What to Know
Nurses and doctors, especially those who work in the emergency department, have to endure and take on so many different cases on a daily basis. They often run into medical diagnoses that may take them by surprise or an individual in a situation that seems unsafe. Some things, though, can never be predicted.
Such was the case in 2020 for the medical staff at a hospital in Oklahoma where they were met with a woman named Taylor Parker, who was claiming to have recently given birth when she had really just murdered her pregnant friend and her unborn child. Unseen body cam footage from Parker’s time at the hospital when things were just being discovered by police and hospital staff has now been released.
Previously unreleased body cam footage of murderer Taylor Parker at the hospital has come to light.
On October 9, 2020, Taylor Parker, now 33, was taken by ambulance to McCurtain Memorial Hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma, after she claimed to have given birth at the side of the road.
According to The US Sun, Parker now sits on Texas death row after being convicted in 2022 of capital murder following the death of her pregnant friend, Reagan Simmons-Hancock, and Simmon-Hancock’s unborn baby girl, Braxlynn Sage.
The US Sun has obtained bodycam footage from October 9th, which includes several frenzied and alarming moments where the hospital staff come to realize that Parker was lying to everyone and something gruesome had taken place.
The footage shows a group of nervous medical staff standing around at the nurses’ station where one of them says, “This is a big deal.” As law enforcement arrives at the hospital and they worry about Parker trying to leave, one staff member can be seen telling him, “She’s in there, she refuses to have a vaginal check to see if she is hemorrhaging.”
How utterly chilling.
Parker had convinced everyone in her life, including her boyfriend, that she was pregnant.
According to The US Sun, Parker had tried to convince her boyfriend, Wade Griffin, along with other family and friends, that she was carrying his first child. She even went as far as wearing a fake pregnant belly, showing loved ones forged ultrasound photos, and throwing a gender reveal party.
As her fake due date approached, Parker allegedly began to panic as people questioned her pregnancy and tried reaching out to her family. Griffin’s mother discovered that Parker had a hysterectomy, but he “struggled” to believe his girlfriend because she always had an answer to any question he had regarding her health, per The US Sun.
Parker’s fantasy became a warped and very dark reality when she drove to Simmons-Hancock’s house where she hit her with a hammer and slashed her over 100 times with a knife, The US Sun reported. She then performed a C-section with a scalpel and took off with the newborn who was later pronounced dead.
Horrifyingly enough, Parker met the victim when she was hired to be her wedding photographer.
In a sick and twisted turn, Parker met Reagan Simmons-Hancock when she was looking for photographers for her wedding, USA Today reported.
There’s now a Netflix true-crime documentary called Maternal Instinct that details everything that led to the brutal murder. Simmons-Hancock’s sister, Emily, revealed in the documentary that Parker “didn’t feel like she was just some random stranger none of us had ever met,” as it almost felt like she was a “bridesmaid,” per USA Today.
This murder case took the news cycle by storm. In this Reddit thread, people are still discussing Taylor Parker and her possible motivations. One person wrote, “I did a deep dive into this murder. Taylor, the convicted murderer, is a very sick individual. She is a pathological liar whose motivation to murder an innocent mother to be, Reagan (whom was also her friend) really wasn’t to keep her boyfriend but rather to prove all the doubters that were calling her a “liar,” wrong. The cold blooded murderer (who butchered her friend for the baby) couldn’t wait to shove a baby in her boyfriend’s mother’s face.”
Another person shared their thoughts by commenting, “Cases like this aren’t about rage. They’re about possession. Taylor Parker didn’t just want a child — she wanted a life she couldn’t create, so she took one already in progress. The fake pregnancy, the gender reveal, the social media—those weren’t lies. They were rehearsal.” This person makes a good point.
It really is still extremely shocking to hear about the details of this case several years later. Hopefully, the family of Reagan Simmons-Hancock have been able to find some semblance of peace.
