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The case of Taylor Parker is a strange one indeed. It started with a young heiress's pursuit of love, but somewhere along the way, it became something else entirely. Her story devolved into a drama akin to the best sellers of our time and times past. Each page revealed a new character to unpack, a new hurdle to overcome, and a new mystery to mull over. The villain, however, remained the same.
In April of 2019, Taylor met the man she wanted to marry, Wade Griffin. She fell pregnant with twins four months later, but sadly, her pregnancy ended just as unexpectedly as it began.
In the wake of their tragedy, Taylor weaved what she thought would be their happy ending. The young heiress opened her heart and her wallet to Wade, chasing a lifestyle reminiscent of that which she had been raised on. Frustratingly, it always seemed to be just out of reach. It has been said that money can't buy happiness. In Taylor's case, it couldn't buy anything.
something always got between her and her inheritance, or more specifically, someone. Shona Pryor, her mother, mortal enemy, and the executor of her family's fortune, saw to it that the couple was saddled with debt and at each other's throats. She sabotaged wire transfers, hacked into their phones, and turned Wade's loved ones against Taylor, painting her as a desperate, delusional liar.
The couple's love story turned melodrama spiraled into a psychological thriller of epic proportions. A murder-for-hire plot ended in a shootout with the FBI, a predator rose from the dead, and a multi-million dollar property deal was foiled. At the center of it all was Shona. Taylor was sure of it, but who would believe her now?
As the dust settled, the young heiress found herself without friends. She was scapegoated for the mess her mother made, undermining her reputation and her word. In the end, even Wade doubted her. But we are far from the end. As Taylor neared her due date, a fuse was lit and two fates were sealed, sparking a disturbing series of events, exposing the true villain of today's tale.
This is the story of a doomed hog deal, an act of arson, a targeted bomb threat, and a double homicide. Above all, this is the story of the truth. Part one, a friend in need. In mid-September of 2020, 27-year-old Taylor Parker was very pregnant and very stressed.
With her due date just days away, she should have been taking it easy, savoring the short-lived silence and gushing about little Clancy Gale's arrival with friends. Instead, she was alone and riddled with anxiety. Shona made sure of that.
She had poisoned the minds of those close to the expectant parents. Thanks to her, the couple's loved ones doubted the existence of Taylor's inheritance and royalties. They blamed the young heiress for Wade's financial misfortunes and labeled her a liar. As if that wasn't bad enough, they actually doubted the existence of Clancy Gale altogether. Taylor posted baby bump selfies, ultrasound pictures, and videos of her unborn daughter's excited kicking.
it wasn't enough. She took test after test, many of which were tampered with by Shona, and eventually got undeniable proof of pregnancy. Still, it wasn't enough. The stress of it all put immense strain on the couple's relationship, which, in turn, gave rise to serious complications in Taylor's pregnancy.
Even then, she was forced to battle accusation after accusation from so-called friends on Facebook, and it quickly became too much for her to bear alone.
Overwhelmed and ostracized, Taylor reached out to one of the few friends who had never doubted her for a second: 21-year-old Reagan Simmons Hancock. In truth, the women were little more than Facebook friends. They had met online the previous year when Taylor was trying her hand at professional photography, and the pair stayed in contact ever since.
She was hired for Reagan's engagement shoot, and then again as the photographer for her wedding, which took place on September 21st, 2019. That was about the extent of their friendship, until Taylor leaned on Reagan for support, that is. You see, the young heiress had no one else left. She desperately sought a shoulder to cry on. More so, she sought to connect with someone who understood her.
Reagan never questioned Taylor's pregnancy. She was also seven months pregnant and a young mother herself, making her the perfect person to confide in. Reagan had a three-year-old daughter from a previous marriage called Kindly. Her husband, Homer Hancock, was like a father to her little girl, but the couple still dreamed of having a baby of their own. In early 2020, their dreams were made a reality.
