Within seconds of the documentary, the full impact of the devastation hits.
On the morning of October 9, 2020, a police officer had pulled over a woman before opening the driver’s door to a shocking scene.
When pulled over, Parker appeared distraught with a newborn baby on her lap, umbilical cord still attached. Photo / Netflix
Parker sits behind the wheel, cradling a newborn girl, with her umbilical cord still attached.
She’s covered in blood. She claimed she had just given birth.
“She’s not breathing,” Parker cries, begging the officer to take them to the hospital.
Only the horrifying truth is too shocking to believe.
A short time beforehand, Parker arrived at the home of Reagan Simmons Hancock, a 21-year-old pregnant mother who had hired Parker as a photographer for her wedding a year prior.
Upon arrival, she was warmly invited into the home before she unleashed a premeditated attack, killing her 35-weeks-pregnant friend before cutting the unborn baby out of the womb.
During her trial two years after the attack, the medical examiner, Dr Melinda Flores, testified that the victim had 113 “sharp force injuries” and 39 blunt-force injuries, primarily to her face and head”.
The brutal scene unfolded while Hancock’s 3-year-old daughter was home.
Viewers also hear the heartbreaking call made to emergency services by Hancock’s mother, who was the first to find the body.
“Help me. My daughter’s been murdered,” Jessica Brookes cried to the 911 operator.
“Somebody got in the house. She’s dead.”
Her victim was 21-year-old Reagan Simmons Hancock who had been 35 weeks pregnant. Photo / Netflix
The murder was the result of a long-bubbling lie Parker had been perpetuating to her boyfriend, Wade Griffin, whom she’d started dating in 2019.
She spoke constantly of her inheritance from her estranged mother, buying Griffin’s mother a car that would be repossessed, and making offers on ranches Griffin had dreamt of owning.
After a month into the relationship, she’d informed him she was pregnant.
She wore a silicone stomach, provided scans, health documents, and even had a name picked out for the fictitious baby.
Griffin’s family were suspicious, but red flags became impossible to ignore when they were informed by Parker’s ex-friend that she’d had a hysterectomy, meaning she was incapable of carrying a child.
Her boyfriend Wade Griffin said he had believed she was pregnant. Photo / Netflix
As her due date approached, questions continued to mount until Griffin confronted her, but the ruse didn’t break.
“There was no space for him to sit down and realise what was going on,” his mother said in the documentary.
Parker convinced him she’d scheduled an induction for October 9, 2020 – the same day she would go on to murder Hancock.
The morning of the murder, she convinced him to deliver livestock while she made her way to the clinic, providing her with a window of opportunity.
In court, Judge John Tidwell presided over the murder trial, where he formally sentenced her to death.
Parker is one of six women currently on death row in Texas. Photo / Idabel PD
“Take her to death row,” Judge Tidwell told the court.
Appeal proceedings have failed to succeed with an execution date yet to be confirmed; death row prisoners often wait up to 18 years before meeting their fate.
The case has sent waves of horror through TV screens, with viewers taking to social media to share their shock.
“This is by far the most insane documentary I’ve ever seen,” one woman said in a TikTok.
“If you think you’ve seen every wild Netflix true crime documentary, this one challenges that claim. Viewers call it the craziest documentary on Netflix,” a third wrote.
Another clip warns: “If you are pregnant, do not watch Maternal Instincts on Netflix. Just don’t for your own mental peace.”
“If you’re pregnant, do not watch this,” another agreed.
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