In November 2022, Taylor Parker was sentenced to death

NEED TO KNOW

• Taylor Parker faked a pregnancy for months, using props and lies to convince others that she was expecting
• Parker was found guilty of murdering Reagan Simmons-Hancock and stealing her unborn baby in a desperate cover-up
• She remains the youngest woman on death row in Texas

On Oct. 9, 2020, a Texas state trooper pulled over Taylor Rene Parker for driving erratically — but soon, police discovered her grisly crimes.

Parker told officers she needed help getting to a local hospital because she had just given birth. In reality, she had just murdered 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock and stolen her unborn baby.

The ensuing investigation — detailed in Netflix's Maternal Instinct documentary — revealed that Parker lied for more than nine months about being pregnant. When her supposed due date came and went, Parker became desperate to cover up the truth. After telling her boyfriend to meet her at an Oklahoma hospital later in the day, she drove to Simmons-Hancock's home, where she stabbed her 15 times and cut out her unborn child, per court documents.

Parker was soon arrested and charged with capital murder, murder and kidnapping, per CBS News. She was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death in November 2022.

Here's everything to know about Taylor Parker's life today.

Taylor Parker is a Texas mother of two children

Parker is a mother of two. She shared her daughter, Emersyn, with Donald Whiteside and her son, Trey, with then-husband Tommy Wacasey.

However, after those two pregnancies, Parker made the decision to undergo a "permanent sterilization," per Maternal Instinct.

The procedure "physically [blocks] the tubes so that you can't have children anymore," Dr. Christopher Mason said in the documentary.

Around 18 months later, Parker experienced major bleeding and underwent an exploratory surgery. Doctors soon discovered an ovarian cyst, ectopic pregnancy and endometriosis. Therefore, "the decision was made to do a hysterectomy and removal of both tubes and the right ovary," per Mason.

According to court documents, Wacasey gave his approval for Parker's hysterectomy — and when she woke up, she "flew off the handle and asked why [Wacasey] didn't wake her up so she could make that decision."

Parker's second husband, Hunter Parker, later testified that Parker didn't tell him she couldn't conceive or carry children until after they married and that she offered to get a loan or use money inherited from her grandmother to pay for a surrogate.

She started dating Wade Griffin in 2019

Parker had custody of her daughter, but not her son, when she met Wade Griffin in July 2019 — a circumstance that Griffin's mother, Connie, called a "red flag," per WLNS. Still, Connie said that when Griffin and Parker first began dating, Parker was pleasant and charismatic.

In December 2019 — just five months into their relationship — Parker announced that she was coming into several million dollars of inheritance from her grandmother and that she and Griffin planned to buy a ranch called Pecan Point in Oklahoma. She and Griffin became big spenders, purchasing a $100,000 truck, a car for Connie, a tractor and cattle, per Maternal Instinct.

Weeks after giving Connie her new car, however, the vehicle was repossessed for nonpayment. Meanwhile, real estate agents working with her and Pecan Point were unable to verify any of the funds she promised for the purchase, according to the documentary.

In January 2020, Parker asked Wacasey to take custody of their daughter, fearing Griffin was going to break up with her, according to KTAL. Weeks later, Parker told Griffin that she was pregnant, though most people in Griffin's life — including Connie and several of Griffin's friends — were skeptical.

Stephanie Ott said in Maternal Instinct that Parker showed her a gender reveal document that looked bogus, as it included no letterhead, a series of typos and was dated 2016. People from Parker's own life — including her best friend, McKenzie Bright, and her OB-GYN — all knew she couldn't get pregnant due to her hysterectomy.

Parker used more than 30 aliases (including posing as her own mother) in an effort to fraudulently purchase more than $20 million in real estate and other assets throughout her 14-month relationship with Griffin, per Maternal Instinct.

She began faking a pregnancy in January 2020

Parker was never able to get pregnant after her hysterectomy in 2015.

Ott grew increasingly suspicious of Parker faking her pregnancy when Parker told her that she was taking a medication to stop contractions at just eight weeks — far before contractions would begin.

Ott called Parker's doctor's office, per KTAL. Due to HIPAA laws, clinic manager Melissa Mason could not reveal specifics of Parker's medical history, but she told Ott to "go with her gut."

In Maternal Instinct, Melissa and Dr. Mason both said they had seen Parker posting about her pregnancy on social media, but were prohibited from commenting about it due to HIPAA laws.

For months, Parker used pillows and fake bellies (including one that mimicked a baby kicking) to make herself appear pregnant. She also hid her body from Griffin, telling him she was too insecure about her stretch marks to be intimate. Because of COVID protocols at the time, he was also unable to accompany her to doctor's appointments.

Despite not being pregnant, Parker still held a gender reveal party in March 2020 to announce she and Griffin were expecting a baby girl.

When her supposed due date passed by more than a month, Griffin finally confronted her. Parker told Griffin she would "bring a baby home" and would be induced on Oct. 5, 2020.

However, on that day, Parker told Griffin that a bomb threat at their Texas hospital stopped them from inducing labor.

She brutally murdered Reagan Simmons-Hancock on Oct. 9, 2020

On Oct. 7, 2020, Parker visited her friend, Simmons-Hancock, at her New Boston, Texas, home with a baby gift and Starbucks coffee.

Two days after that, on Oct. 9, 2020, Parker returned to Simmons-Hancock's home, arriving there at 7:30 a.m., per court documents. Parker then stabbed the expectant mother 15 times and gave her 98 incised wounds. She also suffered 39 blunt-force injuries, which may have been caused by a hammer.

Parker then performed a crude C-section, cutting Simmons-Hancock's unborn daughter from her womb. She then stuffed the placenta down her own pants to make it appear she had just given birth and fled the scene around 9:14 a.m., according to KTAL.

Simmons-Hancock's mother, Jessica, found her dead in her home around 10:15 a.m. and called 911.

Doctors determined Parker had not given birth

Minutes later, a state trooper pulled Parker over for driving erratically. In footage featured in Maternal Instinct, Parker sobs and begs the trooper for help getting her to an Idabel, Okla., hospital to meet Griffin, adding that she just gave birth.

The officer called for an EMT to transport Parker to the hospital. However, when she arrived, Parker initially refused to let doctors check her, which Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Chad Dansby told PEOPLE made officers suspicious.

After she eventually conceded to a vaginal exam, a doctor told police, "It does not appear that she had a baby … it does not look like she had a baby down there."

Simmons-Hancock's daughter, Braxlynn, was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Dansby's team and New Boston police officers were ultimately able to get Parker to confess to some of what happened, though her stories changed at times in interrogation footage shown in Maternal Instinct.

She was charged with capital murder, murder and kidnapping

Parker was charged with capital murder, murder and kidnapping.

She was ultimately found guilty on all counts, and in November 2022, a jury sentenced Parker to death.

Where is Taylor Parker now?

In October 2022, Simmons-Hancock's husband Homer Hancock sued Parker and Griffin for wrongful deaths of Simmons-Hancock and Braxlynn, per KXAN.

The civil suit alleged Griffin was negligent for allowing Parker to use his vehicle during the time of Simmons-Hancock's murder. An outcome of the case has not been made public.

Parker appealed her conviction in 2022, but it was upheld in 2025. In May 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would not review her case.

Parker remains the youngest woman on death row in Texas, where she is housed at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville.

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