‘Maternal Instinct’: Psychotherapist Analyzes Taylor Parker’s Dark Mind

Summary

Criminally Obsessed – Episode Summary

Episode: ‘Maternal Instinct’: Psychotherapist Analyzes Taylor Parker’s Dark Mind

Host: Ann Emerson
Guest: Siobhan Scott, Psychotherapist & Author
Date: June 23, 2026

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Main Theme

This episode delves into the chilling case of Taylor Parker, who murdered her friend Reagan Simmons Hancock to steal her unborn baby. Host Ann Emerson sits down with psychotherapist Siobhan Scott to analyze Parker’s psychological makeup, exploring the motivations, pathology, and warning signs behind one of the nation’s most disturbing recent crimes. Together, they dissect the intersection of deception, personality disorders, and predatory behavior at the heart of the case, while reflecting on larger lessons for understanding evil and protecting potential victims.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Crime Overview

• Taylor Parker faked a pregnancy for 10 months. When her lies reached their breaking point, she murdered Reagan Simmons Hancock, performing a crude C-section to steal her unborn baby. Parker’s motivation: to maintain her fantasy life with her partner, Wade Griffin. The baby did not survive (00:33–01:05).
  • "Taylor Parker faked a pregnancy, and when her 10th month ran out, she murdered her friend...and stole her unborn baby." – Ann Emerson [00:33]
  • "Parker planned the whole thing...and then what? Live happily ever after with Wade Griffin and this child? The baby didn’t survive, and the family...was left with nothing but grief." – Ann Emerson [00:56]

2. Taylor Parker’s Web of Lies

• Parker’s deception extended far beyond the faked pregnancy. She fabricated illnesses, impersonated others online (catfishing), and lied about inheriting millions (01:26–01:55).
  • "Taylor Parker had been lying like crazy for years. Catfishing people, faking cancer, telling Wade Griffin she was going to inherit millions of dollars..." – Ann Emerson [01:26]

3. Understanding Parker Through Psychopathology

• Scott applies the “dark tetrad” personality construct, encompassing psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism, to Parker’s behavior (05:27–07:37):
  • Psychopathy: Cold, callous, lacking empathy; predatory.
  • Narcissism: Grandiosity, entitlement, constant need for attention.
  • Machiavellianism: Manipulativeness, strategic scheming.
  • Sadism: Deriving pleasure and a sense of power from inflicting cruelty.
• "That’s sadism. And that’s someone that's capable of inflicting incredible cruelty and suffering on someone else and getting a source of power from that." – Siobhan Scott [00:23, repeated at 07:52]
• "When I saw those qualities together, I just thought immediately, the dark tetrad." – Siobhan Scott [08:17]

4. Personality Disorders vs. Mental Illness

• Scott clarifies the difference between classic mental illness (depression, schizophrenia) and personality disorders (03:36–04:43):
  • Parker is not "mentally ill" in the traditional sense, but has a pervasive, ingrained personality pathology.
  • "This is a person who just had a very aberrant way of perceiving and thinking and relating to other people...It’s her personality. It’s who she is." – Siobhan Scott [03:36]

5. The Nature of Deceit and “Duping Delight”

• Parker’s lies dated back to adolescence or earlier. Scott explains the compulsion for deception as part of a core personality deficit, fueled by "duping delight"—the pleasure of pulling off scams (12:36–14:00):
  • "It’s almost like this addiction to this drama and the excitement... There’s a term called ‘duping delight’...the person gets a sense of pleasure over pulling off another scam and kind of gets a high from it." – Siobhan Scott [12:36]

6. Cold Calculus and Predatory Mindset

• Scott evaluates how Parker viewed others—as prey, not people. Even close relationships were transactional (15:25–16:34):
  • "Probably everybody in her life, including her children, were objects to her. There just wasn’t that emotional attachment to human beings. She could pretend...but that's all really, it was, was a mask." – Siobhan Scott [16:01]

