Taylor Parker: Part 1, Fake Pregnancy, Inheritance Lies and a Foetal Abduction Case

[00:00:01] Adam Cox: texas State Trooper Alonzo Chaves pulled a car over onto the shoulder of the road, and as he approached the driver's window, the woman started waving, frantically, . Something was wrong, very wrong.

And the second he reaches the door, he sees it sitting in the woman's lap was a newborn baby girl.

She's tiny. She's covered in blood. And it was unclear at this moment if the baby was still even alive.

[00:00:25] Kyle Risi: Okay. Well, she's just given birth though, right?

[00:00:27] Adam Cox: The baby had a faint heartbeat, but needed urgent medical attention.

but over the next few hours, as medical staff looked over the mother , they would find something deeply disturbing.

Today we're gonna be talking about Taylor Parker, and she has a troubled life involving family fortunes, inheritance disputes , medical problems, and a seemingly relentless campaign of sabotage from the people closest to her.

Most of all, her mother Shona.

Taylor wasn't someone who enjoyed being alone. Friends would later describe a woman who threw herself completely into these relationships, investing everything, almost becoming obsessed

she wasn't just a small town Texas mother. She was the heir to a fortune

[00:01:12] Kyle Risi: I don't know, it just sounds quite fishy already.

[00:01:16] Adam Cox: this story is so unbelievable that for court records, witness testimonies, and thousands of pages of evidence, you would think that this is made



[00:01:57] Adam Cox: Welcome to the Compendium, an Assembly of fascinating things, a weekly variety podcast that gives you just enough information to stand your ground. At any social gathering.

[00:02:06] Kyle Risi: We explore strange, true stories from the worlds of true crime, dark history, scandals, mysteries, and of course, remarkable people.

[00:02:14] Adam Cox: I'm Adam Cox, your Ring master for this episode.

[00:02:17] Kyle Risi: And I'm Kyle Reese, your mime liaison associate.

[00:02:21] Adam Cox: Okay, tell me more.

[00:02:22] Kyle Risi: Well, basically I facilitate communication between the mimes and other departments, cause the last thing you want is anyone accidentally saying to a mime, use your words. That's like deeply offensive to a mind

[00:02:34] Adam Cox: or speak up.

[00:02:35] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Or speak up even worse.

But also I'm just here to bring clarity on certain things. You know? Like for example, like two hands up, pressed against nothing usually means like I'm trapped. But to another mime, it could mean the prince is broken.

[00:02:50] Adam Cox: That's very misleading.

[00:02:52] Kyle Risi: Yeah, exactly. So I am there to just facilitate the communication between the mimes.

[00:02:56] Adam Cox: Are you like if you're hard of hearing or

[00:02:59] Kyle Risi: mm-hmm.

[00:02:59] Adam Cox: You know, they always have an interpreter or sign language in the corner of the tv.

[00:03:03] Kyle Risi: Yes, that's right. That's what the budget has been allocated for.

[00:03:05] Adam Cox: So you are there in the corner of the stadium or in the staff breakout area. Translating,

[00:03:10] Kyle Risi: yeah, that's it.

[00:03:11] Adam Cox: Okay.

[00:03:12] Kyle Risi: I'm so sorry

[00:03:13] Adam Cox: guys. If you are new to the show and you want to support us, then the absolute best way to support our show and enjoy exclusive perks is to join us on Patreon. Signing up is free and you get next week's episodes, seven days early.

[00:03:26] Kyle Risi: But of course, for as little as $5 a month, you can become a fellow freak of the show, which will unlock our entire back catalogue of all of our old archived episodes, which include the Beanie Babies.

[00:03:39] Adam Cox: Oh, you remember it this week.

[00:03:40] Kyle Risi: I'm remembering them. Yes, exactly. And also the Jonestown mm-hmm. Massacre, which is a really good one.

[00:03:45] Adam Cox: Yeah.

[00:03:45] Kyle Risi: So, yeah.

[00:03:47] Adam Cox: But Kyle, let's be honest, the real reason for signing up as a certified free, ah, or big top tier member is to get access to our exclusive compendium key chain.

So we can always be there

[00:03:58] Kyle Risi: dangling

[00:03:59] Adam Cox: New York crotch.

[00:04:00] Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:01] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:04] Kyle Risi: Every week. And lastly, guys, please do follow us on your favourite podcasting app and leave us a review please, because your sport helps others find us and keeps these amazing stories coming.

[00:04:15] Adam Cox: Okay. Enough of the housekeeping, because today, Kyle on the compendium, we are diving into an assembly of high risk pregnancies, a multimillion dollar inheritance, and one of the most unusual mother-daughter relationships ever leading to a double murder

[00:04:31] Kyle Risi: shit.

I dunno what to say to that. What?

[00:04:34] Adam Cox: Yes,

[00:04:35] Kyle Risi: you make all that up.

[00:04:36] Adam Cox: To be honest, this story is so unbelievable that if it wasn't for court records, witness testimonies, and thousands of pages of evidence, you would think that this is made up

[00:04:47] Kyle Risi: really

God. Okay. I'm excited for this, man.

[00:04:49] Adam Cox: Okay. So today we're gonna be talking about Taylor Parker, and if you know her already, you know exactly what we're in for. But if you don't, then for now, all you need to know is she has a troubled life involving family fortunes, inheritance disputes , medical problems, mysterious threats, and a seemingly relentless campaign of sabotage from the people closest to her.

Most of all, her mother Shona.

[00:05:15] Kyle Risi: Do you know what we all know people like this from school where there's just so much drama going in their lives. Like you speak to 'em, there's always something, something going on. Do you know what I mean?

[00:05:23] Adam Cox: Yeah. This is kinda like one of those people.

[00:05:26] Kyle Risi: Yeah.

[00:05:27] Adam Cox: It's the kind of people you cut out your life when you reach 30.

[00:05:30] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Do you know I'm too old for this. I've got a sore back. I might not have any kids, but do you know what? I've got other shit I need to be dealing

[00:05:36] Adam Cox: with. Yeah. I cannot deal with you. So her mother, Shona, she would do anything to ruin Taylor's life by harassing her, harassing her partners involved in organised crime and even creating bomb scares.

Some people believed every word Taylor had to say. Mm-hmm. Others were not so convinced. But by the time the true finally starts to emerge, it's already far too late.

[00:06:00] Kyle Risi: Okay. I'm very intrigued. Adam.

[00:06:02] Adam Cox: Okay. Enough Cism, if that's even a word. Is

[00:06:05] Kyle Risi: that even a

[00:06:06] Adam Cox: word? That's not a word.

[00:06:07] Kyle Risi: I don't think so.

[00:06:08] Adam Cox: I'm just gonna get into the story because it, today, it starts on October the ninth, 2020.

Texas State Trooper Alonzo Chaves was driving along Highway 82, near the city of DeKalb, Texas .

It was just a routine patrol for Alonzo. Nothing unusual, but then he notices a car coming towards him and something immediately felt wrong. The car was moving erratically, it was speeding up and it was drifting.

