Texas woman who cut unborn baby from mother learns fate

Taylor Rene Parker. Photo / Idabel Police Department

WARNING: Distressing content.

A woman has been sentenced to death after bashing a young pregnant woman’s skull with a hammer and stabbing her more than 100 times before stealing her unborn daughter from the womb.

It took a Texas jury of six men and six women just one hour and 15 minutes on Wednesday, to reach their verdict, as they sentenced Taylor Rene Parker to death for murdering 21-year-old Reagan Michelle Hancock in October 2020, local newspaper Texarkana Gazette reported.

Parker was found guilty of capital murder by the same jury on October 3.

Hancock’s mother Jessica Brooks called Parker, 29, an “evil piece of flesh demon” during victim impact statements to the court on Wednesday.

“My baby was alive still fighting for her babies when you tore her open and ripped her baby from her stomach,” she said, according to The Gazette.

Hancock’s younger sister Emily Simmons said: “I was barely 19 when I got the call my sister was gone.

“She will never be my maid of honour,” Simmons, who is engaged, said.

“If I visit my sister I have to go to a graveyard and see a headstone. I will never get a text or phone call from her again.”

Prosecutor Kelley Crisp showed the jury a crime scene photo of Hancock soaked in blood on the floor of her home during a powerful closing statement.

“The circumstances in which Reagan died are horrible and there is no doubt it was torture,” Crisp told the court. “But a mother died fighting for her child, that’s how she left the world.”

The Gazette reported that after listening to the family’s statements, Judge John Tidwell told the bailiff: “Take her to death row.”

Killer fooled everyone in horror plan

In the months leading up to the murder, Parker went to great lengths to convince her former boyfriend she was pregnant with a girl – even having a gender reveal party for the fake baby.

During the trial, Crisp had told the jury Parker could not conceive after a hysterectomy and had conspired to kill Hancock and kidnap her child in order to keep her boyfriend.

The court was told Parker intensively researched how to fake a pregnancy and watched numerous videos on delivering babies preterm at 35 weeks, which is how far along Hancock was when she was killed.

Reagan Michelle Hancock was killed when she was 35 weeks pregnant. Photo / Facebook

On the morning of October 9, 2020, Parker killed Hancock in her home, removed her baby from her womb with a scalpel and fled with the baby girl, who later died.

One of the crime scene photos shown to the jury was of the family kitchen. Ultrasound photos of the baby were taped to the side of the fridge with large smears of blood on the surface below it, TXK Today reported.

CBC News also reported Hancock’s 3-year-old daughter was at home when her mother was killed.

Hancock’s mother, Brooks, discovered her daughter’s body when she went to her place later that morning.

Less than an hour before Brooks called police, Parker happened to be pulled over by a state trooper for speeding and driving erratically.

She claimed she had just given birth. The baby was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.