7. Intelligence vs. Doggedness

• Parker displayed a remarkable persistence in scheming but not high intelligence—her plans were ultimately unsustainable (12:14–13:00):
  • "I think doggedness is probably a better word because if you were incredibly bright person...you would be able to look ahead and go, there's no way I'm going to be able to pull this off..." – Siobhan Scott [12:36]

8. The Genetics of Psychopathy

• Scott points to studies suggesting psychopathy has a strong genetic component, but not all with the trait become criminals (09:46–10:59):
  • "There is very strong genetic load for it...it’s usually a combination of...genetic vulnerabilities with some early life experiences..." – Siobhan Scott [09:46]

9. Rarity of the “Dark Tetrad”

• While psychopathic traits aren’t rare (especially in certain professions), sadism is, and this combination is highly unusual (11:12–12:09):
  • "To find it to this degree, particularly with the sadism, it’s rare...It’s like the perfect storm." – Siobhan Scott/Ann Emerson [11:12–12:14]

10. Missed Warning Signs

• Many in Parker’s circle had suspicions or knew facts (her hysterectomy) which should have ruled out her story. Some medical professionals placed hospitals on alert, but privacy laws limited intervention (16:34–18:00):
  • "A lot of people were alarmed...they had put the hospital on alert, you know, watch the babies...But of course...there's very little they can do..." – Siobhan Scott [16:42]

11. The Wade Griffin Relationship

• Griffin may have been duped by Parker’s charm and manipulations, his naivety making him an easy target (18:06–19:00):
  • "He was a little bit overly trusting, maybe a little bit naive...He’s definitely learned some lessons here." – Siobhan Scott [18:06]

12. Lessons and Red Flags: A Cautionary Tale

• Scott emphasizes the importance of recognizing manipulative patterns, advocating for intervention when repeated, outlandish deceptions are observed (20:11–21:46):
  • "When we are around a person who’s really manipulative and dramatic...I think it’s a caution...we want to call attention to red flags and...protect innocent people..." – Siobhan Scott [20:17, 21:46]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the evil of sadism:
  "If there’s anything that...approximates the word evil, it’s sadism. And it’s just, it’s a very, very ugly trait." – Siobhan Scott [14:43]
• On the rarity of such a personality:
  "It’s like the perfect storm." – Ann Emerson [12:09]
• On the mask of normalcy:
  "She could pretend...but that’s all really, it was, was a mask." – Siobhan Scott [16:01]
• On catching red flags:
  "Sometimes by exposing these things that are the darker side of humanity...I like to think that we can do something about violence prevention, and that’s one of the reasons I like to talk about it." – Siobhan Scott [21:46]

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Key Timestamps

• 00:33: Taylor Parker’s crime overview
• 02:39: Siobhan Scott introduction
• 03:36: Personality pathology vs. mental illness
• 05:27-07:37: Explanation of the 'dark tetrad'
• 12:14: Intelligence vs. doggedness dynamic
• 14:43: Sadism as the core of Parker’s evil
• 16:01: Predatory mindset and objectification of others
• 16:42: Missed warning signs and systemic limitations
• 18:06: Parker’s relationship with Wade Griffin
• 20:17: Societal lessons and identifying red flags

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Takeaway

This episode uses expert insight to distinguish personality disorder from classic mental illness, defining the “dark tetrad” and unpacking the chilling combination found in Taylor Parker. Scott’s analysis offers both context for extreme criminal behavior and a call to recognize manipulative red flags, balancing clinical understanding with deep empathy for victims. The discussion is sobering, emphasizing that such cases are rare but necessary for society to examine in order to guard against preventable harm.

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For those who haven’t listened, this detailed examination of the Parker case and the mind behind it, centers both criminal accountability and the need for community vigilance—reminding us how evil can lurk beneath a mask of everyday deception.

Transcript

[Taylor Parker]

I didn't kill anybody.

[Wade Griffin]

Where'd this baby come from?

[Taylor Parker]

It's mine.

