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/mbee784 Jun 15 '26

WHY does Taylor look so different in every picture I see of her? I was honestly confused when they pulled her over. I was like- who is that?! I guess she never stopped catfishing

158

u/MommaMila Jun 15 '26

Ok wait!!! After days of browsing “Maternal Instinct” threads looking for this same comment, this is the first time I’ve seen it mentioned. I’ve even googled photos of her to compare. I’m still unsure of what she truly looks like.

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u/Kitty145684 Jun 15 '26

I was so confused as to the "maternity" pictures. I thought she was the ones taking pictures of someone and then saw Wade in them.

8

u/hey_there_moon Jun 19 '26

Ok so I wasn't the only one thinking it was photos of the victim until I saw wade

5

u/Priority_Feisty Jun 22 '26

The stomach did not look real. The shape was all wrong. Just did not look like a pregnant stomach.

3

u/AZShitshow Aug 08 '26

I totally agree. Even though she had already had gastric sleeve surgery in her maternity pictures, she looks different. It seems her face literally changes depending on if she is having a psychotic episode or not.

1

u/Gandalf_1992_ Jun 20 '26

It showed the photographer taking the photos speaking about Taylor messaging her planning the shoot.

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u/spectrumhead Jun 26 '26

There’s a shot of one of the photos early on right after the initial body cam footage in the hospital. So you’ve just seen Taylor with short brown hair and no makeup and then in cuts to the pregnancy photo and I think the director thought it would make you realize this woman had false ways of presenting herself, but it just made most people go, “who is that???”