{"id":336423,"date":"2026-06-14T23:05:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/336423\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T23:05:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:05:16","slug":"taylor-parkers-family-now-texas-killers-2-kids-mom-shona-prior-dad-mark-morton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/336423\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Parker’s Family Now: Texas Killer’s 2 Kids, Mom Shona Prior & Dad Mark Morton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Netflix killer Taylor Parker’s <\/a>family background, including her kids with two men, are documented in an appellate court decision. She has two former husbands named Hunter Parker and Tommy Wacasey. Her mom, Shona Prior, testified in great detail at her trial, and her dad, Mark Morton, was discussed.<\/p>\n

Parker’s case is featured in the new Netflix show, Maternal Instinct. Horrifically, Parker was convicted – and sentenced to death<\/a> – for murdering a pregnant woman named Reagan Simmons-Hancock. She then cut <\/a>the baby out of Simmons-Hancock’s womb, although the child also died. Parker was trying to convince her new boyfriend, Wade Griffin, that she was pregnant, when she could no longer have kids due to a hysterectomy that her mother authorized.<\/p>\n

However, Parker did have kids with two other men, a daughter and son, court documents show. Their names are Emersyn and Trey. Where are her kids now? According to Oxygen, “Prior was granted custody of her granddaughter\u2014who also continued to spend time with Wacasey\u2019s family.” Emersyn is 16 today. Trey was born in about 2013 or 2014, which would make him about 12 or 13 now. [Parker is one of more than 40 women on death row in the U.S. See the full list with their crimes here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

Taylor Parker Had 2 Kids of Her Own With Former Boyfriend Donald Whiteside & Ex Husband Tommy Wacasey<\/p>\n

The court documents<\/a> detail Parker’s tangled family tree.<\/p>\n

“At the age of seventeen, Appellant gave birth to her first child, Emersyn, with her then-boyfriend Donald Whiteside,” the court documents say.<\/p>\n

According to KTAL-TV<\/a>, Prior testified that Whiteside “was not involved in his daughter\u2019s life. Prior said she herself\u00a0only ever met him once in the fall of 2009 before the child was born.\u00a0 She said she did not recall the two having much of a relationship before or after the birth.\u00a0“<\/p>\n

Donald Whiteside Jr. \u201cjumped jobs,” she testified.<\/p>\n

\"TaylorTaylor Parker today in her most recent Texas prison photo on death row.<\/p>\n

Texas Bureau of Prisons<\/p>\n

“The couple eventually split, and Appellant began dating and later married another man, Tommy Wacasey. At the age of twenty-one, Appellant gave birth to her second child, a son named Trey, with Wacasey,” the documents add.<\/p>\n

“She had to be induced because of a condition called preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication characterized by elevated blood pressure and protein in the urine,” the court decision says. “Due to this complication, Appellant decided to undergo a tubal ligation to prevent future pregnancy. A tubal ligation can, in some circumstances, be reversed.”<\/p>\n

With Parker under anesthesia, Wacasey “authorized doctors to perform a hysterectomy. Doctors removed Appellant\u2019s uterus, cervix, and one of her ovaries,” the court documents alleged, noting that Parker “flew off the handle and asked why [Wacasey] didn\u2019t wake her up so she could make that decision.\u201d They divorced in 2017. KTAL-TV reported<\/a> that Parker’s mom, Shona Prior, testified that she gave the ultimate authorization for the hysterectomy, though.<\/p>\n

Wacasey testified that Parker did not pay child support after he obtained custody, KTAL-TV reported. Parker’s brother Zachary Morton brought up Wacasey when he testified, according to that television station: “It seemed like when Taylor was with Tommy that they loved each other, they cared about each other\u2026nothing else mattered but her family. But after weight loss surgery, Taylor\u2019s demeanor completely changed. Instead of her focus being on her family it was on what she wants to do with her personal life \u2013 or what more she could do for herself, in a sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related:<\/a><\/p>\n

