Texas Woman Posing as Photographer Murders Pregnant Bride – Steals Unborn Baby, Gets Death Sentence

A woman in Texas, who was hired as a photographer to cover the engagement and wedding of a pregnant woman, brutally murdered the expectant murder and stole her child.

The 27-year-old woman, Taylor Rene Parker, has been sentenced to death on murder charges.

The unfortunate incident unfolded when Parker was pulled over for speeding on a highway in October 2020. The photographer told the state trooper after she was pulled over in De Kalb, Texas, that she had just given birth to a child on the side of the road and that the baby needed medical attention. The officer then brought both of them to a nearby hospital in Oklahoma, where hospital authorities pronounced the baby girl dead, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

However, suspicion began to arise among staff at McCurtain Memorial Hospital in Idabel after Parker refused medical attention, according to reports from KTAL-TV and the Texarkana Gazette.

Shortly after the incident, investigators determined that the baby did not belong to Parker, but rather was taken from the womb of the 21-year-old woman named Reagan Simmons Hancock. Authorities learned that Hancock was brutally murdered in Texas by Parker while she was seven and a half months pregnant with her daughter.

Simmons Hancock had previously hired Parker as a photographer for her engagement and wedding. The victim’s mother testified that she was surprised that the duo was in touch and believed that they connected after her daughter announced pregnancy.

An autopsy report revealed that Hancock’s skull was hit with a hammer and her body was stabbed more than 100 times before her unborn baby was taken out with a scalpel. The mother was then reportedly left to die with her 3-year-old daughter.

Parker was immediately arrested by authorities and taken into custody. She was charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping. In October 2022, she was convicted of capital murder and was denied a new trial in 2025, leaving her on death row.

The investigators, in the course of the investigation, learned that Parker had premeditated the murder plot as part of a larger scheme to stop her boyfriend from leaving.

Assistant District Attorney, Kelly Crisp, described her as “an actress of the higher order, during the high-profile weeks-long trial. The prosecutor alleged that Parker kept up a ruse that she was pregnant for 10 months.