The Heartbreaking Reason Why Reagan Simmons Hancock Befriended Her Murderer in Netflix's Maternal Instinct (Exclusive)

When wedding photographer Taylor Parker snapped pictures at Reagan Simmons Hancock's September 2019 wedding, the bride's family and friends said they felt like they had known her for years.

“It didn't feel like she was just some random stranger none of us had ever met,” says Hancock's younger sister, Emily Shirey, 24. “It almost felt like she's a bridesmaid at one point, because she was in all of our selfies.”

At the time, Shirey and Hancock's family and friends didn't know that Parker had a habit of insinuating herself into the lives of people she had just met.

No one had any idea that in a little over a year, Hancock, then just 21, and her unborn daughter would be killed by Parker, who cut the fetus out of the young mother's womb in a twisted attempt to claim the baby as her own.

The chilling story is the focus of the new Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct, which began streaming on June 12.

The documentary explores the dark web of fraud, deception and malice that led Parker to feign a pregnancy to try to bolster her relationship with boyfriend Wade Griffin — and when her fake due date passed, kill Hancock for her baby, Braxlynn Sage.

Convicted in 2022 of capital murder, Parker sits on death row in a Texas prison awaiting her execution date. 

Speaking with PEOPLE about why she wanted to make this documentary, filmmaker Jessica Dimmock says, “We have an idea of what danger is and what we think danger looks like and it doesn't look like this blonde, bubbly photographer that you meet. The idea that something like this could happen so unexpectedly, with no warning signs on the victim's side redefines what we think of when we think of danger and just how cruel and manipulative people can be.”

Hancock met Parker when she was looking for a photographer for her engagement and wedding to Homer Hancock. “She said one of her friends had recommended her and she was trying to stay budget-friendly, so this person was ideal for that, and her name was Taylor Parker,” Hancock's mother, Jessica Brookes, 47, says in the documentary. “Very polite young lady. The moments she captured of Reagan and the wedding were absolutely beautiful.”

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During the wedding, Parker, says Shirey, “made sure she greeted everybody and told everyone who she was and what she was doing there.”

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At the time, Brookes remembers asking Hancock about Parker and where she was from. “Reagan had mentioned that (Parker) was going through some difficulties with her ex-husband, I believe, is what she said.”

“She was just having a hard time, and Reagan was trying to include her to take her mind off of that, because they had gotten close, closer, more acquainted throughout this process, and so Reagan invited her to hang out with everybody after the reception.”

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Hancock, says her sister, made Parker “feel like just one of us girls. I still look at all of those photos today because of how spectacular that day was. And Taylor, as a person, you would have never known her to be any other way.”

Brookes says she tries hard not to blame herself for raising Hancock to look out for other people. “She cared,” Brookes tells PEOPLE. “She would always help the underdog.”

“I tried to teach my kids that. Don't judge people. Don't be bullies. If somebody's needing something, whether they're clean or dirty or have stuff or don't have stuff, don't be ugly. Try to be kind because somebody else may not be kind to them and they're going through stuff.”

“And honestly, after all of this, another part is me thinking, ‘Wow, you screwed that up, Jess. Why would you teach them to take care of people? Hancock was just trying to be kind to Taylor and this is what happened to her?”

Maternal Instinct is streaming now on Netflix.