[Ann Emerson]

Hey, everyone. I'm Ann Emerson and this is Criminally Obsessed. As I watched Netflix's documentary Maternal Instinct, I kept thinking, how is this a real person? And what makes someone like Taylor Parker do something so evil? So I asked a psychotherapist.

[Siobhan Scott]

That's sadism. And that's someone that's capable of inflicting incredible cruelty and suffering on someone else and getting a source of power from that.

[Ann Emerson]

Taylor Parker faked a pregnancy, and when her 10th month ran out, she murdered her friend, Reagan Simmons Hancock and stole her unborn baby.

[Wade Griffin]

My question is, is Taylor a cold blooded murderer or is it something else?

[Taylor Parker]

I did not kill anybody. I didn't kill anybody.

[Ann Emerson]

But what gets me is this. Parker planned the whole thing. Perform a C section on her friend, kill her in the process, take her child. And then what? Live happily ever after with Wade Griffin and this child? The baby didn't survive, and the family of Reagan Simmons Hancock was left with nothing but grief.

[Siobhan Scott]

Stabbed the poor victim over a hundred times, you know, cut the baby out of her uterus. This is somebody that was capable of really awful things.

[Ann Emerson]

This was not a spur of the moment crime. This was a carefully planned out scheme. And the fake pregnancy, that wasn't the first lie. Taylor Parker had been lying like crazy for years. Catfishing people, faking cancer, telling Wade Griffin she was going to inherit millions of dollars. So how does someone keep building a fantasy like that? How do they justify lie after lie until it ends up in the murder of Reagan Simmons Hancock?

[Siobhan Scott]

There's something wrong for them bringing me over here.

[Ann Emerson]

What did you have?

[Siobhan Scott]

Did you have a boy or a girl? A girl. A girl.

[Ann Emerson]

Psychotherapist and author Siobhan Scott told me exactly what she thinks is wrong with Taylor Parker. And I've never heard someone explain evil like this. Be sure to like and subscribe so you don't miss any of the conversations. Like this one. Now let's get into it. Well, Siobhan Scott, thank you so much for joining us. We had an opportunity to watch this documentary that came out. A lot of people have maternal instinct. It is disturbing, to put it mildly. But thank you for joining me to kind of unpack this.

[Siobhan Scott]

My pleasure to be here. It's definitely an alarming one and not something that we see every day.

[Ann Emerson]

No, it really isn't. What were your thoughts as you were watching it?

[Siobhan Scott]

Well, horrified probably, like everyone else. But I, of course, study psychopathology. So I grabbed my notepad, had and started taking notes and the diagnostic pictures started to become clear. They gave us lots of examples from a variety of people of the behavior of Taylor Parker. And so I thought they did a good job with, you know, not just giving the horror of it all, but looking at the big picture of this woman's life, her pattern of deception and the malevolent nature of all of it.

[Ann Emerson]

So can I just ask you just in just very simply, what is wrong with her?

[Siobhan Scott]

Something went wrong early in life. We know that we're all a combination of genetics and environment. We don't know a lot about her early upbringing and, and sometimes we never get a really good explanation for why people are this way. But was she mentally ill? No. You can have a severe personality pathology, severe dis, but you're not mentally ill in the classic sense of anxiety, depression, ocd, schizophrenia, these things that are more brain based that can happen to any normal person. This is a person who just had a very aberrant way of perceiving and thinking and relating to other people. And it caused horrendous problems for her. And it's pervasive throughout her entire life. So it's not a mental illness that happened to her. It's her personality. It's who she is. Things got super weird. I took a step back and was like, you're scaring me. How can one person keep up with that many lies?

[Ann Emerson]

I think it's one of the first things that hits you hard is that you realize that this is a woman, Taylor Parker, that she is just lying. It's lies after lies after lies. She just lives this whole web of lies.

[Siobhan Scott]

Very much so. And elaborate lies, bizarre lies going back to adolescence and probably in childhood too, because this is clearly part of her personality. Not just, you know, an unusual aberration of something that popped up. This was her way of moving through the world.

[Ann Emerson]

Can you give me some examples of what you were writing on your notebook?

