The US Justice Department has released a photo of the arrested woman (27) who killed an eight-month pregnant mother on Friday. She cut her unborn child from the abdomen. The baby died in the hospital a few hours later.
The murder happened around 10:20 am in the home of victim Reagan Hancock (22) in New Boston, Texas. Perpetrator Taylor Parker knew Reagan. After the fact, she fled with the child in her car.
The further circumstances are not yet known, but it appears that Reagan’s mother was the first to arrive and made the lurid discovery. “The initial findings of the investigation indicate that the unborn child was removed from the victim’s body,” said a local police force press release.
Sometime later, an agent of the Texan state police stopped Parker near the town of De Kalb after a speeding violation. The woman stated that she had just given birth along the road. “My baby is not breathing,” she would have called out to the officer.
An ambulance took Parker and the girl to a hospital across the state line in Idabel, Oklahoma. Once on the spot, she refused to be examined by the doctors. When a doctor eventually did, he was formal. Parker couldn’t possibly have given birth to a child recently.
During initial questioning, the woman confessed in part to the horrific facts. The baby, who would be called Braxxlyn Sage, died in hospital.
Parker was brought to court for the first time on Tuesday, local time. He ordered her to be extradited to the adjacent state of Texas, where the murder took place.
Parker previously faced two murder charges and one kidnapping charge against her. The woman is still in prison in Idabel.
“Satan in the flesh”
“Our beautiful daughter Reagan and her unborn baby Braxlynn were murdered by Satan in the flesh yesterday (Friday, ed.). I found her, and Marcus and Chris arrived right after me. Our family and friends have gone to the core. Reagan was one of the most precious people you would ever meet. Remember us in your prayers,” Reagan’s mum Jesse Brooks wrote on Saturday. Family, friends, and supporters raise money through crowdfunding. Reagan leaves a three-year-old daughter and a husband.
Anyway, Parker faces the death penalty in a double murder conviction. Texas is the state with the highest death toll in the US.
Similar tragedy
Similar facts are extremely rare. In December 2004, then 36-year-old Lisa Montgomery cut the baby from the belly of eight-month pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett (23) with a kitchen knife. This happened at Stinnett’s home in Skidmore, Missouri.
Montgomery then fled with the child to another state and passed it off as her own. The child died. Here too, the perpetrators and the victim knew each other. Montgomery was sentenced to death in 2007. The woman is currently in prison in Texas.
