Overview
- In October 2020, prosecutors say Taylor Parker fatally attacked 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock, inflicted severe blunt and sharp trauma and removed the woman's unborn child during the assault.
- Investigators and trial testimony showed Parker sustained a months‑long fake pregnancy using a silicone belly, forged ultrasounds and staged events while concealing a prior hysterectomy that made pregnancy impossible.
- A Bowie County jury convicted Parker of capital murder in October 2022 and sentenced her to death after prosecutors argued the killing occurred in the course of a kidnapping of the unborn child.
- Parker has exhausted major appeals with the Texas courts and the U.S. Supreme Court declining review in May 2026, and she remains on death row at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville with no execution date set.
- The Netflix film Maternal Instinct premiered June 12, 2026, features interviews with Reagan’s family and Wade Griffin, does not include Parker, and has renewed public scrutiny that could affect the civil wrongful‑death suit filed by Homer Hancock.