[Taylor Parker]

Yeah.

[Siobhan Scott]

You know, we always talk about the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, right? Therapists love to talk about that. And personality disorders. There are 10 identified in the diagnostic manual. There's a well studied construct in psychology called the dark tetrad. And that's a framework that describes four overlapping personality traits that are very dangerous. And those are psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism and sadism. And we, you know, when you look at these horrendous crimes, often you see something that looks like the dark tetrad.

[Ann Emerson]

This is a construct that helps you do what exactly. Like as you start unpacking what happened to Taylor Parker?

[Siobhan Scott]

It helps you make sense of motivation. And then if you're doing treatment with someone like this, you have to have a good diagnostic assessment. And then you know, okay, what's the plan? Is there a plan? What can we do with this person? And I worked in forensic programs where I had people with these qualities. No one quite like Taylor Parker. But you sort of have to get pretty quick at looking at the behavior and then being able to fit it into a construct. I can break that down a little bit more. When we talk about psychopathy. That's the psychopath. And so that's a person with the traits of being very cold, callous, lacking empathy for other people, and they're predators. That's dangerous in itself. But you can combine that with Taylor, with narcissism, and that's a person who's very grandiose. They're entitled, and they need admiration. They always want to be the center of attention, and they want people looking up to them. Then you've got this other quality that seemed very clear with all the planning and scheming that she did, and that's called Machiavellianism, and that's the strategic, manipulative person who's looking ahead in the future.

[Wade Griffin]

Is it the deal? You just wanted a baby so bad that it just kind of overpowered your brain and everything?

[Taylor Parker]

It's been hurting.

[Wade Griffin]

It's been hurting.

[Taylor Parker]

I had a stroke in 2015, and

[Siobhan Scott]

then the final one came out in the way that she committed this horrendous murder. And that's sadism, and that's someone that's capable of inflicting incredible cruelty and suffering on someone else and getting a source of power from that. And so that when I saw those qualities together, I just thought immediately, the dark tetrad.

[Ann Emerson]

One of the first things that I thought of when I was watching this all play out was why didn't the defense go for an incentive insanity play?

[Siobhan Scott]

I. I know that they had psychological testing done during the trial, and I. I read. And again, I haven't read the entire reports because I can't access those, but I did read a summary, and three different psychologists said there was no mental illness. There was no diagnosis of mental illness. And so I don't think they would have had a leg to stand on if they had tried to do that. But all three did say that there was severe personality problems.

[Ann Emerson]

Oh, there's so many things that are interesting about this. I have never heard this. Like, I've never thought. I mean, literally an aha moment for me is like, I've never thought about separating out mental illness with personality disorders like you just did.

[Siobhan Scott]

How I like to frame it is that psychopaths don't, because they don't have empathy for people. Empathy serves as the breaking system for why we don't do bad things to other people. Right. We have compassion. That's normal development. People who don't have that need to learn how to put the brakes on harder. They need to learn to watch themselves. And if they choose not to put the brakes on their worst impulses, well, they're. If they've committed a crime, they're responsible. So it's not a pass just because you, you're psychopathic there.

[Ann Emerson]

Wow. Does. Is this genetic? Do you see this as a hereditary trait?

[Siobhan Scott]

There are a lot of newer studies in the last 10 years that show that, particularly with psychopathy, that there is very strong genetic load for it. And so it doesn't mean that genes are destiny because you can have a psychopathic relative and doesn't mean everybody's going to come out psychopathic in the family, but there are definitely family links and even in kids who have been adopted, and so they weren't raised by a psychopathic parent. But if there was a psychopathic parent, the odds of the child having psychopathy are greatly increased. And so it's usually a combination of something in their early environment, perhaps the way they were raised, the things they got away with as a child, the ways they got attention as a child. And you just combine some unfortunate genetic vulnerabilities with some early life experiences, and you can get a very aberrant person. And we don't really know a lot about her early life experiences. I did read that there was a divorce early on, but who knows what else? How did she become this? That would be fascinating to sit down with her and get the whole history.