On August 16th, Reagan made a Facebook post announcing that she and Homer were expecting a baby girl on November 10th.
they christened their unborn bundle of joy, Braxland Sage. Reagan, like Taylor, had been very public about her pregnancy, posting ultrasound pictures and updates just as regularly and enthusiastically. In short, the expectant mothers were a match made in heaven. They texted back and forth in the days leading up to Taylor's due date, connecting over their pregnancies and confiding in each other about their fears.
Reagan was worried that Braxland Sage would be premature. She even had a hospital bag packed and at the ready. "I'm scared she's fixing to come faster. I feel like she's going to be here before November," the 21-year-old would later tell her friend, Abby Mathis. Taylor, on the other hand, was worried that her baby wasn't coming soon enough.
Wade had taken family medical leave to be there for the birth, but the heiress's due date came and went. And by early October, little Clancy Gayle had still not arrived. Taylor reassured her boyfriend and explained that, although their baby was overdue, a recent ultrasound scan found nothing out of the ordinary. That's not all. Though the ultrasound results were promising, her OB-GYN felt that they couldn't wait any longer.
Taylor excitedly told Wade that she was scheduled to be induced on October 5th at Titus Regional Medical Center in Mount Pleasant, Texas. The young couple were elated. Finally, after almost two weeks of waiting, baby Clancy Gayle Griffin would be in their arms. Of course, Shona certainly didn't share their excitement. Taylor and Wade's inboxes were inundated with hostile messages from Mandy Boddy, one of which included an ominous warning.
Mandy, who we know to be Shona, sneered that a bomb threat would be called in on the very day that Taylor was due to be induced. Worse, she vowed that the heiress would be blamed for it. The couple laughed it off. Clearly, Shona was just trying to scare them. Or was she? This episode is brought to you by Acorns. Imagine if every purchase you made could help build your financial future effortlessly. Thanks to Acorns, this
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Part two, I'll clap for you this time. In the early morning hours of October 5th, Taylor and Wade woke up filled with nervous anticipation. They were excited for the birth of their daughter.
That said, the couple couldn't help but worry about Shona's warning, and anxiety inevitably crept in as they checked and rechecked Taylor's hospital bag. However, as it turned out, a bomb threat would be the least of their worries. That morning, a fire suddenly broke out beneath Wade's cabin. You can't make this stuff up.
Thankfully, no one was hurt, and firefighters managed to get the blaze under control, extinguishing its flames before any serious damage was done. Wade's cabin certainly didn't come out unscathed, though. The fire had knocked out the power and plumbing, leaving the expectant parents without electricity and water. Taylor and Wade were grateful to be alive, but, frankly, that was not how they imagined bringing their baby girl into the world.
Unfortunately, their situation would only worsen as the clock ticked closer to Taylor's scheduled labor. That same morning, just after the fire had been put out, Taylor was contacted by an official from Titus Regional Medical Center. They were calling to notify the heiress that her induction had been unexpectedly canceled. Hours earlier, at around 5 a.m., a bomb threat was called into the hospital, and over 100 people had to be evacuated.
Taylor and Wade watched the news in utter disbelief, which showed footage of patients being moved to the safety of the local civic center. It quickly dawned on them that Shona's warning hadn't been a warning at all. It had been a promise. The couple was unsettled, to say the least, but there was still hope. The following day, Taylor told Wade that her induction had been rescheduled for October 9th, giving them just enough time to hatch a plan and prevent her mother from sabotaging it again.
In the meantime, they needed a shower. The couple headed over to the Griffin household to indulge in what they now considered a luxury, electricity and water. Wade expected his mother, Connie, to welcome them with open arms, but something was wrong. It was written all over her face.
When Taylor hopped into the shower, he found out why. Connie quietly pulled Wade aside and begged him to go back to work. She snapped at Wade and told him that it had been exactly two weeks since Taylor's due date had passed, arguing that there was no indication she would give birth at all, let alone anytime soon. In truth, Connie was right to worry. Wade's income was on the line and he was in no position to jeopardize it.
Family medical leave usually only lasted a day or two, but with little Clancy Gale long overdue, he had pushed it too far and his boss was calling almost daily.