Its hazard lights were flashing as it tore down the highway at almost the exact same time, a 9 1 1 dispatcher named Katie Jimena received a frantic phone call and the woman on the line was screaming, crying, barely able to get her words out. She said a state trooper was behind her and she needed an ambulance immediately.

At first, Katie assumed she was injured. Maybe she'd been involved in a crash, but then the caller explained what was happening and suddenly nothing about this situation made sense. The woman said she was in labour and was on her way to the hospital, but nature couldn't wait, and she was already giving birth behind the wheel of the car.

[00:07:11] Kyle Risi: Wow. And so she was driving, was she?

[00:07:13] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:13] Kyle Risi: Okay. Crazy.

[00:07:14] Adam Cox: Meanwhile, Alonzo Chafer had already activated his lights and pulled the car over onto the shoulder of the road, and as he approached the driver's window, the woman started waving, frantically, motioning, for him to come closer faster. Something was wrong, very wrong.

And the second he reaches the door, he sees it sitting in the woman's lap was a newborn baby girl. She's tiny. She's covered in blood. And it was unclear at this moment if the baby was still even alive.

[00:07:41] Kyle Risi: Okay. Well, she's just given birth though, right?

[00:07:43] Adam Cox: Yeah. The umbilical cord was trailing from the infant's stomach and disappearing beneath the woman's clothing.

And for a moment, the trooper could hardly process what he was seeing. This woman was hysterical. She told him she'd just given birth whilst driving, and now her baby wasn't breathing. She begged him to help begged him to get them to her hospital. But there was one condition. She refused to go to the nearest emergency room.

She wanted to go to Abel, Oklahoma, a hospital, which was 40 minutes away. And Alonzo's like, well, there's much closer hospital. Surely you'd want to go there.

[00:08:16] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Why did she wanna go to that hospital?

[00:08:18] Adam Cox: Well, she insisted that her doctor was at this specific hospital and she just wanted to get to her doctor.

[00:08:23] Kyle Risi: Sure. So it's like, it's a, I don't know how it works in America, but like you have to go to this particular hospital, otherwise it's not covered. And then you're like stuck with like a 50 grand bill or something.

[00:08:32] Adam Cox: Yeah. So Alonza, he can see that she's in distress and was like, lemme just call you an ambulance.

Let's get you to hospital. I don't think he's really gonna put up much of a fight.

[00:08:39] Kyle Risi: No.

[00:08:40] Adam Cox: The baby had a faint heartbeat, but needed urgent medical attention. And Taylor is covered in blood and the nurses and doctors when she arrives at the hospital are concerned for her health. Given that this looked like a traumatic roadside birth, but over the next few hours, as medical staff looked over Taylor, they would find something incredibly alarming.

Nothing about this instant that they were dealing with made sense. In fact, what they uncovered was something deeply disturbing. One that would shock America and that many people did not see coming.

[00:09:12] Kyle Risi: What was it?

[00:09:13] Adam Cox: Well, I'm gonna leave you on that slight cliffhanger '

[00:09:16] Kyle Risi: Oh, you gotta do a classic. Uh, Adam Cox switcheroo. We're gonna now go back

[00:09:20] Adam Cox: Yeah.

[00:09:20] Kyle Risi: To the very beginning. So this was the end.

[00:09:22] Adam Cox: We need to find out about Taylor. So Taylor, Renee Parker like to present herself a certain way on Facebook. The 27-year-old described herself as a wildflower. She was wild, free and wicked with a glow that was never meant to be tamed.

[00:09:37] Kyle Risi: Oh God, I hate her. Already.

[00:09:38] Adam Cox: Her profile painted a picture of a woman with endless interests. She listed herself as an amateur photographer, office administrator, a medical assistant. Basically. She tried her hand at a lot of different things.

[00:09:50] Kyle Risi: Pretty much, yeah.

[00:09:51] Adam Cox: But more than anything else, Taylor wanted people to see her as a mother.

Her social media was filled with photographs of her children. What seemed to be missing, however, what's the one thing that Taylor appeared to want the most? A lasting relationship.

[00:10:04] Kyle Risi: Okay. How many kids has she got at this moment?

[00:10:05] Adam Cox: She's got two kids at this moment.

[00:10:07] Kyle Risi: And she just wants a little daddy for both Timmy and Michelle.

[00:10:10] Adam Cox: And so by her late twenties, Taylor had already lived through a series of intense romances to marriages, in fact, and painful breakups.

[00:10:18] Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

[00:10:19] Adam Cox: She became a mother at just 17 years old after falling pregnant with her daughter Immerson. And the relationship with her daughter's father eventually collapsed, leaving Taylor to raise her largely on her own.

And then a few years later, she marries a guy called Tommy who steps into the fatherly role. And later they have a son together called Trey. For a while, it seemed like she'd found a stable family life that she was after.

[00:10:42] Kyle Risi: Okay. So at this point now, there still two kids.

[00:10:44] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm. But the marriage doesn't survive.

After years together, Tommy files for divorce in 2017 and their separation was pretty bitter. And there was a custody battle over Trey. Initially, for many people, that might have been enough of a reason to slow down, but not for Taylor. She moves on real quick. Within months, she remarries beginning a whirlwind relationship with a man called Hunter Parker.

The marriage lasts less than a year before ending in another divorce.

[00:11:10] Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

[00:11:11] Adam Cox: So by now there's a bit of a pattern emerging. Taylor wasn't someone who enjoyed being alone. Friends would later describe a woman who threw herself completely into these relationships, investing everything, almost becoming obsessed.

[00:11:23] Kyle Risi: We've seen those types of people before. Right. Was it Sherri Papini? She was quite obsessive about her partner as well Go. Like willing to go to like extreme lengths just to keep them interested. To keep them involved.

[00:11:34] Adam Cox: Yeah, exactly. And just weeks after her second divorce with Hunter, she then meets someone new.

[00:11:39] Kyle Risi: Oh wow.

[00:11:40] Adam Cox: And his name is Wade Gryphon. And unlike the men who came before him, Wade seemed like exactly the kind of person that Taylor wanted to settle down with. And not long after meeting him, she tells him some life changing news that she is pregnant, not with one baby, but with twins.

[00:11:56] Kyle Risi: Oh, okay.

[00:11:57] Adam Cox: Now, for the 27-year-old mother or two, it felt like the beginning of an entirely new chapter, she and Wade had fallen for each other real quick, and now they're planning their future together.

But according to Taylor, that future was ripped away almost suddenly as it appeared, because a few weeks into the pregnancy, she joins her father Mark and a family friend whilst they worked on a farm. And then during some like machinery or whatever, this cable snaps and it strikes Taylor in her abdomen.

[00:12:24] Kyle Risi: Oh shit.

[00:12:24] Adam Cox: Making her miscarry. And so it's her father that calls up Wade and he has to break the news to him, essentially.

[00:12:31] Kyle Risi: Are we buying this, by the way, Because if her father has to break the news, I don't know. There just seems to be something quite suspicious about The father breaking the news.

Do you know what I mean?

[00:12:39] Adam Cox: Okay.

[00:12:40] Kyle Risi: We'll put a pin in that.

