Everyone's talking about true crime documentary Maternal Instinct, and here's why

Maternal Instinct is currently the number one true crime documentary on Netflix, and it seems like everyone is talking about it. There’s a good reason for that: Taylor Parker committed a truly shocking and heart-breaking crime, and the doc doesn’t flinch about giving us the bloody details.

For those who are not familiar with the case, I urge you to watch the documentary…but be warned, the details can be triggering for some people. Also be warned that there will be spoilers contained in this article.

Wade Griffin was just average guy living in Texas in 2019 when he met Taylor Parker. The two became romantically involved, and things seemed great at first. She was pretty, vivacious, and Wade’s friends and family members thought she was great. And hey, according to her, she was soon going to be a millionaire, thanks to an inheritance.

The two found a large piece of property they planned to purchase as soon the money came in, bought new vehicles, started to make big plans. Then she claimed that her mother was trying to sabotage her and her big money, and some of the friends and family members began to doubt her stories.

When Taylor told Wade she was pregnant, the people around him slowly started to doubt those claims as well, for good reason. Friends from Taylor’s past started contacting Wade’s mother and friends, saying there was no way she could possibly be pregnant, because she had had a hysterectomy. But Taylor doubled down, continuing to insist she was indeed pregnant.

Since all of this happened during COVID, Wade had no reason to doubt her claims that he couldn’t go with her to her doctor’s appointments. And even after everyone else around him tried to convince him that he was being lied to, he still believed her.

As her approaching due date crept closer, Taylor apparently began to plan. She had been making a living as a photographer, and had become close friends with Reagan Simmons Hancock, whose wedding Taylor had photographed. And now, Reagan was also pregnant.

The facts of the crime committed in Maternal Instinct are hard to take in

After her own due date had come and gone, Taylor was pulled over by a police officer, and the officer approached her car to find her frantic, insisting she had just given birth in her car, and the baby was not breathing. She was taken to the hospital, still stubbornly insisting she had given birth to the infant.

Of course, medical exams proved otherwise. And that’s where this crazy story gets incredibly dark. The baby (who died) actually belonged to Reagan, who had been found murdered in her home. Taylor had killed her “friend”, and cut the baby out of her. Reagan’s parents had gone to check on her after she didn’t respond to phone calls, and her poor mother discovered her horribly mutilated body. Let that sink in for a minute. Her MOTHER found Reagan’s body.

Obviously, the entire story is tragic, and there is so much more information included in Maternal Instinct. It leaves you wondering how Wade could have possibly continued to believe Taylor’s stories as time went on…but, she was very convincing, and who would believe that an outcome like this was on the horizon?

Taylor was of course found guilty and received a death sentence. But the horrible way that Reagan Simmons Hancock was killed has left her family with what will most likely be lifelong trauma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzW61JgRbNk