Even so, Wade stood his ground and insisted that Taylor was scheduled to be induced in just three days' time. But it was no use. Connie flat out refused to believe that the heiress was carrying her granddaughter. Worse, she actually accused Taylor of being behind the bomb threat, just as Shona had predicted.
A screaming match ensued and Wade stormed out of the house. He was furious with his mother, but truthfully, he knew she was right. And he told Taylor as much when she got home. Wade declared that he was going back to work and would take time off to meet her at the hospital if she went into labor. End of story. Outraged, Taylor clapped back, insisting that she would prove everybody wrong. Come October 9th, she would have a baby in her arms and they would all be sorry.
Wade eventually calmed down and was overcome with guilt. He knew Taylor was pregnant. He had been with her every step of the way, yet he had let Shona get to him once again. Of course, she wasted no time rubbing it in. How's your mom doing? I love how you and your family treat her. They're on my side now. Great job, Wade. I'll clap for you this time, Shona wrote. Part three, Sticks and Stones.
On October 8th, the atmosphere in Wade's cabin was grim. It was the day before Taylor was due to be induced and Shona was still following their every move. The couple had brushed off her violent threats when she first waged war against her daughter. Sticks and stones, as the saying goes. Now, however, Shona had made it clear that she was willing to use far more than mere words to sabotage Taylor's chance at happiness.
After the fire knocked out the power and plumbing in Wade's cabin on October 5th, Rick Jones, a forensic fire analyst, was tasked with investigating the source of the blaze. It seemed to be caused by an electrical fault of some sort, initially, at least. Upon further inspection, Jones determined that someone had started the fire with a lighter. It was a targeted act of arson.
He wasn't able to identify the culprit, but Taylor and Wade didn't need him to. Who, other than Shona, would set the cabin ablaze the very day her daughter was expected to give birth? As if that wasn't incriminating enough, a bomb threat was called in at the hospital and Taylor was blamed for it, just as Shona had threatened. Evidently, Shona was willing to do anything to see her plan through, and Taylor and Wade were determined to beat her at her own game.
Like thieves in the night, the young couple resorted to buying burner phones to prevent Shona from tracking their movements and listening in on their conversations. That way, they could come up with a plan in peace. First and foremost, they had to find a hospital out of state and out of Shona's reach where Taylor could be induced safely. The heiress contacted several facilities, but none would perform an unscheduled induction on a patient who wasn't registered with them.
Then, she called McCurtain Memorial Hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma. The receptionist informed her that they would not turn anyone down, whether they were a patient there or not. It was perfect. Now, all the couple needed was cash, but Taylor already had a plan in place for that.
The heiress had struck a hog deal back in September with Scott Robinson, the owner of Side by Side Ranch in Winnie Wood, Oklahoma. He was hosting seven groups of hunters at his lodge that weekend and wanted to buy 150 hogs for them to shoot on his land. The couple would have to drop the hogs off the following morning, hours before Taylor was scheduled to go into labor. However, the deal would bring in $6,100 and they desperately needed the money.
Taylor and Wade planned to leave in the early morning hours and make the four-hour drive to Scott's Ranch in Winniewood. Then, after selling the hogs, they would swoop down to Idabel to induce Taylor's labor.
Armed with what seemed like a foolproof plan, the couple headed out to pick up a plug for Wade's gooseneck trailer, stopping off for a steak dinner at Osaka's on their way home. It was a celebration of sorts. They had outsmarted Shona and, the following morning, they would finally meet Clancy Gale. After dinner, Wade got busy preparing his truck for the trip.
Taylor, however, couldn't sit still, so she decided to pay a visit to Reagan. She wanted to share the news of tomorrow's induction. More so, she wanted to bring her friend a gift for little Braxlyn Sage. Taylor arrived at the Hancock household just as they had finished up with dinner. She surprised Reagan with the gift, topping it off with the 21-year-old's favorite Starbucks coffee. Reagan's heart was warmed by the heiress's kindness and was bursting at the news of Clancy Gale's coming birth.