[00:12:41] Adam Cox: We'll put a pin in that.

[00:12:42] Kyle Risi: Okay.

[00:12:43] Adam Cox: The loss devastates her though, and as she leans on Wade for support, the relationship deepened. And for the first time, Taylor begins sharing details about her family and her past. And according to Taylor, there was something Wade didn't know about her.

She wasn't just a small town Texas mother. She was the heir to a fortune.

[00:13:02] Kyle Risi: And is this a lie as well?

I don't know, like, do you know what I mean? It just sounds quite fishy already.

[00:13:13] Adam Cox: Okay.

[00:13:14] Kyle Risi: Okay. And like you already kind of gave me an a bit of a preview of what type of person she's mm-hmm. Everything we hate in human beings. Do you know what I mean? We all know those types of people. So it just seems like this is someone who's like very used to potentially lying a lot, exaggerating someone who would like you to tell 'em a story and, and they would've done the same thing, but even better.

Do you know what I mean?

[00:13:35] Adam Cox: Let's reserve judgement for now.

[00:13:37] Kyle Risi: We ne we listen and we never judge.

[00:13:41] Adam Cox: What was that from?

[00:13:42] Kyle Risi: That's from Gypsy Rose. Oh, from her Instagram account.

[00:13:46] Adam Cox: Oh yeah, that's right.

[00:13:47] Kyle Risi: Oh God.

[00:13:48] Adam Cox: Mm. Well we are just scratching the surface.

[00:13:51] Kyle Risi: Oh we damn.

[00:13:53] Adam Cox: So Taylor tells Wade that she comes from old money. She claimed her family was connected to the Blackburn Syrup Empire.

A well-known Texas company that had generated wealth for well generations

[00:14:05] Kyle Risi: making black syrup.

[00:14:06] Adam Cox: well it's Blackburn syrup. I dunno if it's black syrup.

[00:14:10] Kyle Risi: I mean, they're from Ed, Texas. So is it oil by any chance?

[00:14:12] Adam Cox: There is oil connected to this. In fact, her family owned, I think land rich oil and gas production.

Okay. Producing royalty payments worth millions of dollars.

[00:14:22] Kyle Risi: So this guy that she's involved with, he must be thinking damn. Yeah, exactly.

[00:14:27] Adam Cox: All being. Well one day much of that money would belong to her. But there was just one problem.

[00:14:33] Kyle Risi: Oh no.

[00:14:34] Adam Cox: According to Taylor, she couldn't access any of it. 'cause the person controlling the family's finances was her mother Shona prior.

[00:14:41] Kyle Risi: And what they needed him to do was to accept an email from a Nigerian prince and then send over $20,000 to unlock the deeds to the business.

[00:14:54] Adam Cox: I don't think that happened, but I'm surprised it didn't happen. The story goes

[00:14:58] Kyle Risi: really?

[00:14:58] Adam Cox: yeah. So the mother, she is controlling the finances and Taylor paints her as well.

She, it's a real bleak picture. Their relationship, I think she says that her mother has never wanted her, that she had been mistreated throughout her childhood. And that even as an adult, her mother continued trying to control every aspect of her life. Wade had no reason to doubt her. He naturally felt sorry for her.

And to him, Taylor seemed like a woman trapped between these two worlds. Someone who appeared wealthy on paper, but emotionally she was quite isolated. In reality, I guess she felt alone.

[00:15:30] Kyle Risi: Sure.

[00:15:31] Adam Cox: And before long she would ask Wade for a favour that would pull him directly into her family's affairs. Not long after telling Wade about her family's wealth, Taylor comes to him with an opportunity.

Her grandparents owned land in Byron Mill, Texas property that had slowly fallen into disrepair after her grandfather became too ill to manage it himself. Taylor said that she wanted to restore it and bring it back to life. And according to Taylor, they agreed to support the project using money generated from the family's oil and gas royalties.

[00:16:00] Kyle Risi: Okay. So Wade, does he know that this is all happening? Or is this what she's telling him has happened? Like she's gone to her grandparents and they think this is a great opportunity?

[00:16:09] Adam Cox: I think she's pitched it to Wade and she's saying like, um, listen, my, grandparents are on board. If we do this up, they're gonna help fund this essentially.

[00:16:18] Kyle Risi: Sure. The full support and whatnot.

[00:16:20] Adam Cox: Yeah. But there needs to be a little bit of investment from them early on. 'cause currently Taylor doesn't have access to the her fortune. Of course.

[00:16:28] Kyle Risi: Yes.

[00:16:28] Adam Cox: So the land, it needs fencing, Bush needs clearing everything. They need to hire some people, they need to get equipment.

And essentially they estimate it's gonna cost around $50,000.

[00:16:39] Kyle Risi: Oh, that's not much.

[00:16:40] Adam Cox: Not much. But it's not money that they have easily. Well, they can't access it at the moment. So,

[00:16:44] Kyle Risi: I mean, if you've got old money and you can't access 50,000 bucks, you ain't got no money. Do you know what I mean?

[00:16:52] Adam Cox: Well, she has the money.

Just her mother is keeping it from her.

[00:16:55] Kyle Risi: All of it though. She can't respect $50,000 when she's got old money. Money. Bitch, come on. Come on.

[00:17:03] Adam Cox: She's shocked at the hat.

[00:17:05] Kyle Risi: Oh god.

[00:17:06] Adam Cox: Anyway, she manages to convince Wade. When you take out this loan, this investment, uhhuh, I'll, I'll, you know, put it in your name, but I'll give you the money back when I get access to, to

[00:17:15] Kyle Risi: my old money.

[00:17:16] Adam Cox: Yeah, exactly. So work begins, contractors were hired and equipment rolls in. And for a brief moment, it looks like the project's finally underway, but then everything falls apart 'cause Taylor calls wade in tears. According to her, her mother Shona had discovered what they were doing and intervened. Okay.

The funding had vanished, the account was empty, and the money that they had promised was gone essentially. And the timing couldn't have been worse because Bills were coming out. Obviously Wade's put this investment in.

[00:17:43] Kyle Risi: Yeah.

[00:17:43] Adam Cox: And now he's out of pocket 'cause he's not gonna be able to pay this back.

[00:17:47] Kyle Risi: Yeah. He's gonna have to stop paying the the loan back. But why does her mother have access to her, her own bank account?

[00:17:52] Adam Cox: Well, she is well connected is all I'm gonna say.

[00:17:54] Kyle Risi: Okay. It is old money.

[00:17:55] Adam Cox: Old money. And so Wade is covering the costs out of his own pocket. He trusts Taylor because she's showing him messages, emails, documents that appeared to support everything that she had told him about her inheritance.

As far as Wade was concerned, the problem wasn't Taylor, the problem was her mother. 'cause this wasn't the last time Taylor promised that money was on its way. Over the following months, the same pattern repeated itself and believing that relief was just around the corner. Wade continued investing in their future further vehicles, farm equipment, livestock loans, debt that he would never have taken upon himself if it wasn't for this promise that this inheritance was coming.

