Episode 30: Maternal Instinct

If you are a true crime fan, you probably have already watched the Netflix documentary "Maternal Instinct" - we did too, and we are just... shocked!!! So we had to do an episode breaking it all down for you.

Transcript

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Hey, all you true crime divas and dudes. Welcome back to this episode of Deadly Divas True Crime Podcast. I am Sarah. And I'm Tina, and thank you for joining us this week. If you're new here, welcome. We break down a new true crime case for you every Friday. And today we have an episode on a case that Netflix just released a documentary about called Maternal Instinct. This case has gone completely viral because of the absolutely shocking and horrifying nature of the crimes You actually brought this one to my attention, Tina, and I immediately watched it, and I was, as I like to say, gob-smacked Smacked right in the gob Smacked right in the gob that one person could be so malicious, manipulative, and just plain evil. Evil, yeah. Yeah. So let's get into it. This story takes place in Texas, where a girl named Taylor Parker grew up. Family and friends describe her as a girl who was very country and proud of it, loved to have all the attention on her, and her mission in life was to meet a guy who would take care of her, and she met Wade Griffin at the rodeo. How country can you get? Good old country town, yep. He was exactly the type of hunting, fishing, country boy she was looking for, and he had never met a girl like her that liked the same kind of things as him, the same kind of life, hunting right along with him. And so Wade's friends thought that they were perfect together. She loved to do all the things that Wade loved to do. You know what they saying when it's too good to be true. Yeah. So Taylor told Wade's family that her grandparents had wealth from oil. We're in Texas, of course, and that one day she would inherit it. They had no reason not to believe her, and they really thought that Wade had found the perfect woman. Taylor said she didn't have access to these funds yet 'cause her mother was interfering with the money that her grandparents had put aside for her. But the next thing they knew, Taylor gave up the house she was renting, sold all of her furniture, and moves in with Wade. In fact, she seemed to move in with him with very little possessions at all. Hmm. And it seemed like she kinda rolled right over him, it's not like he even had a choice in it. She was just like, "I'm here." Yeah, I'm here and I'm not leaving. Right. Get used to it. Yeah, it didn't say that in the documentary. I just got this feeling that he came home one day and she was like, "I live here now." Yeah. Yep. And he seemed like the type that, like- To be like, "Oh, okay." Okay, not necessarily- Sure, whatever wanting the friction. All right. She did actually have two kids from previous relationships: her daughter, whom she had occasionally, but a son that she hardly ever saw. Hmm. She liked to take care of Wade. She helped look after the animals he had, and dinner was always on the table when he came home. And She then told Wade and his family that due to her meddling, her mother was now going to be cut out of the family fortune, and that Taylor now would get $8 million as a result. I mean, that's compelling. Right? After that news, Taylor and Wade started just spending money like crazy before they even had it. They even bought a new car for Wade's mom, and they had their eyes set on purchasing a big ranch called Pecan Point I think that's such a cute name Isn't it gorgeous? Yeah. In Harris, Oklahoma, that Wade had always fantasized about being able to afford to buy. So Taylor contacted a realtor for the property and said they were interested in buying it, and that they would be paying cash. And they both went to Wade's family Christmas, and Taylor just glowed as she told them, while Wade just sat back and soaked it all in, and he let her grab all the attention. But she's basically, like, saying, "Hey, look at this, these pictures. Look at this place. It's what Wade always wanted. I'm gonna get it for him." Can you imagine being at a Christmas family gathering and somebody basically putting on a PowerPoint of a million-dollar property? Like, it would be so awkward. Yeah. And I guess they had no reason not to believe her. But I feel like if I was in that situation, I'd take it with a pinch of salt. I would, because it's so unnecessary. Yeah. Well, at this point, they'd actually only known each other two months. Wow. Right? So the first suspect thing to happen was that the car that they gave Wade's mom was repossessed because it had never actually been paid for. This was diabolical. I could not believe this. Yeah. In the meantime, Wade and Taylor signed the official offer in writing for Pecan Point, and they were then asked to verify funds, which is your normal procedure, right? But the realtors were having a really hard time getting anyone to respond to that. And of course, she gets to keep playing this off as, "Well, you know, it's inheritance, and people are interfering," and so on. Right. We believe you. Yeah. So Wade starts to discuss with