She excitedly pulled Taylor into Braxland's nursery and Homer promptly snuck off to bed. The last thing he heard was Taylor offering to help Reagan decorate it. Part 4, 150 Wild Hogs. When Wade woke on October 9th, the sun hadn't yet risen, but Taylor was already up and about. She had been suffering through intense cramps all night and whimpered that she couldn't bear sitting in the truck for four hours. Wade would have to go without her
Taylor decided to drive to the hospital herself and get registered once she felt better. Initially, Wade refused to leave her side.
He was concerned about her driving to Idabel heavily pregnant and alone. But Taylor insisted. There was far too much money at stake. Wade reluctantly left for Winnywood at around 4 am, with plans to meet Taylor at McCurtain Memorial Hospital once he had dropped the hogs off. Of course, as usual, nothing went as planned. He pulled up to the ranch just after 7:30 am, expecting to be welcomed by the owner.
Instead, he was approached by a confused ranch hand who told him to move his trailer. He had parked it right in front of the lodge where clients were hosted. Stunned, Wade did as he was told and pulled into the woods about a half mile back where he waited and waited and waited. Eventually, a disgruntled looking man marched up to his truck. It was Scott Robinson. Am I in the right place? Wade asked, bewildered. I don't even know why you're here, Scott complained.
Wade explained that he was there to deliver the hogs that had been ordered and collect the $6,100 he was owed for the load, which only further irritated the ranch owner. Scott snapped that he didn't order any hogs and he certainly didn't owe him any money. Annoyed, Wade promptly whipped out his phone and pulled up the text message he had received from the ranch owner to prove it.
Thanks man. It read.
Scott insisted that he didn't write that text. It wasn't even his number. It had an Oklahoma area code, but after moving there from Dallas years earlier, the ranch owner had never gotten around to changing his number. The men remained at Loggerheads until Scott learned that Wade's surname was Griffin and immediately showed him text messages of his own. They were from Taylor.
The ranch owner growled that a Taylor Griffin had cold-called him two weeks earlier to sell him the beasts, but the deal was riddled with red flags. Taylor wanted the money up front and, though she offered him a whopping 150 hogs, she didn't have the licensing needed to cross state lines with them. Scott questioned the legitimacy of the deal and told her that he couldn't accept hogs from out of state without the proper paperwork.
Taylor immediately backpedaled, claiming that she was actually coming from Oklahoma, not Texas, as she had initially said. At that stage, Scott had heard enough. He called her a liar and refused to do business with her. Yet, here Wade Griffin was with 150 wild hogs. The ranch owner was sure it was a scam. Perhaps the couple had screwed up the deal with someone else and was trying to pawn the pigs off on him. Scott was livid.
This is a bogus deal. I didn't want him. I didn't order him. And I'm not doing this deal, he barked, before telling his ranch hand to show the hog trader out while storming off. Wade's heart sank. It was a federal offense to transport livestock across state lines without a license. Wade, who traded hogs within Texas, didn't have that license. He had only taken the risk because he was drowning in debt, and Taylor had clear confirmation that Scott was in on it. Obviously, he wasn't.
Wade had been set up. And who else would have had the balls to do it but Shona?
He figured that Taylor's mother must have orchestrated the out-of-state deal, knowing that he couldn't pass it up, and planned to call the cops on him. He had to think fast. Otherwise, he was going to jail. Wade begged the ranch hand to reconsider the deal for a good price. He had driven four hours with the Hogs, the heat was rising, and he needed to get rid of them. After some negotiating, the ranch hand eventually agreed to take the Hogs off his hands for a meager $2,500.
Wade left the ranch at around 10:00 AM, despondent, but determined to make it to Idabel in time to be there for his daughter's birth. Unbeknownst to him, that would never happen. The dad-to-be arrived at McCurtain Memorial Hospital in the early afternoon and rushed to the reception desk, asking for Taylor's room number. The nurse gave him a strange look and pointed down the hallway. There, walking towards him, were three police officers. They ordered him to turn around and put his hands on the wall.