[00:18:34] Kyle Risi: Sure. Yeah. No, I get it.

[00:18:36] Adam Cox: And the thing is, when this wire transfer is about to be approved and like only you know, days away something would happen involving Taylor's mother, Shona, the transfer would fail, the account would be frozen, another legal issue would appear and Wade would be left carrying the burden.

And so by late 2019, Wade felt like he was fighting a war against someone he'd never even met. And according to Taylor, Shona wasn't just controlling the inheritance anymore, she was actually trying to destroy her life. The messages, they never seemed to stop. These email, these texts, this online harassment, sometimes they came directly from Shona herself and other times they appeared under a strange alias.

[00:19:16] Kyle Risi: Oh.

[00:19:16] Adam Cox: Often using names like Mandy, Boyd and all this stuff. And so to Wade it seemed really bizarre, but Taylor always had an explanation.

[00:19:24] Kyle Risi: Yeah. What was her explanation for it being a different name?

[00:19:27] Adam Cox: well she would, I say actually it's just my mom trying to hide someone else because they're getting all these abuse threats and stuff like that.

She would always say, it's my mom, she's controlling this, or whatever.

[00:19:36] Kyle Risi: Sure. Okay.

[00:19:37] Adam Cox: Then one day Taylor told Wade she had been visited by a law enforcement officer. The man introduced himself as Agent Coburn. And according to Taylor, he hadn't come with good news. He claimed that her life was in danger.

[00:19:49] Kyle Risi: Okay.

[00:19:50] Adam Cox: Taylor said Coburn told her that the dispute of the family fortune had escalated far beyond courtrooms and bank accounts. In fact, her mother was connected to organised crime and had hired people to kill Taylor. What.

[00:20:04] Kyle Risi: Kill Taylor. This has escalated far too much

[00:20:08] Adam Cox: all over this, Blackburn syrup or whatever.

[00:20:11] Kyle Risi: Exactly. $50,000 that, that's what this is all over. And it's not even her money.

[00:20:16] Adam Cox: yeah, that's true. And

[00:20:17] Kyle Risi: yeah. And that not no one's paid anything yet.

[00:20:20] Adam Cox: No.

[00:20:20] Kyle Risi: It's only money that she's gotten from a loan from the bank that she's eventually going to use to pay like the old money to pay back her boyfriend.

So like this is all just really silly.

[00:20:30] Adam Cox: Yeah. And you know, getting death threats, this feels like it's escalated very quickly . Wade and Taylor have only been dating, I think less than a year at this point in time.

[00:20:39] Kyle Risi: Wow. Really? And

[00:20:40] Adam Cox: a lot has happened.

[00:20:41] Kyle Risi: Yes.

[00:20:42] Adam Cox: And if that wasn't frightening enough, Taylor said that the threat extended to her daughter.

So her mother was after her own grandchild.

[00:20:49] Kyle Risi: This is stupid.

[00:20:50] Adam Cox: So it wasn't just a family dispute, it was a matter of survival. So Wade says, come live with me, I'll protect you, all this sort of stuff. But according to Taylor, that safety wouldn't last because she was convinced that her mother knew everything that they were doing, whether her phone was tapped, they knew where they went, who they spoke to, even private conversations seemed to find their way back to her mother.

And so I think they end up buying like burner phones at some point. Really? Because they're a bit concerned about even speaking to each other.

[00:21:17] Kyle Risi: This is so stupid. Clearly this is just rubbish.

[00:21:20] Adam Cox: Taylor believed the phones had been compromised, that someone was monitoring them, watching them listening, whether any of that was actually happening, didn't matter to Wade.

What mattered to him was that Taylor seemed genuinely terrified. And as her fear grew, all he wanted to do was just protect her.

[00:21:37] Kyle Risi: Yeah, of course.

[00:21:38] Adam Cox: And according to Taylor, they weren't alone. She claimed that there were undercover officers that were monitoring the property around the clock.

[00:21:44] Kyle Risi: Well, for her protection.

[00:21:45] Adam Cox: Yeah. Watching from a distance. And she would say to Wade, or don't speak to them because you'll blow their cover.

[00:21:50] Kyle Risi: But she would see these police officers around, right?

[00:21:53] Adam Cox: Yeah. This 50-year-old man pushing a wheelbarrow,

[00:21:56] Kyle Risi: he's undercover. Oh, that little kid over there who's fishing in the ravine, he is undercover.

He's actually a 6-year-old cop.

[00:22:03] Adam Cox: Yeah. I mean, obviously I think she's saying that they're adults, but that's that we're making joke of it. But she would say that there were people out there in the public that were under,

[00:22:11] Kyle Risi: I mean, is Wade okay? Is Wade all there? Have you seen pictures of Wade?

[00:22:16] Adam Cox: I've seen pictures of Wade.

[00:22:17] Kyle Risi: And what does Wade look like? Does he look like someone who would easily fall for a scam?

[00:22:21] Adam Cox: Um, I mean, I dunno how to say this politely.

[00:22:23] Kyle Risi: Hold, hold the phone. Let me Google this guy. Okay. So Wade Gryphon, I mean, there's no excuse. He does not look like someone that would fall for a scam. No. Do you know what I mean?

He's not what I pictured. She, however, does look like a Jezebel, doesn't she? She's got this like, blonde, dark, bleached flowing hair. She's got eyes like a cat. You can see her there with a little pregnancy bump. She looks nasty.

[00:22:49] Adam Cox: Yeah, I think that's one of their pregnancy photos. Yeah. Okay. That happens a bit later.

[00:22:54] Kyle Risi: Interesting. Oh no, there's another picture of Wade. Yeah. He looks like someone who'd fall for a scam. He's got a chinstrap beard and he's got a little cowboy hat. Yeah. He does look like someone who'd fall for a scam.

[00:23:04] Adam Cox: The thing is, there's a lot of people, I'm not saying this is a scam at this point.

There's a lot of people that believe Taylor, so it's not just Wade that she manages this to convince,

[00:23:14] Kyle Risi: so she's so, she's good. Basically. She's a good manipulator.

[00:23:17] Adam Cox: She a lot of people and Yeah. Don't have reason to doubt her. And even when they do, there's always an explanation.

[00:23:24] Kyle Risi: Yeah, there is. There's always an explanation with these people, you know, always.

[00:23:28] Adam Cox: Yeah, and the thing is, Taylor always insists it's all real. Then just before Christmas, she receives what she described as the final update. The investigation with her mother was over. There were people responsible, had been caught, and there had allegedly been arrests after a shootout with the FBI.

[00:23:48] Kyle Risi: Oh God.

Out of interest, has Wade ever met Taylor's mother?

[00:23:51] Adam Cox: No.

[00:23:52] Kyle Risi: Oh

[00:23:52] Adam Cox: no. Um, but then the most shocking development of them all. So Agent Coburn is the one that reveals all this information.

[00:23:59] Kyle Risi: Can we just call him what it is?

[00:24:00] Adam Cox: What

[00:24:00] Kyle Risi: It's cockburn.

[00:24:02] Adam Cox: Definitely Coburn.