coworkers that things aren't exactly going smoothly. But they say, "You know what? We adore Taylor. We can't believe that she would lead you astray." But the doubts make Wade start to become a little distant from Taylor, which drives her absolutely crazy, and she starts complaining to his friends and family, and she seems very concerned that he possibly may be getting ready to leave her. Mm-hmm. She then tells Wade that she thinks she might be pregnant. The classic entrapment. Right. Exactly. She had the playbook of how to get them to stay. Right. So he takes her to the doctor, and she comes out with a piece of paper stating that she is indeed pregnant. So he didn't go in with her, and I feel like this guy wasn't very worldly-wise, and so when she was like, "Oh no, honey, you just wait in the car," he didn't think anything of it. But I mean, people in my world would definitely be like, "What?" "Um, don't we both go in together?" Like- Yeah, if it's your child, you would definitely wanna go in. But you can tell that he's just, like, a very simple country boy who's just spent a lot of time around his family. He's just naive, I think. Yeah. And his family is, they're people he can trust. Yeah. So he doesn't even consider, I can't trust this new person. That people can be untrustworthy. Yeah. Again, remember they've only been dating a couple of months, so it already has been a whirlwind, and poor Wade's just completely overwhelmed. But of course, being a loyal, good old country boy, his only option is to stand by her and take care of her and the baby. Right, because that was the honorable thing to do, and I really respect him for that I mean, I think he maybe even admitted or somebody said in the documentary, he really wasn't that into her. But- Not like she was. Right. It's not like he wasn't into her. I think he was still feeling his feet in the relationship. Right. And she was definitely way more invested, and he was, like, still early days, you know? 'Cause two months is nothing. It's nothing, and somebody moves in with you, and then they're pregnant. It's like, whoa. You just slapped me upside of the head, you know? Yeah. If you're somebody like us with years of experience, you know that that is a red flag and unacceptable, but he didn't have the experience. No. So she plans a gender reveal event for the baby, and they create a Facebook event for it. But she tells everybody, "Don't invite my mom." I mean, I kind of see that, like, if they're in a tiff over the inheritance maybe. I don't know. Weird, definitely. So the paper that is given to the friend who is organizing this gender reveal party that shows the gender for the reveal appears to have an old date on it. It's from 2016, not 2020. But once Taylor is asked, she claims, "Well, I called the doctor, and they told me that they had all kinds of paperwork errors that day." However, it still wasn't sitting right with this friend. And I get that because that's not just a, oh, well, like a medical mistake like that. It's a big deal. It is. That, like even if it is just a clerical error, you wanna have it corrected immediately and figure out what happened. Right. So for the gender reveal, they tie a pink bow around the neck of a baby cow to show everyone that Taylor is expecting a girl. That was adorable. Did you see that video? I did see the video. The idea- Was it adorable? was adorable. Yes. Okay. The idea was adorable. But it just made me sick watching her come out and, "Ooh, pay attention to me." Right. Yeah, you're right. She was very much the center. Mm-hmm. So Wade comes up with the first name Clancy, and Taylor chooses the middle name Gail And a former friend of Taylor's named Mackenzie sees the pictures on social media of the couple with the cow and the pink bow and the gender reveal announcement, and she knows right away that there's no way Taylor can be pregnant. She knows that Taylor had a hysterectomy years ago. Hmm. Now, the doctor who delivered her second child also sees the announcement and says he actually tied her tubes, and then she came back later with bleeding. They found a cyst, an ectopic pregnancy, and she had to have a hysterectomy. Both the doctor and the manager of the medical practice saw it on social media, but due to HIPAA laws, couldn't bring it to anyone's attention that this was an obvious lie. That's a sticky situation. Very, very sticky. And he obviously did the right thing because he's a doctor and has to abide by the laws of doctors, but- He could have lost his right to practice medicine Exactly so I mean, you just can't. Right. So Abby, Mackenzie, and Taylor used to be friends, and they say they were always so worried about Taylor. She was always sick and in hospital. She had relayed to them over a period of time, and this was before she met Wade, when they were all friends hanging out, that she had MS, she had had cancer, she had had a stroke, and she had had a brain tumor. How is she still alive, y'all, if she really suffered through all this? That's a lot. I mean, that would be a really unlucky person. Mm-hmm. And she's still able to get pregnant. Right. Right? So when Mackenzie got pregnant, Taylor was as excited as if it was her herself, and