Trial underway of woman accused of murdering friend in order to steal her unborn child

New Boston, Texas: The trial of 29-year-old Taylor Rene Parker began on Monday. She has been charged with murder for the October 9, 2020 killing of 21-year-old Regan Michelle Simmons-Hancock and the subsequent death of her daughter Braxlynn Sage Hancock.

Parker has plead not guilty to capitol murder, murder, and kidnapping.

At the time of her death Regan was 35 weeks pregnant.

During court proceedings Bowie County District Attorney Kelley Crisp told the court that Parker had been faking a pregnancy in the months prior in order to try to keep her boyfriend from leaving her.

The lies included a faked ultrasound, a gender reveal party, posting about the alleged pregnancy on social media, and lying about an induction appointment at a hospital. In order to keep her boyfriend from meeting her at the hospital Parker is believed to have called in a bomb threat.

Special Agent Dustin Estes of the Texas Department of Public Safety testified that Parker had viewed numerous videos on YouTube concerning delivering and caring for babies. He stated that on the morning of October 9 she watched a video that dealt specifically with the physical exam of an infant delivered at 35 weeks.

"She watched all these videos, clicked all these links, and they were all at 35 weeks," Crisp told the court.

"My opinion is Taylor Parker faked her pregnancy... She planned and carried out the murder of Reagan," Estes stated.

Parker's attorney took exception to his statement countering saying, "You can see somebody looked them up, but you don't know why. You can have a theory."

According to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case Parker is believed to have stabbed Regan over 100 times and even crushed her skull with a hammer before using a scalpel to remove her unborn daughter from her womb.

Parker then took the baby, leaving Regan to die in her home with her 3-year-old daughter.

12 miles from the crime scene Parker was stopped by a state trooper near the Texas Oklahoma border. She claimed that she had given birth to the baby girl on the side of the road and was driving to the hospital because she wasn't breathing.

Both were transported to a hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma where Braxlynn was pronounced deceased and it was soon determined that Parker had not given birth despite allegedly "shoving Regan's placenta down her pants" to further the ruse.

Parker has been in custody since October 9 and faced the possibility of the death penalty if convicted on the charge of capitol murder.

The trial is expected to last approximately a month.