Taylor Parker told fellow inmate what 'really happened' when she murdered Reagan Simmons-Hancock
In 2020, Taylor Parker murdered Reagan Simmons-Hancock, her pregnant friend who she met after taking photos for her wedding, in a brutal attack that made global news.
Now, thanks to Netflix’s new true crime documentary Maternal Instinct, the case is being re-discovered by people across the world and it is absolutely shocking.
Warning: This article contains graphic content and descriptions of crime that some readers may find distressing.
Parker stabbed Reagan over 100 times, eventually cutting the baby from her belly and trying to claim it was her own when she was found by police.
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She now sits on death row awaiting execution after she was found guilty of murder and kidnapping in the case.
Unlike Netflix’s Mackenzie Shirilla documentary The Crash however, the director of Maternal Instinct Jessica Dimmock has said that they never intended to interview Parker.
Parker’s defence in court hinged largely upon the idea that she did intentionally kill Reagan but that it was due to some sort of mental issue.
In court documents that summarises her conduct whilst in prison however, one section actually reveals what she told an inmate in prison happened that led to her killing Reagan.
Parker made the admission of what 'actually happened' to an inmate she tried to frame for the murder
Whilst in prison, prior to her death sentence and subsequent placement on death row, prosecutors submitted Parker’s ‘extraneous offences’ in a court document which demonstrated how she had ‘had repeatedly and continuously engaged in criminal behaviour’.
One of the most shocking examples of this is when she set up an ‘elaborate and twisted scheme’ to manipulate another inmate, Hannah Hullender, into ‘confessing’ to Reagan’s murder.
This involved her trying to manipulate Hullender into telling another version of events where someone else killed Reagan other than her, something she did frequently in prison despite admitting to having killed her in court.
Hanna Hullender submitted writings pertinent to the case surrounding the killing of Reagan. Cops later found a ‘witness statement’ handwritten by Parker which suggested what Hullender was supposed to say.
The plan was to frame Hullender as a ‘suspect’, something she believed would be enough to release her from jail and dismiss all charges. They stated: “The defendant is taking steps to alter her handwriting in order to avoid being implicated in the plot frame up Hanna Hullender in the murders”, something corroborated by a state handwriting expert.
She told the inmate to tell police to say she had seen a black man making ‘drug drops around the jail’ and that the same vehicle had been seen by her at the scene of Reagan’s murder.
Though Parker never took the stand in court, she did tell Hullender what ‘actually happened’.
Parker supposedly tried to rope Reagan into helping her get out of her fake pregnancy with Wade Griffin and killed her when she backed out
According to Hullender, Parker claimed that her and Reagan had an argument the night before the murder, which took place 9 October, 2020, and they got into an argument.
The statement reads: “Parker said that Hancock knew that Parker had been faking a pregnancy and was past the due date. Parker asked Hancock to call [Parker’s boyfriend at the time] Wade Griffin on the morning on October 9, 2020 and pretended to be an attending nurse to Parker.
“Hancock was supposed to tell Griffin that Parker had lost the baby while Griffin was hauling hogs, but Hancock backed out and refused to call Griffin.”
On the day of the murder Griffin, who Parker had lied about her fake pregnancy to for months, was sent by Parker to haul hogs.
The statement continued: “Parker told Hullender she was in possession of a bag with medical equipment in it. Parker used a scalpel, a knife, and a jar to kill Reagan Hancock. Parker said she watched Reagan die and then left the residence with the baby. Parker said ‘it didn’t really go as planned.’ Parker also told Hullender about hiding evidence and fleeing… Parker’s plan was to tell them she’d just given birth and then take the baby home to her boyfriend and tell Griffin the baby was theirs.”
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.” Emily also stated that she hoped Parker was forgiven by god in the documentary, stating that ‘Hell is too good for her’.
Topics: True Crime, Netflix, TV and Film, Documentaries, Crime
Michael Slavin