[Ann Emerson]

Yeah, she seems like somebody that you would want to study very much try and understand. I mean, how rare is it to find this dark tetrad in somebody's. In one person.

[Siobhan Scott]

Yeah. To find it to this degree, particularly with the sadism, it's rare. And psychopathy is. You can kind of look at it on a continuum, but you find more. They think about 15 to 30% of people in prison, you know, could be diagnosed with psychopathy. That's not surprising. But you also find, this is really interesting in the research that you find a spectrum of people who can be rather cold and callous and lacking empathy in surgeons and attorneys and people who are CEOs in big companies. And politicians. So psychopathy in itself is not that uncommon. You do find it in society, but not everybody who has those traits turns to criminal behavior. And they certainly don't all become violent. So finding somebody with this particular combination is more rare.

[Ann Emerson]

It's like the perfect storm.

[Siobhan Scott]

It is exactly the perfect storm. Yes. Well said.

[Ann Emerson]

The other part of this is her intelligence quotient. Like, do. Do you find these people just. They spend all their time trying to scam and scheme and figure out how to get from one lie to the next. Is that a sign of intelligence or just doggedness to get what they want?

[Siobhan Scott]

I think doggedness is probably a better word because if you were incredibly bright person, I think you would be able to look ahead and go, there's no way I'm going to be able to pull this off. The thing about buying the car and it's like, okay, you didn't really pay for the car. This can't go on very long. But it's sort of like these impulsions, impulsive actions to get the attention and to make herself appear wealthy without the thinking through. Ultimately I'm not going to be able to pull this off here. How did she think that she was going to commit this atrocious murder and show up with a baby and nobody was ever going to connect that? Your friend, you know, just had her baby stolen in this way and not connected to her. So I wouldn't. I wouldn't guess that. She's highly manipulative but not very bright and you can have those things together. It's almost like this addiction to this drama and the excitement and the delight. There's a term called duping delight, which I like. And that's where the person gets a sense of pleasure over pulling off another scam and kind of gets a high from it. And it's like, what am I going to get away with next? And look what I can do. And they tend to be very shallow people. So there's not a real core, strong sense of identity in there. It's sort of like one scam to the next scam to the next scam, get these insatiable needs for attention, met fool people. And then there's this cruel element too. And I wonder if if for some reason, pleasure of possibly. Yes, yes. And if she had hurting people and if she had not gotten caught, if for some, some weird reason they had not connected the murder to, what else would she be capable of? You know, certainly that was I stabbed. Stabbed the poor victim over a hundred times. You know, cut the baby out of her uterus. This is somebody that was capable of really awful things. How could that even pop into someone's mind? You know, whenever I talk about these true crime cases, I always try to put myself in the. What would it be like to be that perpetrator? What would be going through the mind? Right, Because I always like the mind behind the crime is sort of my area of interest. And I. Absolutely, absolutely. Sadism is one thing I can never wrap my head around. Those are folks I just don't like to work with at all. It's just, it's, it's. If there's anything that I was just going to say evil approximates the word evil, it's sadism. And it's just, it's a very, very ugly trait.

[Ann Emerson]

Well, and she, she calculated this to the point where she, she Google searches how to find a birth mom, settles on her friend who she, you know, when she was hired to be her wedding photographer. So we have these creepy pictures of her in that scenario that was incredibly cold and calculated. Is, is, is at that point, do you believe Taylor Parker is looking at her as a, as prey or as a person or an object in her, in her sadistic mind, what is she seeing?

[Siobhan Scott]

Yeah, I think she saw prey. I think she saw someone that she could use. Probably everybody in her life, including her children, were objects to her. There just wasn't that emotional attachment to human beings. She could pretend, you know, she could act like a good friend and wear a mask, but that's all really, it was, was a mask. And it's just abhorrent that somebody would even go there. And that, that's, that's my thinking is that, yeah, she was coming in as a predator here.

[Ann Emerson]

Do you think that there were warning signs that people around her were just plain old missing?