[00:24:03] Kyle Risi: What? There's no CK in there?

[00:24:04] Adam Cox: I don't think so,

[00:24:05] Kyle Risi: but it's it's spelled cockburn.

[00:24:07] Adam Cox: I know what you mean. Yeah. Okay. I just dunno if that's how his name. I don't think it is. we'll come onto to it. You'll understand. so Agent Coburn, he reveals the most shocking development of all Shona. She had taken her own life whilst in custody.

And so, just like that, the woman that Taylor blamed for years for this chaos and financial hardship was gone.

And she was, I dunno, maybe there was like a tinge of sadness, but for her, I feel like it was relief because now it felt like things could change. There weren't going to be any of these disputes. People hiding money. She can now start to have the future that she'd always wanted.

[00:24:43] Kyle Risi: Yeah, that's right. It shouldn't, like does she get her $50,000 back then her mother taken from her account?

[00:24:49] Adam Cox: Well, I think there's some legal things that have to happen first, but essentially that money should be on its way any minute now.

[00:24:56] Kyle Risi: So that's what she's telling Wade. Okay. Poor Wade.

[00:25:00] Adam Cox: Uh, and it's around this time that Taylor suggests something bigger, like a new project for them, and it's buying a ranch called Pecan Point.

And not long after Christmas, she contacts this real estate agent named Rusty Lowe about the property in southern eastern Oklahoma. And for Wade it was almost impossible not to fall in love with it. It's nearly 2000 acres of rolling farmland stretched along the Red River.

[00:25:25] Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:26] Adam Cox: There were cattle pastures, pecan grows, hunting rights reservoirs, and enough opportunity to build something and, uh, support the family for generations.

[00:25:34] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Have a peak and pie like farm.

[00:25:37] Adam Cox: I imagine it's like the Dutton Ranch a little bit like, uh, but in

[00:25:40] Kyle Risi: Texas.

[00:25:41] Adam Cox: Yeah. So Taylor and Way they drive out to see it together. They fall in love with it. And the asking price is pretty steep. It's around $4.7 million, which is not a problem now that Taylor's gonna get this money.

Right.

[00:25:52] Kyle Risi: Sure.

[00:25:53] Adam Cox: Taylor wastes no time. She makes an offer. She tells Rusty she is an heir to the Blackburn syrup fortune, and she basically signs the paperwork without hesitation. And so to the people around her, she certainly looked like someone who had the money because she was so confident. She was like so reassuring

[00:26:11] Kyle Risi: of what was going on.

But did she not have to put down a deposit or like show evidence that she had the money? She just had to sling a name that she was part of the black syrup syrup company.

I don't know what even, is it?

[00:26:22] Adam Cox: Yeah. I don't think she's given them any money yet, but she's starting the process essentially. Okay. Maybe she's put down a bit of money. This is gonna take a little while to clear.

[00:26:30] Kyle Risi: Sure.

[00:26:30] Adam Cox: But not everyone in Wade's family was convinced by Taylor's stories. In fact, Wade's mother, Connie Gryphon had been sceptical from the beginning.

Much like yourself, Kyle,

[00:26:40] Kyle Risi: I think with good reason.

[00:26:42] Adam Cox: there were just a lot of small things that didn't quite add up.

[00:26:45] Kyle Risi: Oh

[00:26:45] Adam Cox: God. Let alone the whole FBI shootout. One of them was Taylor's custody situation. Now, despite being a devoted mother to Meen, she didn't have custody of her younger son, Trey, which Connie was like, that seems quite odd, but Taylor had an explanation.

She said that she had been recovering from a serious medical emergency when a judge pressured her into signing away her parental rights.

[00:27:07] Kyle Risi: Okay.

[00:27:08] Adam Cox: And Connie, I guess she accepted it, but I don't think she ever fully believed that. And it wasn't the only thing. There always seemed to be another crisis, another legal dispute, another family emergency, and another reason why the millions of dollars Taylor talked about never quite arrived.

Still as unusual as a story sounded. There appeared to be evidence supporting them. She would show documents and emails, conversations with lawyers and banks and royalty payments in remarkable detail. So whilst it seemed sceptical or not real Yeah,

[00:27:39] Kyle Risi: she was showing the receipts basically.

[00:27:41] Adam Cox: Exactly. And it's kind of like, okay, there's enough evidence to suggest you have some money.

[00:27:46] Kyle Risi: Yeah. But she's clearly forging these receipts.

[00:27:48] Adam Cox: Yeah. But it seemed to settle things at least until the next drama happened.

[00:27:54] Kyle Risi: Okay. She's fighting fires. This one

[00:27:56] Adam Cox: cue. The next drama

[00:27:57] Kyle Risi: uhhuh.

[00:27:58] Adam Cox: It's just days before Christmas. And Taylor receives an unexpected message from Agent Coburn. He's back on the scene.

[00:28:03] Kyle Risi: Oh, cock burn's back.

[00:28:04] Adam Cox: And according to Taylor, he had something unbelievable to confess. He had lied. Shona wasn't dead. She had never been

[00:28:12] Kyle Risi: Why would he lie?

[00:28:13] Adam Cox: Um, well the entire story of supposed been fabricated to protect Taylor from further stress whilst the investigation was still ongoing.

[00:28:23] Kyle Risi: Okay. So question, just one quick question. Your mother has died and you hate her. You chose not to go to her funeral. What about the extended family? They were then asking where she was, why was she even buried? Like how much time had gone by? Why was Shona not buried and why did Taylor not go to her funeral?

[00:28:39] Adam Cox: Those are questions I the answer to. Well, I do.

[00:28:44] Kyle Risi: I'd be like, honey, are you okay? So sad to hear about your mom. Are you gonna go to the funeral? You're not? No. It doesn't sound like any of those conversations have even happened.

[00:28:52] Adam Cox: Well, it probably did, but I reckon Taylor's, I hate my mother. I'm not going whatever.

And Wade's only kind of hearing Taylor's version of events, right?

[00:29:01] Kyle Risi: Oh, like take the Swiss version?

[00:29:02] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm. I mean, no, but yes. Anyway, Taylor was furious that she had been lied to, that actually her mother was still alive and that she was potentially still in danger that the inheritance, the money, the pecan point purchase, all of that now lies on the fact that her mother's back.

Is any of this? Is she now gonna get her money? Essentially, Taylor reportedly cut ties with Coburn immediately telling never to contact her again. But by this point, the damage is done because only days later, she comes face to face with the woman she believed had been tormenting her for years at a family Christmas gathering.

[00:29:39] Kyle Risi: Okay.

[00:29:39] Adam Cox: And Wade goes with her

[00:29:41] Kyle Risi: Uhhuh.

[00:29:42] Adam Cox: So the moment Taylor and Wade walked through the door, the atmosphere feels different. Conversation stop people glancing at one another. And sitting there among the family members was shown a prior, very much alive.

[00:29:54] Kyle Risi: And

[00:29:54] Adam Cox: for Wade, it was the first time meeting the woman he'd heard so much about, there was no warm introduction, no attempt to smooth things over, just tension that filled the room

[00:30:03] Kyle Risi: be like, so you are the bitch who's been torment to my wife.

