Reagan Hancock’s sister reveals heartbreaking reason the family agreed to be in Maternal Instinct

For Emily Shirey, watching her sister, Reagan Simmons Hancock’s story become a Netflix documentary is about much more than revisiting a horrific crime, and now she has revealed the heartbreaking real reason her family agreed to be part of Maternal Instincts.

Emily’s sister, Reagan Simmons Hancock, was 21 years old and nearly 35 weeks pregnant when she was murdered by Taylor Parker in October 2020. Parker had spent months pretending to be pregnant before killing Reagan and taking her unborn baby, Braxlynn Sage.

Now, the case is being revisited in Netflix’s new documentary Maternal Instinct. But according to Emily, the family’s reason for taking part goes far beyond telling the story.

Emily wants Reagan’s death to lead to change

via Netflix

Since Reagan’s murder, Emily and her family have been campaigning for new laws to better protect pregnant women. And that’s actually one of the main reasons she agreed to take part in the documentary.

“Then my sister’s murder will not have been in vain,” Emily told PEOPLE.

The family believe there were warning signs before the murders, but privacy laws limited what doctors and medical staff could say when concerns were raised about Taylor’s fake pregnancy.

In the documentary, doctors explain they knew Taylor could not have children but were legally unable to reveal her private medical information. As Taylor’s fake due date got closer, concerns grew.

Dr Christopher Mason said, “We felt like she had to come up with a baby somehow.”

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The hospital was put on higher alert through a Code Pink warning, but Emily believes more protections are needed.

“There should have been a way that something else could have been done,” she said.

She doesn’t want people watching just for the crime

via Netflix

While true-crime documentaries attract loads of viewers, Emily hopes audiences take away something much bigger from Reagan’s story.

“We don’t want this to just be another true-crime movie that all the binge watchers want to go see because they heard about the crime,” she explained. “We want people to watch it so they say, ‘Oh, this is why the family is pushing so hard to get laws passed.'”

Reagan’s mother, Jessica Brookes, also speaks in the documentary about the devastating impact of losing her daughter. “It is so hard to put into words what losing a child is like,” she says. “Half of me died, and that’s not coming back. The Jessica that I used to be is gone and the part that’s left is a part that I never knew was there.”

But despite the heartbreak, Reagan’s family are determined that some good will come from what happened.

Maternal Instincts is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.