she just became a little too close for comfort, being very invasive in the pregnancy, especially once she found out that it was a girl. And she even asked if either Mackenzie or Abby would carry a baby for her, promising them $50,000 to do so. Neither of them liked the idea as she already had two kids she didn't take care of. Hmm. And good for them because that is a valid point. Yep. And as Mackenzie got further into her pregnancy, she started to get completely weirded out by Taylor and just decided to cut her off. And good for you, Mackenzie, because this is a person who took notice of red flags, and when you're pregnant, you don't need to be dealing with any crap. This story could have ended up- Yes like the victim. I mean... So then Mackenzie, sees the announcement on Facebook that Taylor is pregnant and having a baby with Wade. Now, Wade's friends start to call the clinics that Taylor claims to have been at, but due to HIPAA laws, they can't give any information. So the ones that she's going for checkups for and ultrasounds, they're starting to like, something's not sitting right with them. But these HIPAA laws, I mean, people just, they just can't give out the information. And they start to realize that Wade has never actually gone to an appointment with her, and they start to doubt if the pregnancy is even real. Well, everyone but Wade. Right. I think he was just wrapped up in the whole I don't think he disliked her. He says he wasn't in love with her, but I'm sure that he cared for her. Yeah. And I'm sure that he had feelings for this baby. Yeah. It's hard when you're swept up in the emotion, isn't it? Yeah. So Wade and Taylor start to receive text messages from unknown numbers mostly just horrible messages about Taylor. Taylor says her mother must be sending the messages, and has blocked her from the money again, and she has to tell the realtors that she cannot buy Pecan Point. Taylor says it's because her mom has found out that she was pregnant, and then Wade has to tell his family that they will not be getting the money or the ranch. We're gonna talk more about this in the after show, but it's crazy to me how every single wrong or bad thing that happened, it was automatically, "It's my mom's fault." I mean, her mom was just the ultimate scapegoat for everything. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, poor Wade. He has to not only tell his family that they're not getting the money and the ranch, but the reason they're not getting their money and the ranch is because she's having his baby. I mean, how insulting. And it's ridiculous Because what did Wade ever do to anybody? That's not a legitimate reason W- this poor guy. So Taylor, however, is happily posting pregnancy pictures online like everything's perfect. Taylor's friends say she used to have a weight problem and had gastric bypass surgery, and they say that she would lie about just various things to people for no particular reason. So she started a photography business doing family event pictures, and a girl named Reagan hires her to photograph her wedding. They said that she fit right in as part of the wedding, and they were generally happy with her services. Now, in the meantime, as the pregnancy progresses, Wade admits that she refused to let him see her naked, saying she was ashamed of her stretch marks. She produced ultrasounds, and it seems like she used a silicone belly to look pregnant, and she even had another photographer take maternity pictures for her, which she posted on social media. Hmm. Now, at that point, Mackenzie contacts friends and family of Wade to let them know that Taylor cannot have children, because she's had a hysterectomy Taylor turns to Reagan saying, "People don't believe I'm pregnant." And Reagan, who's also pregnant, offers her friendship and support. Now Wade's family are just waiting to see what she does as she gets closer and closer to her due date, because they suspect that she will fake a miscarriage. So by this time they're convinced she's not pregnant, but they can't seem to convince Wade she's not pregnant. Mm-hmm. So they're just waiting it out, thinking something's gotta give, right? Right. Something's gotta happen. Finally, they get hold of Taylor's mom, who confirms there's no money, there's no pregnancy, that Taylor is prone to lies, and that her reason for not telling anyone before is that Taylor holds her granddaughter over her head, threatening not to let t- her see her if she interferes. Mm. Which is kind of ironic when she's barely allowed to see her herself. Right. Right. Yeah. They try to tell Wade, but he believes that Taylor's mom is the liar. I think Taylor definitely had, like, a real stronghold over him mentally. He, she brainwashed him. Right. I mean, from the very beginning of the relationship sh- she was saying, "My mom is the devil. My mom did this. My mom did that." Right. So that's all he knew. Everyone is now watching and waiting to see what happens as Taylor approaches her due date, but nothing happens. The doctor who did the hysterectomy is worried about the safety of his other patients with newborns, thinking that she may try to steal a baby, and so they set up extra security