[00:30:05] Adam Cox: Yeah. But that didn't actually happen because Taylor basically whisks weighed off into another room to wrap presents. Mm-hmm. Because it's Christmas just escapes talking to her mother. But that doesn't sit well with Shona. She barges in and basically comes in and says, stop hiding. Why don't you join everyone?

And there was this kind of argument and tension. Uh, it was awkward, it was uncomfortable. And before Long, Taylor and Wade, they just hand their gifts out and they leave and they didn't really say much. And for Wade, he sees all this, and actually to him, this convinces him that Yeah, Shona is a piece of work.

[00:30:38] Kyle Risi: Yeah.

[00:30:39] Adam Cox: Like where, whether or not maybe all the information that he's been told is true,

[00:30:42] Kyle Risi: but he doesn't know why. There seems to be that friction. She's saying it's because of obviously everything that has happened, my mom literally trying to kill me. But actually the tension is actually because probably sh her knows that she's been lying.

She can't put off introducing Wade to her family any longer. And so she's gone in there trying to protect him and keep him away from the family. So he doesn't ask any questions, which should just create even more remiss for Taylor. Do you know what I mean?

[00:31:09] Adam Cox: Yeah.

[00:31:10] Kyle Risi: And then what's happened is sh hers, notice that and go, why?

Like, why are you coming? Join us, sit down, have Christmas, and she's just freaked out. And so they've just left early.

[00:31:18] Adam Cox: Yeah. That could be what's happened. But to Wade, he's like, yeah, she's clearly the piece of work you've always said. She is, and I understand why you've got a bad relationship.

And he buys everything that Taylor's ever told him.

[00:31:32] Kyle Risi: Wow. Okay.

[00:31:33] Adam Cox: Meanwhile, the whole pecan point deal is still trying to go through, there's back and forth with contracts, but then there's delays with paperwork, And at first, rusty Lowe tries to be patient. He's the one that's trying to sell the ranch to Taylor and Wade, because these transactions can be complicated.

Family trusts can be pretty messy, and it's hard to get that money, essentially. But to reassure him, Taylor Range, what she claimed would be a $7 million wire transfer from her inheritance, but it never appears. Mm-hmm. And then she pivots to another explanation. The funds she say would come from royalties generated by her family's oil and gas interests, and she produces these documents, offer contact details, and even connected Rusty with representatives she claimed could verify everything.

he speaks to them and it does give him enough reassurance, but he's getting pissed off that it's taking yeah, this month.

[00:32:23] Kyle Risi: But also what's crazy is I know she's obviously faking a lot of these documents, right? I wouldn't even know where to begin to start faking these documents

[00:32:31] Adam Cox: It's not just documents, though. There are conversations with people.

[00:32:34] Kyle Risi: Yeah. So she's obviously faking online conversations and emails and messages.

[00:32:39] Adam Cox: I think there's telephone calls as well.

[00:32:41] Kyle Risi: How is she doing this then?

[00:32:43] Adam Cox: Is it fake or is it real?

[00:32:44] Kyle Risi: Oh, don't do this now.

[00:32:46] Adam Cox: Anyway, Taylor's like, she's convinced it's sh her that's blocking access to her money and deliberately sabotaging the purchase.

So desperate for a solution, Taylor turns to her unca Butch, according to her, Butch was wealthy enough to solve the entire problem himself. She tells Wade that her uncle had agreed to Rev provide the $20 million needed for the purchase. But even if that was true, moving that kind of money doesn't happen overnight.

[00:33:10] Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

[00:33:11] Adam Cox: So once again, rusty is asked to wait. And once again, he finds himself trying to verify where the money was actually coming from when he attempts to contact Butch directly. Taylor is furious. Because now she's increasingly frustrated with people questioning her finances she basically is like, that's enough.

I've got the money. You'll get it when you'll get it.

[00:33:30] Kyle Risi: Basically, she's pissed off at people like questioning her.

[00:33:33] Adam Cox: Yeah. Checking up on that. But the deal never comes to fruition, and that's partly because of what happens next. 'cause by the beginning of 2020, Wade Gryphon had reached his limit. Months of promises had led nowhere, the money never appeared, and his debts are just increasing.

For the first time since they met, Wade was seriously considering walking away. Taylor, however, wasn't ready to give up wherever anyone else thought of her. One thing seemed undeniable. She loved Wade and she would talked about marrying him. Then just a few weeks later, Taylor discovers she is pregnant again.

[00:34:08] Kyle Risi: Okay. All right.

[00:34:10] Adam Cox: After everything they'd been through, she saw it as a sign, a fresh start, maybe even the thing that would finally bring them back together. Immediately she starts telling friends. One of the first people she contacts is her friend Angela Pate or Pat. Taylor couldn't contain her excitement.

She talked about the baby and the future, everything like that. But Angela is surprised by this news, not because Taylor didn't want another child. Mm-hmm. But because of what Taylor herself had told her a while back,

[00:34:39] Kyle Risi: which was

[00:34:40] Adam Cox: according to Angela, Taylor had previously claimed she'd undergone a partial hysterectomy.

Oh. Several years before. Now, whether there had been a misunderstanding or whether Angela perhaps remembered it, incorrectly or

[00:34:52] Kyle Risi: uterus grow back

[00:34:53] Adam Cox: all, all that, it was enough to make her think. That doesn't sound right to me, but I'm no doctor.

[00:34:58] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Honey are, are you, are you sure about that? Isn't A little bit of guess in there.

[00:35:03] Adam Cox: I think she was trying to be a good friend. Just maybe just take a few pregnancy tests. Yes. Just to make sure. And Taylor agreed. And before Long Wade had received the news, he was gonna be a father. It wasn't necessarily what he was looking for. After all, his finances weren't in a good place.

He was under a lot of strain. A baby was just gonna probably make matters worse. Mm-hmm. But gradually Wade begun to warm to the idea, partly because he thought things could get better and partly because actually he was excited to be a father.

And on March the 14th, 2020, just days after the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, Taylor shares the news publicly that she is expecting a baby girl with Wade. And Wade picks out a name. Clancy Gale and their friends and family, they come over to celebrate. They have a gender reveal all really nice.

[00:35:51] Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

[00:35:51] Adam Cox: Unfortunately, not everyone shares their excitement. 'cause before long rumours start circulating around town, some people are questioning whether Taylor was really pregnant at all. Partly because she wasn't showing very much and partly because by this point there were already people that just didn't trust her most.

Brush off those rumours. After all, every pregnancy is different. So some women don't show

[00:36:14] Kyle Risi: early. Yeah, exactly. So hang on. The fact that we know that this is a bit of a con, like she's gone as far as faking a pregnancy potentially. So when I looked at that picture of Wade and Taylor posing for at what their gender reveal or whatever, is she not pregnant?

[00:36:30] Adam Cox: She's pregnant in that photo. Yeah.

[00:36:32] Kyle Risi: Okay. I dunno what's happening. So she is pregnant.