"What's going on?" Wade cried, certain that he was being arrested for the illegal hog deal. The officers told him to stop asking questions before cuffing him and ushering him into a police cruiser. Part 5: Where's Mommy? Hours earlier, at around 10:00 AM, an ambulance carrying a 27-year-old woman arrived at the very same hospital where Wade was later arrested.
She had given birth on the side of the US 82 highway in DeKalb, Texas, and the baby she cradled was unresponsive. Her name was Taylor Parker. The pair were immediately swarmed by medical staff. A nurse asked Taylor when her due date was, trying to get as much information as possible.
"The 30th," she replied. The nurse assumed that she meant the 30th of October and noted that the baby was three weeks premature, but Taylor shook her head. She corrected the nurse saying that her baby, Clancy Gale, was three weeks late. Her due date was in September. The nurse paused and looked at her colleagues in alarm. That was impossible. The newborn was tiny. However, she quickly realized that she couldn't press Taylor any further on the matter.
They were running out of time. Clancy Gale's lips were blue and her skin was cold and clammy to the touch. A team of neonatologists worked frantically to keep her alive. She was hooked up to all manner of machines, swathed in wires, and intubated, but her heartbeat remained faint.
The Holter monitor would beep, then flatline, and beep again, until it flatlined for the final time. Little Clancy Gail Griffin was pronounced dead on the morning of October 9th, just hours after being born. Following the loss of their tiny patient, the atmosphere in the emergency ward was grim, and the medical staff deathly silent. It was hard to accept that such a pure, precious life could be cut so short so quickly. However, that's not why the medical staff was on edge.
The uncomfortable whispers that permeated the ward stemmed from a particularly disturbing discovery made just moments before the tragedy. Doctors determined that Taylor had not given birth, nor was she even pregnant to begin with. The lifeless baby girl she had been cradling wasn't hers. That much was clear. The question was, where was her mother? At 10:20 AM, just after the newborn was pronounced dead, that question was answered.
Reports came in that a young woman had been murdered in her home in New Boston, Texas. Her mother, Jessica Brooks, had found her lying face down in the living room around the same time Taylor arrived at the hospital. That woman's name was Reagan Simmons Hancock. A raw, wild howl tore through Jessica's throat and she fell to her knees, broken by the sight of her daughter's mutilated body.
At that stage, she had no idea the suffering Reagan had endured at the hands of her so-called friend, but the signs were there. Her living room was drenched in her own blood. It was splattered across the floor, furniture and appliances and dripped down the walls. This was no accident, this was murder.
Jessica's trembling hands hovered over Reagan's body, desperate to hold her tight, but too terrified to turn her over. Instead, she dialed 911. The call came in just after 10:15 a.m. and was answered by Katie Jimenez, the very same dispatcher who spoke with Taylor on the US 82 highway. Jessica was near unintelligible, yet in between hysterical sobs, she managed to explain that her daughter had been murdered.
Jimenez tried to distract the devastated mother by asking question after question, but it was futile. The dispatcher heard Jessica calling out for her husband, Marcus, who had followed her into the house shortly after she made the gruesome discovery. He had been frantically searching the rooms for their three-year-old granddaughter, kindly, in a panicked voice. Jessica asked Marcus if the toddler was hurt, but Jimenez couldn't hear his answer.
Three agonizing minutes passed before the call finally picked up a tiny, faint voice. "Where's mommy?" Little kindly whimpered. Part 6: Satan in the Flesh Bowie County Police descended upon the blood-soaked scene shortly after Jessica's heart-wrenching 911 call.
After learning that Reagan was seven months pregnant, officers immediately radioed EMS personnel to check on the status of her baby. However, once paramedics turned her corpse over, the homicide case became a kidnapping. Reagan's pregnant belly had been viciously sliced open, and the fetus that had been growing within was gone.
