Reflecting on the Impact of the Case

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And if you're not, I want you to stay with me By the end of this episode, you're going understand why this case is the most disturbing of the last decade And why the woman at the center of it is now the youngest woman on Texas's death row My guest today is the director of Maternal Instinct Chessica Dema Before we get into that conversation, I wantan to walk you through what actually happened becausecause the case is so strange, so unthinkable. that even people who watch the documentary are still trying to make sense of it So it begins in October of twenty twenty in New Boston, Texas It is a small town near the Arkansas border. It's the kind of place where people leave their doors unlocked A twenty seven year old woman named Taylor Parker pulled her car over to the side of the highway. and called nine hundred eleven and told the dispatcher that she had just given birth alone on the side of the road When emergency responders arrived, there was a baby and that baby was alive Taylor Parker had not given birth She had never even been pregnant For ten months, she'd been telling everyone in her life herer boyfriend, his family, her own family and her coworkers that she was expecting. She wore a silicone belly under her clothes She showed people forged ultrasound photos She threw a gender revealed party and she even set a due date. My boyfriend's name was Wade Griffin, a hog trapper from East Texas. He had no reason to doubt her He was already picking out names. He wanted to name the baby Clancy But as the due date approach, the people around Taylor began to ask questions, Where were her doctor's appointments Why hadn't anyone met the OB? And when exactly was she do The story stopped adding up. and Taylor Parker with a fake pregnancy that was about to be exposed and a man that she was terrified of losing. decided she needed baby So on the morning of october ninth, twenty twenty, she drove to the home of a twenty one year old woman named Regan Simmondons Hancock Now I want to stop here and I want to tell you about Reagon Because in the noise of a case like this, the victim can go Fast Regan Simmons Hancock was twenty one years old. She was married and had a young daughter already. And she was seven months pregnant with her second Another little girl And her family had already chosen the name Braxan Reagan knew Taylor, they had been friendly which is how Taylor got through that door that morning What happened inside that house is the most violent part of the story, and I'm not going to walk through it on this episode The documentary handles it with restraint and I want to do the same What you do need to know is that neither Rean nor Braxon survived. Regan's three year old daughter was in the house when this happened Taylor Parker took Braxlland from Reagon and got back in her car And she drove for over an hour with the baby before pulling over and making that nine hundred eleven call By the time the first responders reached her Braxland was already gone Taylor was arrested at the scene The trial took place in twenty twenty two. The prosecution presented one of the most thoroughly documented cases of premeditation, Texas had ever seen the months of fake pregnancy the search history, the cover up, all of it And the jury convicted her of capital murder She was sentenced to death and she is currently the youngest woman on Texas's death row And here's what makes Taylor Parker so horrifying and why I think this case is going to stay with people long after they finish watching this documentary It's not just the violence. There is sadly no shortage of violence in the true crime space. It's the duration of the lie ten months, ten months of doctor's appointments that she never had, ten months of strapping on a silicon belly every morning, ten months of looking the man that she loved She said that she loved in the eye and telling them the same lie tenen months of accepting baby gifts, ten months of letting his family plan a future that did not exist. It's one thing to snap. It's another thing entirely to commit every single day for almost a year to a story that you know will end in someone else's death So that is what maternal instinct is about. It's not just about the crime, but the architecture of the lie and how it was built and who believed it, who didn't, and what it cost. So I was so grateful to talk to the director. I know that so many of you have watched this and had a lot of questions, and I hope that we answer many of them Again, it is called maternal Ininct and it is on Netflix. And again, I wanted to warn you that this is a deeply upsetting case As always, thank you for listening and here's my interview Jessic, it's a pleasure meet you. Thank you, you as well. I feel like you're going be pretty popular for a couple days. People are going be trying to reach you because this one is a story that I had heard about and completely Interesting. sort of forgotten about it. and as soon as I started listening and watching, I was reminded of it. It's truly a story that is haunting. How did it find its way to you I was brought the story by the amazing production company, Story Syndicate, and they had it by way of an incredible producer Sam Da Maria and Ryan Maisy as well, who had stumbled upon this story, really had great instincts about