Taylor Parker and Wade Griffin: Fake Pregnancy, Murder, Death Row

The Taylor Parker case is a Texas capital murder prosecution arising from the October 9, 2020 killing of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock in New Boston, Texas. Parker, who had faked a pregnancy for months, attacked Simmons-Hancock in her home, cut the victim’s 34-week-old unborn daughter, Braxlynn Sage Hancock, from her womb, and tried to pass the infant off as her own. A Bowie County jury convicted Parker of capital murder and sentenced her to death in November 2022. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review her case in May 2026, and she remains on death row at the Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville.¹

The Fake Pregnancy Behind the Crime

Parker, born December 8, 1992, could not become pregnant. She had undergone a tubal ligation in 2014 and later a hysterectomy following complications from an ectopic pregnancy.² Even so, she told her boyfriend, Wade Griffin, a roofing supervisor and hog farmer, that she was expecting. In 2019 she claimed to be carrying twins and then said she lost the pregnancy in an accident. In January 2020 she said she was pregnant again.³

She sustained the story with a silicone prosthetic belly and fake ultrasound images bought online, a gender reveal party, social media updates about doctor visits that never happened, and a fraudulent “proof of pregnancy” document purportedly from the Northeast Texas Women’s Clinic. When she and an acquaintance actually visited a clinic on April 9, 2020, the pregnancy test came back negative. She avoided physical intimacy with Griffin by telling him she was insecure about stretch marks.⁴

Prosecutors would later show that the killing was planned. Among Parker’s internet searches were “order cheap pregnancy silicone belly,” “newborn adoptions,” “how to find a birth mother,” and “video of c-section.”⁵ By September 2020, her fabricated due date had come and gone. She needed a baby.

Warnings That Never Reached Wade Griffin

Several people tried to expose the hoax. In March 2020, a friend named Stephanie Ott grew suspicious after Parker gave her a gender reveal document from the Northeast Texas Women’s Clinic dated 2016. Ott called the clinic. Staff told her they did not send documents like that, and a nurse said the medical procedure Parker described would never be performed at the stage of pregnancy she claimed. The office manager told Ott to “just go with your gut.”²

Ott eventually learned from Parker’s family that Parker had undergone a hysterectomy. She passed the information to Griffin’s mother, Connie Griffin, and tried to tell Wade Griffin directly. He did not believe it; Parker had preemptively told him the hysterectomy story was a lie spread by her mother. Former friend McKenzie Bright confirmed the surgery to Ott. Connie Griffin later described the effort to convince her son as a “tug of war.”⁶

Parker’s ex-husband reached out to Griffin’s brother in the spring of 2020 to warn him. Dr. Christopher Mason, the OB/GYN who had performed Parker’s tubal ligation and knew about her hysterectomy, saw her social media posts, recognized them as false, and, constrained by medical privacy laws from disclosing her history, asked hospital staff to take extra precautions to protect babies in the nursery.²

Who Reagan Simmons-Hancock Was

Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock was born November 14, 1998, in Hope, Arkansas. She worked as a customer service representative at Flying Burger and Seafood in Texarkana, married Homer Hancock on September 21, 2019, and had a daughter, Kynlee, born in 2017. At the time of her death she was 34 weeks pregnant with a second daughter the family had named Braxlynn Sage Hancock.⁷⁸

She met Parker in 2019 after hiring her as a photographer for her engagement and wedding, choosing her on a friend’s recommendation and to save money. Parker inserted herself into the wedding party, and the two grew closer in early 2020 when both announced pregnancies. Simmons-Hancock’s family described her as someone who “would always help the underdog,” and she offered emotional support to Parker when others questioned the pregnancy.⁹

The Murder on October 9, 2020

On October 7, 2020, Parker and Simmons-Hancock spent a “girls day” together at Starbucks. The next evening, Parker visited the Hancock home in New Boston, toured the nursery, and discussed baby topics with the couple.⁹

On the morning of October 9, Parker returned. She attacked Simmons-Hancock with a hammer and inflicted more than 100 slash wounds. She then performed a crude cesarean section and cut Braxlynn from her mother’s womb.¹⁰ To keep Griffin away, Parker had orchestrated a fake hog sale in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. He believed he was traveling to transport livestock and that Parker was checking herself into a hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma, to induce labor.³

The victim’s mother, Jessica Brookes, discovered the scene after her daughter failed to show up for work and did not drop Kynlee at daycare. She found blood streaks and a handprint outside the home.¹⁰