Horrifically, her unborn baby girl had been ripped from her womb at just 35 weeks old, along with the placenta that once nourished her. The brutal murder of a 21-year-old mother was more than enough to light a fire under the crime scene investigators. Now, however, they realized that there was far more at stake. The life of an innocent, premature baby was on the line, and time was running out.
Investigators swept the scene for clues and forensics teams collected DNA samples, all whilst skirting around the pool of amniotic fluid that had seeped from Reagan's gaping belly. It was clear that she had fought fiercely, not only to protect herself, but her two little girls. The sheer volume of defensive wounds inflicted upon the pregnant mother was shocking. Reagan's hands, palms, and fingers were riddled with bruises, cuts, scrapes, and stab wounds.
One finger had been dislocated and the tip of another was all but entirely chopped off. However, despite her desperate struggle to survive, it simply wasn't enough to fend off her killer. Reagan was savagely beaten with a blunt object and stabbed repeatedly in a brutal, prolonged attack.
The carnage that followed can only be likened to a splatter film. And horrifically, it would later come out that the 21-year-old clung to life long after the first incision was made. The killer sliced Reagan open from hip to hip before removing and dissecting her uterus to steal the fetus from within, all of which was done while her three-year-old daughter was in the house.
Slowly, and after much suffering, it seemed that Reagan eventually succumbed to massive blood loss. Whoever had committed this disturbingly gruesome crime was now on the run with a 21-year-old's baby girl, and investigators were determined to apprehend them before anything happened to her. In the end, it didn't take much detective work to do it, but tragically, it would already be too late.
After getting a tip off from the Curtin Memorial Hospital, the police realized that they had inadvertently encountered the killer less than an hour before Jessica's 911 call came in. Suddenly, everything made sense. Taylor Parker, the woman pulled over in the 2009 Toyota Corolla, had not given birth. Worse, the tiny, blue newborn body in the hospital morgue wasn't Clancy Gale Griffin. It was Braxland Sage Hancock.
Investigators raced to Idabel and confronted Taylor as she lay in a hospital bed, feigning postpartum pain. It didn't take long for her to crack, of course. How could she claim innocence after pretending to have birthed a baby that was ripped from its dead mother's belly?
Taylor tearfully confessed to getting into a physical altercation with Reagan and taking off with her unborn child. However, she conveniently left out a few details and altered others in an attempt to lessen her culpability, as you'll soon see. Shockingly, and many would say finally, she even admitted that she had lied about being pregnant.
Wade's family and friends had been right. Taylor was faking her pregnancy all along. Upon her partial and, frankly, tailored confession, the heiress was promptly discharged from the hospital and booked into jail. The news of the grisly double homicide tore through New Boston and Texas as a whole. Those who knew Reagan very nearly refused to believe it. Just hours earlier, the 21-year-old mother had been so full of life
Now, she lay mutilated on the cold steel table of a morgue. Her belly slashed open and her baby gone. She didn't even get to meet little Braxlyn Sage. Reagan was remembered for being sweet and gentle, but tough when needed. More so, she was remembered for being a mother unlike any other. The 21-year-old worked so hard to provide for her little family,
In fact, she was still working at Flying Burger and Seafood up until the day she died. Despite her swollen ankles and aching back, it was worth it. She had so much to look forward to. After being married for a little over a year, Reagan and Homer had just bought their first house. She dreamed of Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas mornings, and the college courses she planned to take in the coming spring. Thanks to Taylor, her dreams died with her.
It was an unspeakable, senseless tragedy felt by all, but none more than Jessica Brooks. The night before the murders, she listened to Reagan gush about meeting her baby girl. She was so proud of the mother her daughter turned out to be. Jessica later took to Facebook, heartbroken and grief-stricken. "I don't have it in me right now to make a long post, but mainly, I am begging for prayers without ceasing for our family.
"Our beautiful daughter, Reagan Hancock, and her precious unborn baby girl, Braxlyn, were murdered yesterday by Satan in the flesh," she wrote. Part 7: Get Her Out of Me In the days following her arrest, Taylor spun a sensational story. She insisted that the murders were a simple misunderstanding, positioning herself as an unwitting hero rather than a savage killer.