knowing that there was something very unique, something very compelling and thought that it deserved, you know, a deeper dive there are so many of these fetal abduction cases What is it about this one that really stood out You know, I think it's really It's a kind of chaotic hailstorm that Taylor creates around This fetal abduction, I think it's the fact that I don't particularly think that She knew exactly what she was going to do until, I mean, it was definitely premeditated. do not get me wrong, but I think that she was grasping and desperate and just knew that sheed to contin wanted to continue to manipulate her than partner Wade and was going to go to any lengths and hurt anyone to do that. And so She It didn't care about who or what stood in her way and she could not be told that she was a liar. She could not face accountability and she was just going to go to the ends of the earth to like prove everyone wrong Now weight appears throughout the trailer What was the first conversation with him like? And at what point did he agree to participate in what convinced him You know, it was it always felt important to try to include him. I knew that kind of right away. I knew that there was a possibility that he wouldn't participate and we would have dealt with that. but I always, in my heart of hearts, really felt that his participation and his perspective were so essential And it was through Sama Maria that She reached out to him couple of conversations and really I think gave him the space to talk about his hesitation. And you know I think ultimately and this is the case for Witer, really, anyone that participates in this type of personal story, I think it's in part because they do have a perspective that they want to share Um As long as it's done with sensitivity, you know, they want to be handled. Cfully, but you know, ultimately like this is their lives and to Be able to say their piece, I think is really important for people you know, when they want to. And if the answer is no, then it's no. and there's reasons for that too. But I I think when people express the desire to participate or come around and are willing to do it. I'm never skeptical about that desire. I always really in my gut, get it. Have you ever noticed that your sheets slip off the corners or maybe your pillows just don't feel supportive anymore? 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See real customers, real homes, real feedback before anything hits your card Ready to upgrade your home for way less. headad to wayfair. com right now to shop all things home and get your space ready for less That's wAY fA I R d. com Wayfair, every style, every home I think it added so much to have him included. and you know, I would hope that he feels confident and participating because I really do actually think it added a lot of value to the story Yeah But I' kind of mother. you know, I think like the combination of the two of them of like that you hear what Wade is going through, but then you hear from the person closest to him, what it kind of looks like from the outside looking in at the time is this kind of pererfect like Point counterpoint to it. They're not always in line. and that's, I think what makes it so complicated is it's not like You know, him and his mother from the beginning to the end or like totally seeing eye to eye, there's a battle going on. And that battle, I think helps us understand just how strong Taillors Paul Ena. her manipulation is And so many people can relate to that. If it hasn't happened to you, you know someone else where everybody else in the room seems to notice something, but person at the center of it. Yeah canan't see it. Yeah. Yeah Now Reagan's family, we see a bit of them. How eager were they to tell her story? Be My frustration often in the true crime genre is that the victim's story is often set aside Yeah. And Yeah I'm so glad that they participated to the degree that they did as well What was on the other side of that decision Was there anything that they came to you with in the beginning that was most important about Reagan that they wanted to be told you know, I certainly Thank you you know I think that They never had what I would describe as like an eagerness because I think the last thing that they want to do is be in the spotlight or have more attention on themselves and yet I think that they felt compelled and drawn to talk about Reagan to do right by her to L. The world see how much Taylor's actions will affect them forever, the pain that it's caused, the like un It's just like it will never be right again. And I think It was so honest and brave to let people in on those feelings. And I think really what I wanted most was to kind of get a sense of them hear about how they describe Reagan she's A loving mother, it is so clear from everyone that interacts with her, like what a great mother she was, how excited she was to have a second child at a very young age and not being overwhelmed or daunted you know, finding all of that daunting. like I just think that that speaks so much about her character. They adored her as a daughter, they adored her as a sister. She was loved as a wife, she was a great friend. I mean, it's just like you couldn't There was just such an abundance of positivity and love when it came to talking about her. and And Yeah, I really cherish those conversations How is the