Netflix true crime drama tells horrifying story of woman who killed mother to kidnap newborn baby
Netflix’s newest hit true crime documentary, Maternal Instinct, has seen renewed interest in the rare cases in which women are murdered in order to kidnap their babies.
Maternal Instinct tells the horrifying story of the murder of Reagan Simmons-Hancock, who was 7.5 months pregnant, by her friend Taylor Parker. Parker is currently on death row in Texas awaiting execution.
The Texan woman had convinced her boyfriend Wade Griffin that she was pregnant for months, only for him to discover this was all a lie when she was arrested for Regan’s murder.
Warning: This article contains graphic content and descriptions of crime that some readers may find distressing.
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Parker stabbed Reagan to death and cut open her belly, hoping to steal her baby to pretend she had given birth.
Whilst this is an incredibly rare crime, only 15 Fetal abductions took place in the US between 1987 and 2011, there is another incredibly similar crime that took place in the very same state just a year before Parker killed Reagan.
The horrific murder of Heidi Broussard led to her newborn baby being abducted
Heidi Broussard was killed in 2019 in Texas by Magen Fieramusca, her friend who had allegedly faked being pregnant.
Broussard and her daughter, Margot Carey, went missing in 2019 after she dropped her son off at school. Fieramusca had been friends with the victim for more than a decade and had known her since childhood and stole Broussard’s daughter to pass her off as her own.
The at-the-time 33 year old killed her friend via asphyxiation, being sentenced to 55 years in prison. Margot was found unharmed.
Shane Carey, Broussard’s fiancé and Margot’s father, told ABC: “She deserves more. She deserves way more. I'm waiting for that text message, like, 'Hey sweetie, how we doing?' … Just waiting to hear her voice. I still don't believe it. I just don't believe it. It's really not real.”
A film turned the case into a heartbreaking true crime drama which one fan said people who streamed Maternal Instinct need to watch
The drama, which is on Netflix, is called Stolen Baby: The Murder of Heidi Broussard and stars Emily Osment as Magen Fieramusca, with Anna Hopkins playing Heidi Broussard.
A TikToker has urged people who watched Maternal Instinct to watch Stolen Baby next, and whilst you can only watch it on YouTube in the UK, it is on Netflix in the US.
The film opens with a disclaimer however, stating that whilst it is based on true events it is dramatized, and not everyone who watched loves how the filmmakers went about this.
One fan on Reddit said: “The movie itself wasn't bad but it almost seemed like they were trying to make Magen the star of the show when there should have been more awareness about Heidi, considering its a true story.
“We didn’t really develop a connection with Heidi in any way and I think that part of the movie was poorly written.
“If you’re going to tell a victim's story, don’t make them so much a background character and allow us to develop more empathy through the telling of the story by showing us more about the victim's personal life and who she was instead of just saying ‘she was loved by everyone’. She deserved more than that”
Topics: True Crime, Netflix, TV and Film, Film
Michael Slavin