7 Bombshells from Taylor Parker's Mom's Testimony (Including Why She Didn't Confront Her Daughter About Faking a Pregnancy)

Taylor Parker's mom, Shona Prior, testified about her daughter's fake pregnancy and murder case in October 2022

NEED TO KNOW

• Taylor Parker’s mother, Shona Prior, testified about her strained relationship with her daughter before Parker murdered Reagan Simmons-Hancock
• Prior revealed she knew Parker’s pregnancy was fake, but believed the lie would eventually expose itself
• Prior, who didn’t participate in Maternal Instinct, shared other insights during Parker’s trial and sentencing in 2022

Taylor Parker's mother, Shona Prior, was a key witness in her daughter's murder trial.

Parker was a mother of two children who faked a pregnancy while in a relationship with Wade Griffin in 2020. In October of that year, Parker's lie came to a head when she passed her so-called due date.

Parker then went to her pregnant friend Reagan Simmons-Hancock's home and brutally killed her. She proceeded to cut out Simmons-Hancock's unborn daughter, who later died.

Parker was arrested after she sought medical attention, and doctors determined that she had not given birth to the baby she said was hers — it was later confirmed that Parker had previously underwent a hysterectomy. She was subsequently found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death in November 2022. The case has since been told in the Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct.

Although none of Parker's family members participated in the documentary, several of them testified at her trial and shared anecdotes about Parker's upbringing, her health issues and her horrific crime. Prior testified about several aspects of the crime — including how she reacted to hearing about her daughter's fake pregnancy.

Here are some of the biggest bombshells from Taylor Parker's mother's testimony.

Prior was present for her daughter's hysterectomy

After welcoming two children in two different relationships, Parker made the decision to undergo a "permanent sterilization," per Maternal Instinct. Her doctor, Dr. Christopher Mason, explained in the doc that the procedure, a tubal ligation, "physically [blocks] the tubes so that you can't have children anymore."

However, around a year-and-a-half later, in August 2015, Parker returned to her doctor to seek treatment for unexplained bleeding. During an exploratory surgery, doctors discovered that she had an ovarian cyst, ectopic pregnancy and scarring from endometriosis.

Since Parker was under anesthesia, her doctors asked Prior and Parker's then-husband, Tommy Wacasey, to get consent to perform a hysterectomy, according to Prior's testimony as reported by KTAL News. They both agreed and the procedure was completed.

"I don't think she was upset until after they got home,” Prior recalled. “She expressed a little bit of anger about having a hysterectomy. I think she was planning on having more children.”

When asked if her consent changed their mother-daughter dynamic, Prior said that it "could have" affected their bond if Parker "blamed me for the hysterectomy."

"Well, I made the decision, she took it out on Tommy. She didn't blame me to my face," Prior claimed.

Prior denied Parker's claims that they were estranged

In Maternal Instinct, Griffin alleged that Parker told him she and her mom had a strained relationship, because Prior was refusing to give Parker her share of their alleged multimillion-dollar syrup inheritance.

However, Parker was lying and was not the beneficiary of a massive fortune. Instead, Prior testified that she and her daughter were not completely estranged, nor had they been arguing over money.

Prior testified that while she was out of town for most of 2020, she would frequently return home on weekends and visit with Parker's children, Emersyn and Trey. She further claimed that she'd often help Parker with her kids and pick them up when needed.

In addition to occasionally seeing her daughter and grandchildren, Prior also alleged that she was helping Parker with some of her medical bills. By the time that Parker started dating Griffin in late 2019, she and her mother had started talking less, and Parker unfriended her mother on Facebook.

“She just became a different person when she got with him," Parker testified.

Prior admitted to knowing her daughter was faking a pregnancy

Since Prior knew that her daughter had undergone a hysterectomy, she was aware that her daughter was unable to get pregnant.

Prior testified that she learned in March 2020 — two months after Parker started her lie — that her daughter was claiming to be pregnant. Prior alleged that a friend texted her a screenshot of a Facebook post showing Parker's gender reveal party, to which she had not been invited.

Prior texted the screenshot to her daughter and asked her, "'What am I supposed to tell my girlfriends telling me I'm gonna be a grandmother again?' "

“You are,” she claimed Parker replied.

Prior testified that she never responded to the message and never asked her daughter about it again.

"She knew that I knew that I wasn't going to be a grandma again," Prior said when asked why she didn't speak to her daughter further about the lie, while later adding, “I didn't feel like there was a reason that I should say, ‘You're not pregnant' to her."

Although Prior never addressed Parker about the fake pregnancy, she testified that she told Parker's children they should not be expecting a sibling, because their mom "did not have the parts that were required for pregnancy.”

Prior testified that she assumed Griffin "would figure it out"

During cross-examination, Prior was questioned as to why she didn't press her daughter to tell the truth or why she didn't directly speak with Griffin about the fake pregnancy.

“Not much you can do about a fake pregnancy,” Prior said. “She knew she wasn't pregnant. We knew she wasn't pregnant. There was no need to come up with a plan. We figured the lie would be exposed. He would figure it out.”

She continued, “Hindsight's 20/20. I can't tell you what would have happened if we had done that. We figured the lie was going to be exposed, there were so many people who knew it was a lie and just kept on buying it. I'm not shifting the blame, I just figured he would figure it out."

Prior had a conversation with Griffin's mother before the murder

Although Parker had seemingly convinced Griffin that she was pregnant, many people outside of their relationship questioned her.

Prior testified that a few days before her daughter committed the murder, she received a call from Griffin's mother, Connie, who was "calling to confirm with me whether it was possible she could be pregnant or not," Prior recalled.

“No, it's not possible," Prior said she responded.

Prior maintained that another reason she didn't confront her daughter about being pregnant was because she thought enough people close to her knew she was lying.

"His mother was aware of it, his brother was aware of it," she claimed. "It's like everyone around them was aware of it. We did not feel the need to call them up.”

Parker's aunt Molly Glass added in her testimony that she called Griffin's close friend Stephanie Ott and also told her that Parker couldn't conceive a child. Ott allegedly confronted Griffin, but later said he didn't believe her.

She went back and forth on whether or not Parker threatened to take her grandchildren away from her if she exposed her lies

Shortly after Parker was apprehended for the murder and kidnapping, Prior alleged that she hadn't spoken to Parker about her fake pregnancy because she was scared her daughter would prohibit her from seeing her grandchildren. However, Prior later changed her story, saying she actually didn't feel that way.

First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp asked Prior about her initial response by quoting her.

"'If I would have confronted her in person, I feared that she would keep my grandkids from me,' ” Crisp quoted from Prior's November 2020 testimony.

Two years later, Prior denied feeling that way.

“I didn't. I didn't fear that she'd keep my grandkids from me,” Prior said. "Maybe that's what I thought you wanted me to say. I just could have had a different opinion then.”

When asked what changed, Prior said she didn't know, "but today I don't feel that she would have ever kept them from me. Apparently, in November 2020, I felt differently.”

Prior admitted that Parker was "telling lies for a very long time"

Throughout her testimony, Prior went back and forth over whether or not her daughter was lying. Crisp directly told Prior that Parker had "been telling lies for a very long time," to which she agreed and said, "that's reality."

“She's playing the victim, upsetting you, because you're concerned about her well-being,” Crisp continued, “but she's lying to you. Fair to say Taylor has history of lying?”

Prior replied, "Fair."

Read the full article here