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‘Maternal Instinct’ director reveals why Taylor Parker wasn’t interviewed for Netflix docu: ‘I don’t think she’s…’

Director Jessica Dimmock reveals why Taylor Parker, despite having given interviews to other outlets, was missing from the documentary.

Netflix's 'Maternal Instinct' has brought back into focus the 2020 murder of Reagan Simmons Hancock. The documentary reveals how Taylor Parker created a web of lies, and once it became too complex for her to carve her way out, she committed the horrific crime that took the life of Reagan Simmons Hancock. The documentary features interviews with Hancock's family, Wade Griffin (Parker's boyfriend), people Parker betrayed, Parker's friends, and medical professionals who previously treated her. Surprisingly, it did not feature Parker's interview. The Texas inmate has given interviews to other outlets, suggesting she could have been convinced to give one for the Netflix documentary. Now, the director has come forward and shared that they intentionally did not approach her. 

Jessica Dimmock, the documentary's director, explained that she and her team omitted Parker's interview, as they did not want to give her point of view center stage. "We decided not to interview Taylor," she shared with Oxygen. "Obviously, Reagan and her family are the most severe and the biggest victims in this, but [there are] other people that she deceived, other people that she hurt along the way, coworkers, former friends. It just felt like it really needed to be told from their perspective." The director also did not feel they were missing out on anything by removing Parker's perspective. "We have her text messages. We have videos of her," Dimmock said. "But it felt like, you know, I think as a director, 'What is she going to say?' From everything that I've read, from the way that the trial went, I don't think she's remorseful. There doesn't really seem to be evidence that she's remorseful. If she said she was remorseful, could I even believe her, and does that matter?"

Dimmock featured available footage of Parker before and after the crime to explain instances involving Parker. This footage included body cam video of her emergency room interrogation. For Dimmock, that was enough information for viewers to understand the whole picture. "I just wasn't sure that there was anything that she could say that would be additive, or that I could believe," the director added, "and it felt disrespectful to those that she hurt the most to include her take." Parker is yet to share anything about the documentary. Through interviews from various people and other evidence, the documentary showcases how Parker falsified her pregnancy to her boyfriend Griffin. The exact reason behind her lie is unclear. However, the fact that she wanted to give up the custody of one of her children to keep Griffin close to her implies that the pregnancy was a ploy to keep their relationship intact. 

After the pregnancy crossed ten months, and Griffin began pushing, Parker made a horrifying decision. She went to meet her former client, Hancock, who was expecting, and killed her. She also took Hancock's baby and dashed out of the victim's house. Later, she was apprehended by the authorities, to whom she claimed that the child was hers and Griffin's. Parker was taken to a medical facility, where the doctors revealed she had not given birth. During an interrogation, she confessed to the horrible crime. Later, she changed her story, claiming that Hancock was a casualty during her kidnapping, as per KTAL. Her "wild lies" during interrment suggest that even if she did get an interview in the documentary, she might not have been honest. 

In October 2022, she was convicted of capital murder and a month later sentenced to death. Her sentence was upheld even by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. U.S. Supreme Court also declined to hear her appeal. She is now the seventh and youngest woman on Death Row in Texas. 'Maternal Instinct' is currently streaming on Netflix.