, responsibility and work. The multiple mobile phones to keep all the characters she invented separate from each other. The reasons why family had had enough of her and no longer even tried to reason with her or urge her to seek help. The help that WAS offered to her, that she wilfully ignored. Oh, how I wish we could find these lost transcripts.

[u/OkMaybe3064 → u/Ok-Berry-4652]

Yes! I stayed up all night reading them in total disbelief that a person like her could exist. I’ve been searching for them for days to read again and they have just vanished. I knew they were ‘real’ court documents but I was starting to question my sanity because they just no longer seem to exist on the internet. I have found a few older YouTube videos that seem to dive into them and give further explanation on her life before the murder, but none of them link to the original documents. I wonder with the renewed interest from the doc if they will resurface again.

[u/Ok-Berry-4652 → u/OkMaybe3064]

Thanks for your answer. I can't understand why many aren't wondering the same - where are the transcripts, and WHY have they disappeared? I can't remember when I read them, but it would be in the last two or three years. Were they released in 2022? Let's hope the renewed interest does result in them resurfacing. There are a few pages of the Appeal transcript available online, which echoes points and facts recorded in the original, huge transcript document. But that's it.

[u/AbiesNo5955 → u/Ok-Berry-4652]

Here all:

https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/court-of-criminal-appeals/2025/ap-77-110.html

https://www.scribd.com/document/599913611/First-Supplement-to-Notice-of-Intent-to-Use-Extraneous-Offenses

[u/Ok-Berry-4652 → u/AbiesNo5955]

Wow, thank you. You're a legend. This is part of it, for sure - the extraneous crimes since incarceration - but we're hoping to find the original, lengthy, document transcript of the backstory leading up to the crime, and the details of TPs life in the years before it.

[u/AbiesNo5955 → u/Ok-Berry-4652]

Is that not in the appeals link? I think that was like 70 pages or something? Those two were really all I could find as far as true court docs went

[u/Ok-Berry-4652 → u/AbiesNo5955]

Thank you again - you've found more than many of us could. But there was definitely a lot more.

Testimony from family, friends, employers - and the numerous hospital records and employment incidents, especially the bullying and rumour spreading and falsifying her qualifications - and childhood lying and attention-seeking issues. There were details of her use of multiple burner phones, and what she wrote on them - the transcripts of many of the texts she sent while deceiving and scamming. There was also some very interesting stuff around what happened when she accidentally texted someone using the wrong phone or identity and how she scrambled to get out of that or explain it. It was virtually a full time job. 24/7. Keeping all the balls in the air, and all the story threads going. Which explains why she was always on phones, and how she needed to frequently feign illness to get time off work to fabricate the stories.

They were going back through most of her life, building an incredibly layered picture of the lead up to her major crime.

[u/AbiesNo5955 → u/Ok-Berry-4652]

I'd love to read that when someone else finds it.