on the paternity wards at the local hospitals. Wow. So that's obviously the best precautions he could take. That's compelling, though. Because if you know somebody's lying about being pregnant, obviously that's a red flag and you think, "Wow, they're a fucked up person." But to make that leap to think that she would actually steal a baby- Steal a baby that makes me believe that he knows her personally. Yeah. And that she is a very big threat. Her personality. And it's, it, I guess it's a shame that they didn't think of the threat outside of stealing the baby. Yeah. But what do you do? Protect every single pregnant person in the co- Right. So Taylor seems to go quite overdue, but her neighbors notice that she can be seen walking around her property not looking very pregnant at all- Oh when she's not out in public, right? So one day Taylor wakes up Wade to say she smells smoke, and he finds the house is on fire. Oh, God. But he manages to put it out And then Wade takes off a day from work to go with Taylor to the hospital to have the baby. So this is, like, planned. She's gonna go in and have the baby that day. But she suddenly informs him, "We're not gonna be able to go to the hospital today 'cause it's under a bomb threat." Holy shit. And he checks the news, and sure enough, the hospital's under a bomb threat. I wonder who called that in. I wonder who called that in. So Wade's family confront him yet again. She's way overdue. There's all this evidence she's not pregnant. He tries to confront Taylor, and she just flips out saying, "Your family hates me. You shouldn't listen to them. I'll show you when I come home with a baby." Oof. Right? Chilling. Fucking chilling, y'all. So on October 8th, 2020, it is 16 days after Taylor's due date. She calls Reagan to confide in her, telling her that she's gonna have the baby the following day. And on October 9th, she sends Wade on an errand to deliver some pigs to a purchaser and tells him to meet her at the hospital later. I mean, who does that? I'm gonna have your baby today, but if you could just go drop off these pigs and meet me there later, that'd be great. Right, yeah. And it ended up not even being a legitimate- Oh, I know. Yeah. I've got that right here. Yeah. So when he arrives, the person claims he never purchased any pigs, and so Wade has now no idea who it was he was texting with that morning. Meanwhile, Reagan's parents realize they haven't heard from Reagan in a while, so her mom decides to go over and check on her, and what she finds is, just unbelievable. Her daughter is laying butchered and dead on the floor of her own home. Taylor is then pulled over driving down the road, and the police find her holding a newborn baby with the umbilical cord and the placenta still attached, claiming she just gave birth. She calls Wade and tells him that she's having a baby on the side of the road and asks him to get to the hospital quickly. Police put Taylor and the baby in an ambulance and send them to the hospital. Now back at Reagan's house, Reagan's dad turns up, and despite pleas from Reagan's mom not to go inside, he has to go inside and see it from himself. Now, Reagan's three-year-old is also inside the house, unharmed, and they do manage to get her out. And as the police turn up, Reagan's mom asks them to look for a baby, but there's no baby to be found Back at the hospital, Taylor refuses a vaginal check, but other tests reveal to the medical staff that she has not recently been pregnant and the baby cannot be hers. So they ask Taylor several times if she gave birth to the baby or who the baby belongs to, but she just keeps claiming, "That's my baby." They confront her with the facts that they know due to medical testing that she did not give birth to a baby. Now, Wade turns up at the hospital and is greeted by police who have to take him aside to ask him some questions. The police at the hospital and the police at Reagan's house put two and two together and realize where this baby has come from. But unfortunately, the baby also does not make it. Oh, it's just, it's horrible. It's hideous The police tell Wade Taylor's in jail, and the best they can tell, she murdered a woman and cut the baby out of her to pass off as her own. And Wade, he's just in shock. He realizes his family must have been right all along. I mean, this poor guy was just sideswiped. He was speechless. He couldn't even wrap his brain around it. I don- yeah, he couldn't even take it in, could he? He was just like, "Huh?" So the murder trial takes place in September 2022, and even more lies and manipulation come out. Taylor had multiple phones, and she had made up multiple people in connection with the supposed inheritance, all of whom she was actually portraying by answering emails or using voice changers for phone calls. The prosecution were able to prove internet searches for how to fake a pregnancy, how to perform a C-section on a 36-week-old baby, all of which confirmed premeditation. Her mother and brother testified against her in court, basically confirming that the inheritance never existed and confirming several other lies. Even Taylor's police interviews are contradictory when they played them in court. It