What to Know
When Maternal Instinct dropped on Netflix in June 2026, millions of people were introduced to Taylor Parker, Wade Griffin, Reagan Simmons-Hancock, and a cast of characters duped by Parker. The documentary centers around Parker’s web of lies that ultimately led to murder.
Parker, a mother of two, had a hysterectomy after her second child, leaving her unable to get pregnant. Yet, she faked a pregnancy for more than nine months and brutally murdered Simmons-Hancock to steal her unborn baby and raise her as her own. Instead of living happily ever after, Parker sits on death row in Texas, convicted of capital murder.
Parker’s lies continued even after her arrest.
In the documentary, we see police body cam footage from the day of the murder from the side of the road. On October 9, 2020, an officer pulled her over for speeding and found 21-year-old Parker with a fetus on her lap. She told police she’d given birth while driving, yet she showed no visible signs of childbirth. We later learn the baby, who didn’t survive, belonged to Simmons-Hancock.
An ambulance rushed Parker to McCurtain Memorial Hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma, where police immediately began investigating her story. Parker refused an examination at the hospital, insisting she birthed the baby. Police eventually arrested her, and the story got even stranger.
Parker claimed she and Simmons-Hancock got into a physical fight.
In interrogation footage obtained by TMZ, we see Parker speaking to a detective several days after the murder. Parker told police she and Simmons-Hancock got into a physical altercation at the pregnant woman’s home in New Boston, Texas.
According to the convicted killer, Simmons-Hancock attacked her and Parker had no choice but to fight back. She told police she hit Simmons-Hancock in the head, which caused a severe injury. Parker then claimed Simmons-Hancock told her she was dying and begged her to “take her out.”
Parker wanted police to believe Simmons-Hancock requested an at-home C-section.
When the detective asked for clarification, Parker doubled down and said Simmons-Hancock told her, “I’m finished,” and hoped she could save her unborn child’s life.
According to Parker, the pregnant woman pulled her pants down and Parker grabbed a scalpel to perform surgery. Parker admitted to cutting Simmons-Hancock but claimed she didn’t know what she was doing, and Parker begged her to “push” her baby out.
The story grew increasingly unbelievable.
Parker told police that she cut Simmons-Hancock about “six inches” and the mother grabbed the scalpel herself to try and get the baby out. According to Parker, as Simmons-Hancock pushed, the baby popped right out of her abdomen in her amniotic sac.
Parker tried to make police believe that the mother performed her own C-section and birthed the baby, and she offered support along the way. Obviously, no one believed that story, and it didn’t explain the multiple stab wounds Simmons-Hancock had all over the rest of her body.
A Texas court convicted Parker of capital murder in 2022. She now sits on death row in Texas as the youngest woman waiting for execution.
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