Woman was given death penalty after being found in a car with a newborn baby

A new Netflix documentary will look at a shocking case in which a woman was sentenced to death in Texas after being found in a car with a newborn baby.

This will mark Netflix’s latest true crime documentary that, if you know anything about the horrifying real life case, will be sure to drag the shocking case back into the limelight.

Interest has only just died down in the case of Mackenzie Shirilla, with The Crash having left Mackenzie’s father Steve jobless after being fired from his role as a teacher for his interviews in the doc.

Now interest will likely turn to the case of Taylor Parker, a woman who remains on death row in Texas as Netflix are set to release Maternal Instinct.

Warning: This article contains discussion of content that some readers may find distressing.

Parker is currently on death row awaiting execution (Texas Department of Corrections)

Parker was pulled over by a Texas State Trooper in 2020 after she was spotted driving erratically.

She was covered in blood and had a newborn baby in the car, umbilical cord still attached and claimed that she had just given birth on the side of the road and was rushing to hospital. This, however, was a lie.

When she got to hospital it became clear there were no physical signs she had given birth, and a much darker secret was revealed.

Parker was covered in blood belonging not to herself, but to her pregnant Reagan Simmons-Hancock who she had earlier that day murdered.

The now 32-year-old had stabbed the 21-year-old over 100 times before cutting her baby out of her stomach with a scalpel. The baby was born dead.

Reagan’s 3-year-old daughter was found in the house unharmed hiding under the covers in her bed.

Two years later, in September of 2022, Parker was sentenced to death after being found guilty of murder and kidnapping and remains on death row in Texas to this day.

The at-the-time 26-year-old had lied to her boyfriend Wade Griffin, claiming to have been pregnant and that she was the heir to a $4.7 million estate. She had previously had a hysterectomy and had gone as far as to stage a gender reveal party.

The attack was brutal, taking place throughout Reagan’s house and resulting in 113 sharp force injuries. The cause of death was concluded to be ‘homicide from traumatic extraction from the uterus with both sharp and blunt force injuries’, and she used both a knife and hammer to inflict the horrific injuries.

Taylor Parker killed her friend and stole her unborn baby (Netflix)

Her defence lawyers never argued that she had not committed the murder, but instead argued against Texas laws which stated that a fetus is an ‘individual’, trying to claim that the aggravating charge of kidnapping which led to the death penalty was invalid since the child was dead when she had taken it.

This was unsuccessful, and Reagan’s mother, Jessica Brooks, said after she was sentenced to death: “We are just glad justice has been served, not only for our family, our friends, the prosecution team, our community.”

Her sister, Emily Simmons, said: “I’m overwhelmed with happiness it’s over because she has been such a burden in our life for so long now that I haven’t been able to think about my sister without thinking about her.”

Maternal Instinct releases 12 June on Netflix.