[00:36:35] Adam Cox: Well, people are doubting her, but as we're gonna come on to, she's got plenty of evidence to suggest that she is pregnant. So even though Wade believes her and a lot of her friends believe her, that didn't really stop the whispers.

And particularly around Wade's family, they remain very sceptical about almost everything connected

[00:36:53] Kyle Risi: to them. The women in our family, when they fall pregnant, they really show where's your baby bump? You got no baby bump.

[00:37:02] Adam Cox: Well, the thing is, I think Wade's family were just concerned that she was using this as a way to entrap him.

Mm-hmm. And so they just weren't ready to accept this just yet. But to Wade, like it seemed like Taylor was pregnant, she appeared pregnant, she battled morning sickness, she spent hours vomiting. She had all these appointments that she would go to, and she constantly talked about the baby. But during the height of the COVID pandemic weight often couldn't accompany her beyond the waiting room.

[00:37:32] Kyle Risi: Of course.

[00:37:33] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm.

[00:37:34] Kyle Risi: So she was going to these hospital checkups on her own.

[00:37:37] Adam Cox: Yeah. But she would show him the ultrasound images, details from the appointments, the conversations, the recommendations.

[00:37:44] Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

[00:37:44] Adam Cox: So Wade bought it. Essentially Taylor would tell him the baby was moving and that

[00:37:50] Kyle Risi: God quick come feel, oh yeah, no, it's, she got tired.

[00:37:53] Adam Cox: Well, this is the thing he would feel her stomach can be like,

[00:37:56] Kyle Risi: oh, it's like psychological. So yeah, I think I can feel it.

[00:38:00] Adam Cox: And I think he starts to feel bad for himself as like, well, is she pregnant or can I not just feel it? I'm like, what's going on? Then he hears where, you know, shared friends say, oh no, we felt the baby kicked.

And so he is like, oh, well if you felt it, then yeah. Why am I even questioning this? And

[00:38:13] Kyle Risi: he's also touching her belly.

[00:38:16] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm.

[00:38:16] Kyle Risi: So, you know when you are not touching someone's pregnant belly, right?

[00:38:21] Adam Cox: Yeah. You know what's real and what's not.

[00:38:23] Kyle Risi: I'm so confused.

[00:38:24] Adam Cox: Well, as spring turns into summer, the rumours begin to die down because Taylor does start to show.

[00:38:30] Kyle Risi: Okay.

[00:38:30] Adam Cox: And for a while it seemed like actually that just, that shut up everyone, but then other problems appear.

[00:38:35] Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

[00:38:36] Adam Cox: In early April, Taylor emails her friend Angela again, um, a pregnancy verification letter and asks if she just could print it out for her. It seemed like a simple favour, she'll do it.

She prints it out and she just takes a quick look at it.

[00:38:48] Kyle Risi: Yeah. And

[00:38:48] Adam Cox: at first it seemed normal, but then she notices, um,

[00:38:52] Kyle Risi: oh God.

[00:38:52] Adam Cox: Well, the due date's correct. But the name of the patient, this is someone else. This isn't Taylor,

[00:38:58] Kyle Risi: is it not? So it wasn't hers.

[00:39:00] Adam Cox: No. So she contacts Taylor and goes like, oh, there's something wrong here.

And Taylor's like, well, it catches her off guard. And she breaks into tears and she says. This is my mother Shona again, and Angela's what she said, like her mother has somehow got connections in the hospital, whatever, and she's interfering with the paperwork to make it look like that she's faking her pregnancy to make people hate her.

All this sort of stuff. Yeah.

[00:39:23] Kyle Risi: Okay. Yes.

[00:39:25] Adam Cox: And so Angela is okay, but I do need some proof that you are pregnant. Yeah. Well,

[00:39:31] Kyle Risi: I mean, yes.

[00:39:32] Adam Cox: Yeah. So she approaches that conversation gently with Taylor, and so she takes Taylor to Walgreens and buys several over the counter pregnancy tests, and they all come back negative or inconclusive.

But

[00:39:45] Kyle Risi: she's showing though, at this point.

[00:39:47] Adam Cox: Yeah. And so instead of easing Angela's concerns, it just makes her even more confused.

[00:39:52] Kyle Risi: Yeah.

[00:39:53] Adam Cox: And so they keep going and determined to get a definitive answer. Angela drives Taylor to a nearby medical clinic in Mount Pleasant, and because of COVID restrictions, she has to weigh outside in the car.

But when Taylor comes back, there is a printed page with her name and everything, and it verifies that Taylor is pregnant.

[00:40:12] Kyle Risi: I mean, listen here, right? If you've got Angela who's driven you to somewhere in Mount Pleasant and told to stay in the car, Taylor's got out of that car, and managed to brag whoever's behind that counter to give her a printed out document confirming that she is pregnant

[00:40:30] Adam Cox: and it has the due date and everything.

[00:40:32] Kyle Risi: That is one clever motherfucking hustler. Do you know what I mean? To come back out in that time and not be prepared or anything.

[00:40:39] Adam Cox: Yeah.

[00:40:39] Kyle Risi: She's good.

[00:40:40] Adam Cox: And so for Angela, she's okay, well she's not gonna doubt that she's not just thought that she's gone behind someone's desk or whatever.

[00:40:46] Kyle Risi: Yeah. And what are the likelihood

[00:40:47] Adam Cox: Yeah.

[00:40:47] Kyle Risi: Of you walking into a random pharmacy and getting that letter.

[00:40:50] Adam Cox: And so for her that settles it. Taylor is in fact pregnant.

[00:40:54] Kyle Risi: Yeah.

[00:40:54] Adam Cox: And so Taylor, she continues to document her pregnancy online with ultrasound photos, updates from medical appointments, pictures of her growing her baby bump.

[00:41:04] Kyle Risi: And imagine all the little, the little captions like Oh, that's the happiest I've ever been.

Just like so too bad for those people who doubted me. Angela be really passive progressive with it.

[00:41:15] Adam Cox: And whilst weight is genuinely excited about becoming a father, excitement doesn't pay the bills and the collapse of the peak and point deal had him with all these debts that he was struggling to pay off, he had the pressure of, you know, looking after a family.

And Taylor didn't make things easier. She wanted reassurance, affection. And once Wade cared about her, he struggled to match the intensity of her expectations.

[00:41:40] Kyle Risi: Oh really?

[00:41:41] Adam Cox: And increasingly that started to, I dunno, form a bit of distance between them and she saw it as rejection, but I guess he found it just incredibly stressful at the time.

Yeah,

[00:41:49] Kyle Risi: sure. He is just stressed out man.

[00:41:51] Adam Cox: So in July, Taylor announces that doctors were monitoring concerns with her pregnancy. She posts an ultrasound online and said that Clancy's heartbeat had become irregular

[00:42:00] Kyle Risi: and they think it's Shona.

[00:42:02] Adam Cox: Well, no Shona fault for one time it's not. But it's the stress of everything that's happening and basically alludes that the way that Wade was treating her was affecting the birth of her and her baby.

Oh,

[00:42:14] Kyle Risi: she's so manipulative, isn't she?

