A jury of 6 men and 6 women in Bowie County listened to three weeks worth of grisly details about the murder of expecting mother, Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock, 21, and the abduction of her unborn baby straight from her womb. A jury of her peers found Taylor Rene Parker guilty of killing her friend and her unborn daughter, and now she faces the death penalty.
Taylor Rene Parker lied to everyone around her for months claiming to be pregnant. She announced the pregnancy on social media, held a gender reveal party, staged ultrasounds, and disguised herself as pregnant; all to keep her boyfriend, who she also lied to. Taylor Parker spun a web of lies for over 10 months, the whole time knowing she couldn't bear children any longer after a hysterectomy. After months of lying Taylor became desperate to produce the baby her boyfriend was expecting.
And she was willing to do the unthinkable to get one.
Parker had explained to her boyfriend she would be having an induced labor on October 9, 2020, the day of the murder. Before murdering her friend, Taylor actually called in a bomb threat to the hospital where she was scheduled to be "induced", in an attempt to delay the "birth". At that point she went to Reagan's house and attacked her, hitting her over the head with a hammer to subdue her. Then, while Reagan was still alive, Taylor took a scalpel and cut Reagan hip to hip. She then pulled Reagan's baby out and cut the cord. Reagan was still alive after the terrifying C-Section, and Taylor responded by stabbing her over and over again.
Authorities would later testify that Reagan was stabbed or slashed over 100 times, and was hit in the head with a hammer with such force her skull was compressed into her brain.
After the gruesome murder Taylor took the baby and ran, actually abandoning Reagan's 3 year old daughter, leaving her there inside the house with her dead mother.
Taylor was pulled over for speeding just a few hours later near the Oklahoma/Texas border.
She would initially tell police she gave birth on the side of the road and the baby wasn't breathing. The Texas State Trooper escorted Taylor and the baby to McCurtain Memorial Hospital in Idabel, OK, where medical staff went to work trying to save the baby. Taylor refused an examination, raising suspicions among doctors and police.
Despite their best efforts, doctors were unable to help Reagan's daughter, and the baby was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Reagan's mutilated body would be found in her house not long after the murder, and it didn't take police long to connect the two women.
Authorities realized Taylor had not given birth; instead, she had gotten so deep into her lies it ended in the tragic desecration of a young mother and her baby.
Taylor was extradited back to Texas, where she pled not guilty for the murders of Reagan and her daughter. She would be brought before a jury in September of 2022.
The jury listened to three weeks worth of sometimes dark and gruesome testimony from authorities and medical examiners, and also from Reagan's family and friends.
Taylor's defense attorneys would argue that Reagan's daughter was never actually alive, that the kidnapping charge the state of Texas brought against Taylor should be dropped, thus lowering the capital murder charge to murder. "You can't kidnap a person who wasn't born alive," defense lawyer Jeff Harrelson said in his final arguments to the jury.
Prosecutors used several medical experts to argue that Reagan's daughter was born alive, and if not for Taylor's actions that day Reagan's baby would not have died.
It didn't take the Bowie County jury long to determine that Taylor was responsible for everything she was accused of. In October of 2022, two full years after the murders, Taylor Rene Parker was found guilty of the capital murder of Reagan, and guilty of the murder and kidnapping of her unborn daughter.
The Bowie County District Attorney's Office is now asking that same jury to sentence Taylor Parker to the death penalty. If they spare her, Taylor will receive life in prison with no parole. The sentencing phase of the trial is expected to wrap up sometime next week.
(LEFT) Victim: Reagan Michelle Hancock- Simmons (RIGHT) Taylor Rene Parker, convicted of murder in October 2022 now faces the death penalty.
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