Texas state troopers stopped Parker that same morning. She was holding a baby on her lap with the umbilical cord still attached, appearing as though she had just given birth. She and the infant were taken to a hospital in Idabel, where staff determined Parker had not delivered a child. She then admitted to the abduction and to what she called a physical altercation with the victim. Braxlynn Sage Hancock was pronounced dead at the hospital.¹¹

Trial, Conviction, and Death Sentence

Parker was charged with capital murder in Bowie County. Her defense sought a change of venue, pointing to 27 articles published by the Texarkana Gazette and TXK Today during the 16 months between the offense and the venue hearing. The trial court denied the motion.¹

She was found guilty of capital murder in October 2022. The sentencing phase lasted 25 days and included testimony from 142 witnesses.¹² The prosecution was led by Jeffrey Shell and Jerry Rochelle. Parker was represented by Stephen Dockery and Caitlin Halpern.¹³ Prosecutors showed crime scene photographs and told the jury that Simmons-Hancock’s fingernails were found in the placenta, indicating she had fought for her child as she died.

On November 9, 2022, the jury returned a death sentence. Judge John Tidwell ordered, “Take her to death row.”⁸ The defense presented experts who argued Parker suffered from psychiatric disorders; the prosecution maintained her conduct reflected psychopathy rather than mental illness. Parker did not pursue an insanity defense.¹⁴

At sentencing, Jessica Brookes delivered a victim impact statement, calling Parker an “evil piece of flesh demon” and telling the court, “My baby was alive still fighting for her babies when you tore her open and ripped her baby from her stomach.” She described her daughter as “the best mama I have ever known.”¹⁰

Appeals and the Supreme Court Denial

Texas law requires automatic appellate review of every death sentence, so the case went to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Parker’s attorneys raised 25 points of error. On November 6, 2025, the court affirmed both the conviction and the death sentence.¹³

Two arguments stood out. On the kidnapping element, which was the aggravating factor that made Parker death-eligible, the defense contended that Braxlynn was not born alive and therefore could not be kidnapped. The court, relying on testimony from a flight paramedic and a physician, held that a rational juror could find beyond a reasonable doubt that Braxlynn was born alive when Parker took her. As an alternative basis, the court held that Parker’s performance of the crude cesarean section amounted to more than mere preparation toward kidnapping and satisfied the Texas standard for attempted kidnapping.¹³

On venue, the court held that pretrial media coverage in Bowie County was not so pervasive or inflammatory that an impartial jury could not be seated, and that the trial judge had acted within a reasonable zone of disagreement.¹

In May 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court declined without explanation to hear Parker’s petition, exhausting her direct appeals.¹

Wade Griffin Was Not Charged

Griffin was never charged with any crime connected to the murder. He has said the events “ruined my whole reputation” and cost him his job, and his mother has said he continues to face public backlash for not seeing through the deception.²

In October 2022, Homer Hancock filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against both Parker and Griffin. The suit alleged that Griffin was negligent for allowing Parker to operate his vehicle, which she used during the crime, and that he “knew, or through the exercise of reasonable care should have known,” that Parker was a reckless and incompetent driver. The outcome of that lawsuit has not been publicly reported.¹⁵

Where Taylor Parker Is Now

Parker is housed at the Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas. She is the youngest of seven women on Texas death row and is identified by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as inmate number 999626.¹⁶ No execution date has been set.¹⁷

1
Texarkana Gazette. Supreme Court Will Not Review Taylor Parkers Conviction
2
Oxygen. Taylor Parkers Friends Tried to Warn of Pregnancy Hoax
3
Biography. Wade Griffin Now
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KTAL News. Audacious Tales, Schemes Dominate Taylor Parker Trial
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Netflix Tudum. Maternal Instinct Release Date and News
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Yahoo News. Why Warnings About Taylor Parkers Fake Pregnancy Went Unheeded
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Bates-Rolf Funeral Home. Obituary of Reagan and Braxlynn Hancock
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People. Inside Taylor Parker and Reagan Simmons-Hancock Friendship
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ABC7 Chicago. Reagan Simmons-Hancock Taylor Parker Death Sentence
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KSLA. Taylor Parker Sentenced to Death
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FindLaw. Taylor Rene Parker v. The State of Texas, No. AP-77,110
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Netflix Tudum. Maternal Instinct Director Interview
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People. Where Is Wade Griffin Now
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Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Death Row Information – Taylor Parker
17
USA Today. Taylor Parker Maternal Instinct Netflix Documentary