According to her, it all started with a migraine. Taylor told investigators that she had been suffering from debilitating migraines and blackouts. Allegedly, Reagan was worried about her. So much so, that she apparently waited until Homer had left for work before inviting her over to rest.
Taylor claimed that she had one of her supposed episodes on the way there and came to in the parking lot of a funeral home, dazed and confused, but determined to make it to the Hancock household. According to her, that was the moment her memory got murky. How convenient. Taylor remembered that she was stumbling up the driveway, slipping in and out of consciousness, when Reagan grabbed her and yelled at her to wake the fuck up.
She allegedly tried to flee, sensing that something was wrong, but her friend simply wouldn't let go, and a struggle broke out. The two women started shoving each other in, despite being overcome by some unexplained affliction. Taylor managed to throw Reagan to the ground. Apparently, the impact had been violent enough to mortally wound the mother-to-be, leaving her bleeding and barely conscious.
Reagan allegedly shouted that she was dying and begged the heiress to save her baby, yelling, get her out of me, over and over again. Of course, Taylor was more than happy to oblige. Though she couldn't remember performing the crude C-section, she could remember pulling Braxland sage from her mother's belly. Reagan, who was apparently still alive and conscious, screamed at Taylor to leave her to die, insisting that she was the only one who could save her baby now.
I'll leave it at that, because I simply can't stomach the rest of Taylor's self-absorbed confession. She donned the bloodied cape of a pseudo-hero, likening poor Reagan to the cliched martyrs of B-grade movies and little Braxland to some macabre trophy. Thankfully, that wasn't lost on the police.
The investigator's skepticism was unrelenting as they poked holes in Taylor's story and pointed out obvious inconsistencies, most notably Reagan's injuries. Dr. Melinda Flores, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy, found that the 21-year-old mother-to-be had well over 100 stab wounds, at least 39 of which were clustered around her head.
Dr. Flores determined that she had also been bludgeoned with a blunt object and the clawed end of a hammer, leaving her skull fractured in five separate places. A large jar filled with pink and blue sand from the Hancock's wedding was thought to be said blunt object. Braxland Sage was then cut from the womb of her mother's battered body with a small scalpel, though Taylor claimed to have left it beside her victim. Dr. Flores later found the scalpel lodged within Reagan's neck,
That's not all the medical examiner discovered. The 21-year-old hadn't died from massive blood loss as they had initially believed, but from strangulation. Astoundingly, Taylor actually thought that a strong push would explain away these injuries, but it did little more than solidify her guilt. On October 14th, 2020, the heiress was extradited to Bowie County, Texas and was placed in custody at the Bi-State Criminal Justice Center.
The very next day, she was indicted by a grand jury for capital murder, kidnapping, and an additional murder charge for causing the death of Braxlyn Sage. Prosecutors made it clear that Taylor had planned Reagan's brutal murder and the fetal abduction that followed. More so, they stressed that she had shown no remorse nor accountability for what she had done. That, combined with the heinous nature of her crimes, prompted them to seek the death penalty.
"Let the punishment fit the crime," as they say. Later that day, Taylor appeared at the 202nd District Court for her arraignment looking disheveled and particularly sorry for herself. Astoundingly, the 27-year-old mother-turned-murderer pleaded not guilty before being dragged back to prison on a $5 million bond. As an heir to the Blackburn Syrup fortune that was little more than pocket change,
but the woman wearing bright orange inmate scrubs was no heir nor millionaire. I'm sure that you, a connoisseur of true crime, had your suspicions from the very beginning of our story. Or perhaps you, too, became caught up in the intricate web of untruths that was woven around Wade Griffin. Now, dear listeners, it's time to untangle yourself because none of it was real. It was all a lie.
Taylor Parker's story is precisely that, a story, one spun by the spider herself. She lured us through the looking glass into a world of her own creation, populated almost exclusively by a cast of fictional characters. Her desires became delusions, and those delusions turned deadly, shattering the illusion and revealing, for the very first time, the truth.