was like interviewing two different people, or one with two different personalities. So after just one hour of deliberation, Taylor was found guilty of capital murder and kidnapping, and sentenced to death. She is currently the youngest woman on death row in Texas. Her mom now has custody of Taylor's daughter, Emerson, and her son remains with his father, who always did have custody. Her first appeal was rejected in November 2025, and her second appeal was for a review of her sentence, with her counsel arguing that she did not receive a fair trial. But that was also denied in May of 2026. Her execution date has not yet been set. The end of our story. Horrible, horrible story of the horrible Taylor Parker. Yeah, and It's like she never, ever lived a true authentic life, and it all just snowballed to this point where she was just out of control. Yeah, and I think obviously she had a lot of mental instabilities. Um, but also there's a difference between just having mental instabilities and just being evil. I think it was both with her. Right. I think she was just an evil person willing to do whatever she had to do to get what she wanted. Um, she was willing to take two lives to do it, and it was so chilling when she and Wade had that argument, and she's like, "Well, they'll all see when I come home with a baby." With a baby, yeah. And I also found it quite chilling, uh, about McKenzie. So somebody that knew her very well and had experienced her history of lies, once she got pregnant and it got uncomfortable, knew to get the hell out of dodge. Whereas poor Reagan barely knew Taylor, didn't know her history- Mm and therefore didn't have the foresight that McKenzie did to, to be protective. I mean, she was trying to be a good friend. She was trying to be a supportive and good friend to this person that she- She had no reason to believe that she wasn't pregnant. Yeah, she didn't owe this girl anything. She was just doing this out of the kindness of her heart, and look what that got her. I can't imagine a more horrific fate. There's not one. And the footage they had of Reagan's husband at the funeral, I mean, he just falls to his knees. Mm-hmm. His, his wife and baby are in that. And not just that they're gone, which was heart-wrenching enough- The way but the way in which it happened the way in which it's brutal I wanna talk about it in the after show, but a medical examiner that performed the autopsy on Reagan said that he found, purple fingernails with glitter in the uterus or the placenta, and they ended up being Reagan's fingernails. And what they concluded from that is that Reagan was still alive when Taylor was cutting this baby out of her, and she was trying to keep the baby inside of her, and her fingernails got ripped out in the process. Wow. I cannot imagine the horror, just the terror. So it doesn't sound like she killed her and then tried to get the baby out. It sounds like she just went straight for the baby- Right which obviously killed her in the long run. Mm-hmm. But she was just wanting, and probably because she thought the baby would survive if, if- Mm-hmm. And she didn't care how much Reagan suffered. No. She didn't care about anything. And that's why I think she's evil. You would have to be something more than just a little emotionally unstable to do something like that. I mean, there's no soul there. There's nothing there. I- You're a monster I also think that the fact that she didn't, like, try and lure her out somewhere. Like, she just left a butchered body, missing a baby, in the home of this woman. If she was trying to plan this in a way where she thought she could get away with it, she would have lured her out somewhere. You know, come for a ride or something and, and tried to make it look like she was killed somewhere else by somebody else. I think the fact that she never thought about how this would look when somebody found Reagan, or that medical professionals can tell when you've given birth and when you haven't, shows you that the logical part of her brain just isn't there. It's not there, and it's the same kind of scenario with the car that she supposedly bought for Wade's mom. Like, she knew they were going to come repossess that car. Right. She knew she never made a single payment on it. She knew that. But- But she didn't figure out in advance that she would get caught that way. She just didn't care. Like, she just is the type of person- Live in the moment right, live in the moment. No concept of consequences or of the future. Right. And no regard for the people that she's hurting along the way- Yeah just to get what she wants in that moment. Just can't. Well, guys, join us in the after show as we go more into... I would say how we feel about it, but we just feel sick. Yeah. I mean, we're gonna go a little bit more into the details and theories and everything else. Um, but for those of you that watched the documentary, please give us your feedback. And, uh- Subscribers, we'll see you in the after show. The rest of you, we will see you next week with a case that we haven't determined yet- I don't think. With something. With something or another. Yeah. Until then. Be deepened. Not deadly. Bye. Bye.