Murder of Reagan Simmons-Hancock

Background of Parker

Prior to the murder, the perpetrator, 27-year-old Taylor Rene Parker, alias Taylor Morton and Taylor Wacasey,^[4] first befriended Simmons-Hancock while working as her engagement and wedding photographer. Based on background information, Parker became a mother at 17, and after breaking up with the father of her first child, Parker had a second child, a son, at age 21 during her first marriage to another man. Following complications from an ectopic pregnancy after a failed tubal ligation, she underwent a hysterectomy, leaving her unable to have more children. After divorcing her first husband in 2017, Parker was married a second time in 2018. Throughout her second marriage, Parker tried to seek her friends' help to serve as surrogate mothers, as she hoped to have more children despite her hysterectomy. Her second marriage would also end with a divorce in 2019.^[5][6]

After her second divorce, Parker began dating Wade Griffin whom she met at a rodeo in 2019. Despite having worked at a staffing agency and an OB-GYN clinic, Parker falsely claimed to be the heiress to an oil fortune and later told Griffin she was pregnant. Over the next nine months, she sustained the deception using a silicone pregnancy belly and fake ultrasound images, even hosting a gender-reveal party and maternity photoshoot.^[6][7] Parker's first ex-husband later testified that he had anonymously warned her boyfriend about the false pregnancy and alleged that she had been unfaithful during their seven-year marriage and treated their son poorly.^[8]

By late September 2020, Parker had not given birth despite claiming her due date had passed. She told Griffin she would deliver via C-section or induction at Titus Regional Medical Center in Texas on October 5. After a fire at her boyfriend's house and a bomb threat at the hospital, she changed her story, claiming she would instead give birth at McCurtain Memorial Hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma, on October 9, 2020, the same date she committed the murder of Simmons-Hancock.^[5]

Murder of Simmons-Hancock

On October 9, 2020, Parker drove to Simmons-Hancock's house in New Boston, Texas, where both Simmons-Hancock and her three-year-old daughter were present. At the house, Parker viciously attacked Simmons-Hancock. Simmons-Hancock suffered blunt force trauma and multiple stab wounds. Forensic evidence indicated that the attack took place at several locations throughout the house, suggesting that Simmons-Hancock moved around the residence while being attacked and bled in multiple areas before she collapsed on the floor. The attack ultimately resulted in the death of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock. Parker performed a crude C-section with a scalpel she had brought with her to the home. The victim's three-year-old daughter was not physically harmed during the attack.^[5][9] She was later found hiding in a back bedroom by the victim’s family.^{[citation needed]}

After murdering Simmons-Hancock and stealing the baby, Parker fled to Oklahoma. While she was in De Kalb, Texas, Parker was stopped by a Texas Highway Patrol officer, who noticed she was driving erratically. Parker lied to the trooper that she gave birth while on the road and that the baby was not breathing, and the trooper also noticed an umbilical cord (which was cut from Simmons-Hancock's womb) going down her pants. Parker was therefore taken to a hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma, where the baby girl, later named Braxlynn Sage, was pronounced dead.^[10][5]

Simmons-Hancock’s body was discovered very shortly after her murder, casting doubt upon Parker's story. Parker aroused further suspicion among the hospital authorities when she refused to undergo examination by doctors. Her hCG levels and an ultrasound confirmed she was not pregnant, and revealed to doctors that she did not have a uterus; a physical exam concluded she had not given birth that day. Parker was arrested as a suspect behind the killing of Simmons-Hancock. Test results later confirmed by DNA testing that the baby was not Parker's biological child but instead was the child of Simmons-Hancock.^[11][12]

Autopsy reports later showed that Simmons-Hancock sustained 113 sharp force injuries—15 stab wounds and 98 incised wounds—and 39 blunt force injuries. Medical examiner Melinda Flores testified that two of the knife wounds perforated Reagan's jugular vein, and some were deep enough to reach the bone, and the blunt force injuries, likely inflicted with a hammer, resulted in both a broken nose and five skull fractures. Flores concluded that the cause of death was "homicide from traumatic extraction from the uterus with both sharp and blunt force injuries".^[5][13] Stephen Hastings, a medical examiner from Dallas, determined that the baby died due to traumatic extraction from her mother's uterus and further ruled that the baby's death was also a homicide. Hastings also stated that there were bruises on the baby's scalp and on the umbilical cord, meaning that some of the blows inflicted on Simmons-Hancock's abdomen also landed on the baby, and the trauma to the umbilical cord was possibly due to it being pulled or squeezed during the extraction.^[14]

Appeals

On November 6, 2025, Taylor Parker's first appeal was rejected by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.^[35][5] On March 19, 2026, Parker filed an appeal for a review of her death sentence to the U.S. Supreme Court, with her counsel arguing that their client did not receive a fair trial.^[36] On May 29, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the appeal.^[37][38]