[Siobhan Scott]

I got the sense from the documentary that a lot of people were alarmed. The ones who, you know, family members and, and friends that knew she'd had a hysterectomy, they had to be going, this is, this is not going to go in a good direction. What is going to happen? Something is going to happen here. Medical people, the doctor who performed the hysterectomy. I thought the interviews with them were fascinating because they had put the hospital on alert, you know, watch the babies. Because this woman may come in and try to steal a baby out of the hospital. But of course, you know, HIPAA rules and privacy laws, there's very little they can do other than put the staff on alert. So it would have been lovely if Somebody could have have done something more to stop the tragedy. But it's. It's just hard to know what could have happened if Wade had been tuned into a little more like, let me look at your belly. You know what? Pregnant dad doesn't want to look at the baby in the belly and. And touch it. And, you know, I mean, he seemed to be rather naive and trusting, which is probably why she chose him in the first place. Here's somebody I can con and get something out of the deal here.

[Ann Emerson]

I was curious, like, what you thought about the relationship between her and Wade.

[Siobhan Scott]

Yeah, I could see initially why he was attracted to her. She was very pretty, and there was a point made by one of his friends that she was cooking wonderful meals for him. She was supposedly an heiress that was going to buy him all this land and have the estate and bought him a $87,000 truck. And I can see why, perhaps if he was a little bit overly trusting, maybe a little bit naive. And you can't fault him for being naive. I mean, we live and learn as we get older from bad experiences, so he's definitely learned some lessons here. But, yes, I think it would have been wonderful if he had been able to tune in a little sooner and maybe. Maybe pull the plug on this whole pregnancy thing.

[Ann Emerson]

Well, and there were, you know, even though some of the warning signs obviously were missed, but there were plenty of people that knew that she was lying about, as you said, about the fact that she could have a baby. She had had a hysterectomy. It was impossible for her to have a baby. People knew this. Her mother knew this. Was it difficult to see for you that. That people. That people didn't come forward and just call it for what it was, just a blatant lie?

[Siobhan Scott]

Yeah, I would certainly. I can imagine people being confused and saying, okay, she's always been trouble. Here she goes again. What's going to happen now? And there may be. Have been a few people sitting back going, let's just watch this play out. How's she going to get out of this one? But it certainly would have been, I think, the right thing to do, to try to intervene in a more assertive way, and even to the point of really confronting her directly, family members confronting her directly and saying, you know, we're not going to let this continue, whatever the game is here, you know, let's. Let's just stop it.

[Ann Emerson]

Is this an opportunity for people to. To. As a cautionary tale?

[Siobhan Scott]

I think that's a really good way to put it. You know, when we are around a person who's really manipulative and dramatic and does a lot of these, these crazy things like making up illnesses on, on Facebook, I do see people who do that. I think they make things up for attention and, you know, you can always tell when they have a lot of dramatic diagnoses and yet there's never a treatment for it. And then the next month they've got a new one. And, you know, you kind of get a drift that this is an attention seeking person here. And not to say everybody who posts about an illness on Facebook is doing that, but you do sometimes see those patterns where you go, this seems a little bit off. They're not, they're not going to have any terrible outcome other than, you know, they get an outpouring of sympathy and it makes them feel better and that's what they want.

[Ann Emerson]

Right.

[Siobhan Scott]

But if you have known somebody who's gone to the extent that she has gone to for so many years and been so, so manipulative. Yeah, I think it's, it's a caution. The way I look at the true crime media is that we want to call attention to red flags and we want to learn how to protect innocent people and make the world safer. And sometimes by exposing these things that are the darker side of humanity, the things that normal people never think of. I like to think that we can do something about violence prevention, and that's one of the reasons I like to talk about it.

[Ann Emerson]

Drop a comment below and tell me what you think about Scott's analysis of what was going on in Inside of Taylor Parker's head. Do you believe in evil? I think this may be the face of it. Like, subscribe and turn on the notifications. I don't want you to miss any of these episodes.