A Texas woman who cut her friend’s baby out of her uterus told a state trooper she had just given birth.
Reagan Hancock, 21, died on Friday, Oct. 9, after Taylor Parker, 27, cut her unborn child out of her uterus. Reagan was eight months pregnant and due to deliver a baby girl in November.
During a traffic stop, Parker told a Texas state trooper she had just given birth and she was on her way to the hospital because the baby stopped breathing.
The baby was pale with bluish discoloration around her lips. Parker and the unresponsive baby girl were rushed to a hospital in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, where the baby was pronounced dead.
Family members said Reagan and Parker were friends and Parker had taken photos at Reagan’s wedding in Texarkana in September 2019.
Abby Mathis told a reporter that Reagan was worried the baby would come early. “I’m scared she’s fixing to come faster. I feel like she’s going to be here before November.”
Mathis said she told Reagan, “Let’s pray she stays in there as long as she can so she’s extremely healthy.”
Reagan’s mother, Jessica Brookes, told The Daily Beast she found her daughter “mortally wounded” in her New Boston home on Friday.
Reagan’s grandmother said Reagan was attacked while her 3-year-old daughter, Kynlee, was asleep in her bed.
Brookes said Reagan and her husband, Homer, worked hard. She said Reagan worked at a seafood restaurant right up until her death, even though her ankles were swollen.
“They worked so hard to have what they had,” Brookes said. “She never quit working. She didn’t call in sick. The only time she missed work was when she had a doctor’s appointment.”
Brookes said she last spoke to her daughter the night before she died. Reagan had already given her unborn baby a name: Braxlynn.
She said Reagan saw signs that Braxlynn would be born soon; she had a bag already packed for a hospital stay.
“Everybody says you can have memories,” Brookes said. “Well, you don’t want to just have memories. You want to have your baby. And we never got to meet Braxlynn. We’re in pieces. I’d never wish this on anyone.”
