TEXARKANA, Texas (KTAL/KMSS) – The East Texas woman accused of killing a New Boston mother and removing her unborn child from her body confessed to the crime and admitted to pretending to be pregnant in order to claim the baby as her own, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by KTAL.
Texas Rangers are investigating the case in which 27-year-old Taylor Parker is charged with capital murder, murder, and kidnapping in the death of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons Hancock and her baby.
The probable cause affidavit on the charges filed in Bowie County Tuesday describes a gruesome scene discovered by Simmons’ mother when she went over to her daughter’s house on Austin Street Friday morning. Simmons was found face-down in the living room, “with a large abundance of what appeared to be blood throughout the house,” not only on the floor but on furniture, walls, appliances, and other items in the home.
Officers on the scene learned that Simmons was about 34 weeks pregnant and called for EMS to come to the scene and check on the status of the baby. When they arrived and turned Simmons’ body over, they found a very large cut across Simmon’s abdomen and there was no baby.
The affidavit also reveals that when a Texas state trooper pulled Taylor Parker over in De Kalb just after 9:30 a.m. that same morning, she had a newborn infant in her lap.
The trooper told Texas Rangers that “the umbilical cord was connected to the infant, which appeared to be coming out of the female’s pants, as if she gave birth to the child.” The trooper said Parker was performing CPR on the infant. LifeNet EMS came to the scene and took Parker and the infant to a hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma, but the child did not survive.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation was called when doctors at the hospital determined that Parker had not given birth to the baby. When OSBI investigators arrived and interviewed Parker, she told them she was “in a physical altercation with Simmons and abducted the unborn child.”
Investigators also interviewed Parker’s boyfriend, who told them that she had told him and others that she was pregnant and that she was supposed to go to the hospital in Idabel and pre-register for labor to be induced for the birth of their child on Friday, October 9. Her boyfriend said he was scheduled to meet Parker at the hospital around lunchtime that day for the birth and that they had even had a gender reveal party in celebration of the baby’s arrival.
According to the affidavit, Parker admitted that she was not pregnant and that she used a “small scalpel” to remove the unborn infant from Simmons’ body, and that she had left the scalpel at the scene. A small scalpel was found in Simmon’s neck during her autopsy.
“Parker cased the death of Simmons and abducted the unborn child from Simmons’ body,” the affidavit concludes. “Parker did not have consent to leave the home with the child and due to the inability to provide necessary care to the child, Parker caused the death of the baby.”
Parker remains held in Bowie County on $5 million bond since her extradition from McCurtain County, Oklahoma on Wednesday.