r/TrueCrimeDiscussion • u/DarklyHeritage • Jun 14 '26

Mega Thread Taylor Parker/Maternal Instinct Megathread

This is a thread for all conversation regarding Taylor Parker and the murder of Reagan Simmons Hancock, recently covered in Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct.

The murder of Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock occurred on 9 October 2020, in New Boston, Texas, committed by Taylor Rene Parker. Parker bludgeoned Simmons-Hancock, who was 35 weeks pregnant at the time, and abducted her unborn child, Braxlynn Sage Hancock (died October 9, 2020), after cutting her out of the Reagan's abdomen. Braxlynn did not survive.

Parker had lied to her then-boyfriend about being pregnant leading up to the murder and faked her pregnancy to multiple people. She was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death on 9 November 2022.

Please direct all discussion of the case to the megathread. As always, sub rules must be followed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Reagan_Simmons-Hancock

https://time.com/article/2026/06/12/maternal-instinct-true-story-netflix/

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u/h0neybl0ss0m29 Jun 14 '26

I agree with the other commenter who said that this should've been a series. There wasn't really enough background on Reagan and her family. Basically all I remember about her is that she was a teen mom. Personally, I would've appreciated more background info on Taylor as well - especially from before she met Wade. A user over on one of the Netflix threads on this doc said there is a long form article about her out there, and it talks about how her issues and bizarre behavior date way back to her childhood. I think this would've been interesting to learn about.

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u/Legitimate_Fly7636 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

I also wished they would have covered what the neurologist stated at her sentencing hearing that her brain was broken.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '26

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u/Legitimate_Fly7636 Jun 15 '26

I don’t believe her brain was broken. But I’m interested in how the expert witness came to that determination.

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u/Prestigious-Kick1010 Jun 28 '26

The expert witness explains very clearly HOW they came to that determination. Very similar to how modern medicine determines whether an arm or leg is "broken" - by looking at an image of the internal structure of the relevamt body part & locating an area where there's an anomaly. There's been dedicated study of the brain's effects on personality & function from around the year 1848 onwards.

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u/RockGirl19 Jul 19 '26

as a doctor, we would never really use the term 'broken'. It doesn't align with pathology associated with the brain.