Taylor Parker's Victim's Mother Says Killer Is Not ‘Crazy,' But Is 'Evil’

The mother of Reagan Simmons-Hancock, who was killed by Taylor Parker in 2020, has stated that she believes Parker is "evil" rather than "crazy." In an interview with NewsNation, Jessica Brookes and her daughter Emily Shirley reflected on the murder, with Brookes saying it's "hard to not say evil" when describing Parker. Shirley agreed, noting that no "crazy person" could have planned the crime as strategically as Parker did. Parker was pretending to be pregnant when she killed the 21-year-old Simmons-Hancock, performed a C-section to remove her unborn daughter Braxlynn Sage, and then fled the scene before calling 911 to claim she had given birth. Brookes, who discovered her daughter's body, recalled seeing a bloody fingerprint on the door and using her shirt to preserve the crime scene. Parker was found guilty of capital murder and kidnapping in 2022 and sentenced to death, making her the youngest woman on death row in Texas. Her case recently gained renewed attention following the Netflix documentary "Maternal Instinct." The documentary's director, Jessica Dimmock, explained that she chose not to include Parker's mental health diagnoses because Parker did not attempt an insanity defense at trial.