Taylor Parker was arrested in October 2020 after brutally murdering her pregnant friend and kidnapping her unborn baby.
The shocking crime was investigated in the Netflix documentary, Maternal Instinct, which included Taylor's hospital visit, police interrogation, and more. In November 2022, Taylor was found guilty of capital murder and was sentenced to death.
Keep reading to find out where the Maternal Instinct killer is now and what led to the violent crime.
© NetflixWhere is Taylor Parker now?
Taylor, 33, is currently incarcerated on death row at Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit, a maximum security prison in Gatesville, Texas. She is the youngest woman on death row in the state, after her appeals for the U.S. Supreme Court to review her case were declined.
Her execution date has not yet been scheduled. Recently, Taylor's last meal request was rejected due to a Texas decision to no longer offer last meals. In 2011, an inmate ordered chicken fried steaks, fajitas, barbecue, pizza, desserts, and root beer before his execution, but did not eat any of it.
© NetflixLater, State Senator John Whitmire eliminated the custom for all executions in the state, and the rule now applies to Taylor.
What did Taylor Parker do?
In October 2020, Taylor killed her pregnant friend, Reagan Simmons-Hancock, 21, cut her unborn baby out of her womb, and attempted to convince others that the baby was actually hers.
Taylor was raised in Texas and was a mother of two. She moved to a small town in East Texas and started dating a local hog trapper, Wade Griffin. Within the first few months of their relationship, Taylor claimed she was pregnant. But, to Wade's surprise, before dating him, Taylor had undergone a hysterectomy and was unable to have any more children.
© NetflixIn 2019, the Maternal Instinct killer met Reagan as her wedding photographer. Over the next year, the two grew close. Reagan was pregnant at the same time Taylor claimed she was. And on October 9, 2020, when Reagan was 35 weeks pregnant, the two planned a girls' day.
But the girls' day ended in violence. Taylor strangled and stabbed Reagan 100 times at her home before performing a C-section to remove the unborn child from the womb before fleeing the scene with the newborn.
© NetflixTaylor then frantically called 911 from a highway and claimed she had given birth on the side of the road, but the baby wasn't breathing. When state troopers arrived on the scene, they found Taylor performing CPR on the newborn. She told them she was on the way to the hospital to meet her boyfriend Wade.
At the hospital, doctors found no evidence that she gave birth, learned of her hysterectomy, and called in the police, who investigated her and linked her to Reagan's murder and the death of the baby.
Taylor was arrested the same day, found guilty of capital murder and was sentenced to death in November 2022.
