Murder of Reagan Simmons-Hancock

On October 9, 2020, Taylor Rene Parker (born December 8, 1992), bludgeoned and killed Reagan Simmons-Hancock (November 14, 1998 – October 9, 2020), who was 36 weeks pregnant at the time, in New Boston, Texas. Parker proceeded to abduct Simmons-Hancock's child, Braxlynn Sage Hancock (died October 9, 2020), by cutting her out of the victim's abdomen, but the baby did not survive. Parker had previously lied to her then-boyfriend, Wade Griffin, about being pregnant ten months leading up to the murder of Simmons-Hancock and even faked her pregnancy to multiple persons. Parker was charged, tried and found guilty of capital murder, and sentenced to death on November 9, 2022.

Prior to the murder, the perpetrator, 27-year-old Taylor Rene Parker, alias Taylor Morton and Taylor Wacasey, first befriended Reagan Simmons-Hancock while working as the latter's 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.