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'A Piece Of Us Is Gone Now': Pregnant Texas Mom Is Killed And Her Baby Cut From Her Womb
Reagan Simmons-Hancock was about a month away from having her second daughter when she was killed. Taylor Parker has been taken into custody in the case.
A pregnant Texas woman was murdered and her unborn baby cut from her womb last week. Authorities have taken a suspect into custody in the case.
Staff Lt. Lonny Haschel, of the Texas Department of Public Safety, identified the victim to Oxygen.com as 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock from New Boston, Texas.
Hancock was found dead at a home around 10:20 a.m. Friday morning after New Boston Police received a 911 call about a “deceased person,” according to a statement from police.
A female suspect—identified by local station KLTV as 27-year-old Taylor Parker of Simms, Texas—was taken into custody a short time later in Oklahoma.
Authorities in Oklahoma, where Parker is currently being held, said the 27-year-old arrived by ambulance at a hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma, claiming her baby wasn't breathing. The child later died, KLTV reports.
She was taken into custody for the suspected kidnapping and death of the infant. Officials are determining what charges she could face in Texas as well.
Haschel declined to release any further details about the case to Oxygen.com.
Just months before she was killed, Hancock announced her pregnancy on Facebook.
“[S]ome of you know, some of you dont... but we are having another SWEET BABYGIRL come november the 10th (give or take). She already acts like her daddy & big sister. We cannot wait for our Braxlynn Sage to be here. Daddy is definitely out numbered,” she wrote in the August post.
Hancock’s mother, Jessica Brookes, told local station KSLA that she discovered her slain daughter—who was just a month away from giving birth to her second daughter—on Friday.
“A piece of us is gone now,” Brookes said.
Her family is now left coping with the agonizing loss.
“Look at that sweet smile when you have a bad day,” she said of her daughter through tears. “It always used to help me.”
Hancock’s younger sister, Emily Simmons, said her sibling was “just something you can’t replace.”
Authorities have declined to provide any details about the whether Hancock and Parker knew each other; however, a PayPal fundraiser set up to benefit Hancock’s husband, Homer, and their young daughter said the 21-year-old and her baby had been “selfishly killed by someone Reagan considered a friend.”
After news of Hancock's death began to spread, a makeshift memorial of sunflowers—her favorite flower—and stuffed animals was placed outside her home.
