TRUE CRIME FRIDY: THE CASE OF TAYLOR PARKER

NETFLIX’s Maternal Instinct has been on the minds of many of our readers, and Ninetoes has the true crime facts behind it for your quick reference.

Hey there, true crime lovers! It is your favorite investigator, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes HQ, and I am on the beat with The Case of Taylor Parker. I have my notebook in hand and coffee in my system, so let’s get to it!

In the spirit of transparency, this article is inspired by the NETFLIX documentary Maternal Instinct.

Before I go any further, I want you to remember two names: Reagan Simmons-Hancock and Braxlynn Sage Hancock.

This is one of those cases that, as I dove in, I kept thinking it could not get worse, until it inevitably did.

Taylor Renee Parker was a beautiful woman who became a mother at the age of seventeen. She broke up with the father of that child, married another man, and had a son at the age of twenty-one. Later on, she had complications from an ectopic pregnancy after a failed tubal ligation. She underwent a hysterectomy, which left her unable to have any more children.

Her first marriage ended in divorce.

She remarried again and sought help from friends to be a surrogate mothers. She wanted to have more children. She was unsuccessful, and this marriage ended in divorce as well.

In 2019, Parker was at a rodeo, where she met Wade Griffin. The two started to date. Parker claimed to be an heiress; her family made their money in oil. She told Griffin she was expecting a multi-million-dollar inheritance from her grandmother. She would give updates explaining that her mother did not want her to have the money and was blocking it. This story would flip-flop several times until she assured Griffin the money was indeed on the way. The two went high on the hog, buying vehicles and then a large ranch. There was just one problem…

…there was no inheritance. There was no incoming money. In fact, her family was not wealthy at all.

But by the time this came out, Parker had her hooks in Wade and even told him she was pregnant. You read that correctly, the woman who had a hysterectomy told her boyfriend she was pregnant. Wade did not know about her hysterectomy and believed her. Why wouldn’t he? She was able to provide fake ultrasound images, baby bumps, and anything she needed to maintain her ruse. She even went as far as to throw a gender reveal party in which she claimed she was having a girl.

Her due date came and went, but she was not concerned. Then she went into her tenth month. You read that correctly, TENTH MONTH! She told Wade she would have a C-section on October 5. The date changed to October 9^th, and she told Wade she would have it done at McCurtain Memorial Hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma. They had hogs to deliver to a client there, and Tonya would ride in with him. But even then, she gave an excuse, told him to go, and she would meet him at the hospital. Wade reluctantly left.

Parker then drove over to Reagan Simmons-Hancock’s house. The two became friendly when Parker did the photography for her wedding. Parker entered Reagan’s house and attacked her. Reagan fought back while her three-year-old daughter ran to the back of the house and hid in a closet. Reagan was finally overpowered by blunt force trauma to the head and multiple stab wounds. Parker then took out the scalpel she brought with her and cut the unborn baby out of Reagan’s body.

Parker got in the car and started driving to Idabel, Oklahoma. She was pulled over in De Kalb and told the officer that she had just given birth in the car and was heading to Idabel to meet her husband at the hospital. An ambulance was called, and she was brought to the hospital. She initially refused any checkups until she was told she had to be checked for hemorrhages. When the doctor came out of the room, he told the police that there was no way a baby could have come out of that womb.

Reagan’s body was found shortly after the murder. Her autopsy showed that she had suffered 39 blunt force injuries, 15 stab wounds, and 98 incised wounds. Two of the wounds perforated the jugular vein, and some of the stab wounds were deep enough to hit bone.

Parker was arrested on October 16, 2020 (after she was arrested in Oklahoma) and transferred to the Bi-State Detention Center. She was charged with capital murder, murder, and kidnapping. She was formally indicted on December 11, 2020, for the murders of Reagan Simmons-Hancock and her unborn child, and kidnapping.

On January 22, 2021, Bowie District Attorney Jerry Rochelle announced he was seeking the death penalty. Under Texas law, the penalties for the offense of capital murder are either life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.

Parker’s trial started on September 12, 2022. There was enough evidence to prove premeditation, especially the online search on how to deliver a baby by C-section.

On October 3, 2022, Parker was found guilty of capital murder, murder, and kidnapping after the jury deliberated for one hour. Parker’s sentencing trial began on October 12, 2022, before the same jury that found her guilty.

On November 9, 2022, Parker was sentenced to death by lethal injection. She became the seventh woman on death row in Texas. She is incarcerated on death row at the Patrick O’Daniel Unit.

Until the next time, keep your pencils sharp and your paper dry. I bid you successful investigations.

Darren “Ninetoes” Perdue is a book and media reviewer. When he is not reading, he is watching true crime shows, cooking for his family, or working on a plan for universal domination. If you see him on his porch, say hi. He does not bite…much.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing, nor do the views or opinions of Crystal Lake necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or its staff. Thank you for understanding.