Taylor Parker Then Married Her 2nd Husband, Hunter Parker<\/p>\n

Appellant and Wacasey divorced in 2017. “Soon after, Appellant began dating Hunter Parker. The couple married in 2018. During her relationship with Parker, Appellant asked multiple friends to serve as surrogates because she wanted to have more children but could not because of the hysterectomy. Appellant and Parker divorced in 2019,” the court documents show.<\/p>\n

“Appellant then began dating Wade Griffin. Several witnesses at trial testified that Appellant was ‘obsessed with him,’ and would be ‘ecstatic’ around him, even though ‘you could tell he didn\u2019t feel that way about her,'” the decision says.<\/p>\n

\"Taylor<\/p>\n

“The State introduced evidence of several instances when Appellant went to great lengths to keep Griffin in the relationship. Appellant told Griffin she was pregnant in January 2020,” it adds. “In the following months, Appellant purchased a silicone moon belly online as well as a customized ultrasound, prepared a nursery in Griffin\u2019s home, had a maternal photoshoot, held a gender reveal party, and chose a name for the baby.”<\/p>\n

Related:<\/a><\/p>\n

Taylor Parker Made Accusations About Her Mother Shona Prior<\/p>\n

The court documents say that Parker “told Griffin that she would be induced or have a C-section at Titus Regional Medical Center in Mount Pleasant, Texas, on October 5, 2020. On the morning of October 5, Griffin\u2019s house caught on fire.”<\/p>\n

The documents added, “He was able to put out the fire with a water hose. Later that morning, the medical center received a bomb threat and had to evacuate. Appellant blamed both of these events on her mother, Shona Prior.”<\/p>\n

The document say, “Appellant then told Griffin that, in order to avoid her mother, she had decided to travel to Idabel, Oklahoma, to give birth at McCurtain Memorial Hospital.” Instead, she drove to the home of victim Reagan Simmons-Hancock, murderer her, and cut out her unborn child, who also died.<\/p>\n

Taylor Parker’s Mother Testified That She Knew Parker Wasn’t Pregnant<\/p>\n

According to KTAL<\/a>, Prior testified that she knew Parker wasn’t really pregnant but didn’t say anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot much you can do about a fake pregnancy,\u201d Shonna Prior testified. \u201cShe knew she wasn\u2019t pregnant. We knew she wasn\u2019t pregnant. There was no need to come up with a plan. We figured the lie would be exposed. He would figure it out.\u201d She claimed that Parker loves her kids.<\/p>\n

Taylor Parker’s Father, Mark Morton, Went to the Gender Reveal Party<\/p>\n

According to KTAL-TV, Taylor’s dad, Mark Morton, went to the gender reveal party Parker threw, even though he knew she couldn’t get pregnant, her mom testified.<\/p>\n

Parker\u2019s brother Zachary Morton, testified” that their father brought him to what he recognizes now as a ‘drug house’ when he was a child, but he doesn\u2019t not remember Taylor ever being there,” KTAL-TV reported. “He said their father did use both of them as pawns in his divorce from their mother and did not always put his children first.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen dad was chasing other women or drugs, we were put on the back burner. It seemed like when Taylor was chasing another man, instead of the focus being on her children, it was on herself. It was all about her at one specific time,” Morton added.<\/p>\n

Related:<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Men’s Journal<\/a> on Jun 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Men’s Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netflix killer Taylor Parker’s family background, including her kids with two men, are documented in an appellate court…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[120088,49763,120085,120083,120090,120087,64299,120082,120084,120089,27,29,28,120086],"class_list":["post-336423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-appellant","tag-court-documents","tag-donald-whiteside","tag-hunter-parker","tag-hysterectomy","tag-ktal-tv","tag-mark-morton","tag-shona-prior","tag-taylor-parker","tag-testified","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tommy-wacasey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}