story It's this happened in Northeast Texas. Having five kids of my own, I think about all the doctor's appointments that I went to and how There's so many people around me all the time they would get consistent updates throughout my pregnancies Being in a part of the country like that, which is a little bit more rural, how did that actually help her ability to deceive so many people It's so fascinating because whenever I talk about this story, I'm always like when I'm reminding, you know, if I would talk about it to friends during the course of making this as I was trying to kind of grapple with all of the facts of this case, like the thing I would always say is like, you know, this didn't happen in like Miami or Chicago. And by that, I mean this is not a place where you could easily be anonymous I mean, this is a place where It's very tight knit. Ebody knows each other. Ebody If you don't know someone, you know, someone connected to that person and the idea that she could be so brazen in her lives in a place where it was not easy to disappear or come in and be an unknown, but her ability to fracture relationships or like seeed doubt in one person so that they wouldn't be trustful of anotherother is seems really unique. and the fact that it was COVID at the time. so people were, you know, a little bit isolated anyway. and also it was a little bit of there was a little bit of a kind of likeike it a moment when we were all kind of tryrying to not make assumptions about people. People had different ideas about what safety meant you know, And so it was like a little bit of like, it's not It's not for me to say, it's not for me to get involved and, you know, I think she really prayed on that and used that to her advantage. The footage that's within the hospital I think is so vital to the storytelling Was it hard to get access to any of the materials Yeah that We're so vital to telling this story. You know, we just have such an incredible story syndicate and all of the people that I worked with, Josh Levine, Grace Bartlett, you know, of all of the people that are kind of part of this filmmaking Endeavor are so good at getting their hands on materials getting permissions to use footage, you know, And so it's easy for me to say like no, it wasn't hard to get that, you know, it takes a lot of work, but we knew that the material was there. We knew that the material was so important. Like you you had to kind of see her sitting in this car and pretending in order to really understand How you know, the lengths that she would go to keep up a lie to keep a relationship with a guy going. I mean, it's it's beyond insanity Was it hard to get access to the former friends? I thought they did a great job of kind of shaping her earlier They were to story too. And and they were really some of the earliest people to be involved. Again, no one agree to do this without some serious like soul searching and thinking, but I think that they really understood that they had the unique ability to kind of sit in like have their feet on both sides of the gate. that they like completely knew what it was to be love bombed and close with with this woman and then they really understood how like when that turns and when you start to see scarier darker side, just how quickly all of the things that you think you know about this person all of a sudden don't make any sense and just how chilling that is. And so I think, you know I really appreciate U. the people that participated from her former life because it's so important for the audience to understand justust like how seductive she can be when it's good. I was running through somebody I'd known in my life who exhibited some of these behaviors. So I suspect there are other people that are gonna watch this and think I know someone like that.utely. And the part is absolutely. She is charming and It's interesting too to look at the different photos of her throughout Her life? toottally How much? I mean, obviously there are aspects of her personality that shift, but her looks shift too. Totally Tally. I mean, she's very chameleon like, as I think master manipulators often are. She's incredibly Camameelian like in her ability to kind of shapeeshift. when she has a boyfriend who's like, you know, all into jeeps in that culture, that's what she's doing. And when she meets a guy like Wade who's more like a farmhand and more into that like cows and the pigs and the farming aspects of that region. like all of a sudden she's an expert in that. and she when she goes for job interviews, she all of a sudden seems like an expert on in whatever you know the job entails. It's like her ability to to shapes shift, her ability to steal stories. she's kind of a She's a vampire in that way. like she steals memories and makes them her own U She She shifts and changes a lot. In terms of Taylor's story, did you reach out to her? What was the response? And how did that did her absence shape the film We, of course, as part of our kind of journalistic standards, once we have made the film and we have made statements about her. We of course do the process of reaching out to her through her legal team and seeing if they wanted to comment. in this case, they did not It felt important going in to me, it felt like a lot of Taylor's perspective was being told through her actions at the time. and to me, it felt really important to A