[00:42:16] Adam Cox: Eventually Angela speaks to Wade directly and says, look, you're gonna have to put that to one side. You need to be there for your girlfriend. And he takes that feedback on board and basically it becomes happy again. And that's when they have that photo that you looked at where he's nursing her baby bump.

[00:42:32] Kyle Risi: Sure. Just like a maternity photo shoot. Oh, okay. Do you remember we saw one of those when we were in Australia. We did that very early morning walk from Bondi Beach all the way up to I think Perge Bay.

[00:42:44] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm.

[00:42:44] Kyle Risi: And as we were walking, we saw this woman in this flowing kind of like bikini thing and she was take doing a photo shoot on the beach.

[00:42:52] Adam Cox: Yeah. Vague.

[00:42:52] Kyle Risi: Do you remember that? Vaguely.

[00:42:53] Adam Cox: Vaguely.

[00:42:54] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Why do people do that?

[00:42:55] Adam Cox: I dunno. I think that's the only time you can have a photo with a person growing inside you.

[00:43:00] Kyle Risi: You can have a photo with a person inside you when you want.

[00:43:06] Adam Cox: God's sake,

[00:43:09] Kyle Risi: but yes. Okay. But so that was from that photo shoot there. So that's when they're at their happiest, right?

Mm-hmm. Absolutely. So they have this photo shoot. Okay, so yeah, when's this baby coming? I want to know

[00:43:20] Adam Cox: Well, that's the thing is it gets closer to the due date. People they are very sceptical. Like she's gonna plan a miscarriage or something. Right. How is she going to get of this?

[00:43:30] Kyle Risi: Right? Yeah. But also they are seeing the baby bump, so how can she not be pregnant?

[00:43:35] Adam Cox: And then people have felt the baby kicking and then she's got all this evidence whether she's lying or not.

[00:43:40] Kyle Risi: I mean, I can understand how feeling the baby bum could be psychological, so I get that. But that is cruel if she pretends to have a miscarriage That is awful.

But also the size of her belly faking that she just like eating too many Jaffa cakes. I don't understand.

[00:43:56] Adam Cox: Well, there's still enough evidence that suggests she is pregnant and there's a lot of evidence that makes people question is whether she is or not.

[00:44:03] Kyle Risi: Yeah. 'cause you definitely know if someone is a bit chubby.

[00:44:06] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm.

[00:44:07] Kyle Risi: Or if they're pregnant, right?

[00:44:08] Adam Cox: Yeah. Like

[00:44:08] Kyle Risi: it gets us to a point where those two things are very clearly discernible.

[00:44:13] Adam Cox: Yeah. And it, this is only a couple of months away from actually a due date. So she's gonna be quite big. Then on September the 16th, just six days before the baby was due, Wade receives an anonymous text message.

The sender insisted Taylor couldn't possibly be pregnant. They claim she previously undergone a partial hysterectomy. Backing up what Angela had thought.

[00:44:35] Kyle Risi: So was this text message from Angela, do you think?

[00:44:37] Adam Cox: No, it was, well, we don't know that it was just a mystery person. They also claimed that the ultrasound images were old and they claimed that the entire pregnancy was a lie.

But Wade dismissed it immediately. There'd been enough rumours and stuff like that, so he just rushed it off. He's getting angry about it as well. But they did blame this harassment on Shona once again.

[00:44:58] Kyle Risi: Okay. Of course I did.

[00:45:00] Adam Cox: What he didn't realise was that the truth was far more disturbing than he could have imagined.

Mm-hmm. Because while Taylor and Wade were counting down the final days until Clancy Gale's arrival, another woman was preparing for the birth of a baby girl as well. Her name was Reagan, Hancock Simmons. Now Reagan knew Taylor as well. Now, I can't be sure exactly. I think Taylor may have done some wedding photography for Reagan.

Mm-hmm. Um, Either way, they had connected and bonded over their pregnancy because in fact they were pretty much due to give birth around a similar time.

[00:45:31] Kyle Risi: Interesting.

[00:45:32] Adam Cox: Now Reagan is just 21 years old. She's married to her husband Homer and already raising a young daughter from a previous relationship.

Reagan was preparing to welcome another baby girl into the world. She documented her pregnancy online and like Taylor, she spent much of her time thinking about the little girl she couldn't wait to meet. And that baby already had a name Braxton Sage. And as Taylor's due date approached, the two women spoke a lot.

They exchanged messages about pregnancy symptoms, nursery preparations, uh, fears about becoming mothers, and they would, you know, meet up together.

[00:46:07] Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm.

[00:46:07] Adam Cox: Reagan worried that her daughter might arrive early and Taylor worried about the opposite. Her due date had come and gone, so she didn't give birth on the 22nd of September.

[00:46:16] Kyle Risi: Okay.

[00:46:17] Adam Cox: According to Taylor, doctors weren't concerned. Recent scans showed everything was progressing normally, and she assured way. There was nothing to worry about. Then came good news. her doctor had finally scheduled an induction at the Tightest Regional Medical Centre in Mount Pleasant. That was gonna be on October the fifth.

[00:46:34] Kyle Risi: And that's normal, I'm assuming?

[00:46:35] Adam Cox: Yeah, I think it is normal. Sure. One or two weeks, right?

[00:46:37] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Okay. So she's a couple weeks late. She's due to be induced on the 5th of October.

[00:46:43] Adam Cox: Yeah. A few days before her scheduled induction, another message arrives from Mandy Boyd. Now, this is one of the aliases from Shona.

The same account had been harassing Taylor for several months. He claimed that on the day Taylor was due to give birth, a bomb threat would be called into the hospital. And when it happened, Mandy wrote Taylor would somehow be blamed. It sounded ridiculous like so many of the messages before it. But to Taylor, it frightened her and they couldn't ignore it 'cause of everything that's happened before.

[00:47:09] Kyle Risi: But why would you tell the person that you were going to pin a bomb alert onto like a bomb scare onto, you wouldn't text that person to say, oh, by the way, the day you're go in for your induction, it's gonna be a bomb scare

[00:47:22] Adam Cox: and I'm gonna tell everyone it's you.

[00:47:24] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Make it

[00:47:24] Adam Cox: look like

[00:47:25] Kyle Risi: it's

[00:47:25] Adam Cox: you. Well,

[00:47:25] Kyle Risi: that's fine.

'cause I've got this text message from you saying, so if the police come to me and say, oh yeah, you are the one responsible for the bomb scout. Show them the text message with your number on it, bitch.

[00:47:37] Adam Cox: So all they could do was wait until October the fifth and when it arrived, instead of meeting their daughter, the day begins with chaos.

In fact, a fire breaks out beneath Wade's cabin.

[00:47:49] Kyle Risi: Okay. God,

[00:47:50] Adam Cox: thankfully no one is injured. And firefighters manage to contain the blaze before it spreads, but it's pretty significant. The cabins left without electricity or running water. So they can't stay there. They have to then move in with Wade's parents, I believe.

Mm-hmm. Later that morning, Taylor receives a call from the medical centre to say that her induction has been cancelled just hours earlier at five o'clock in the morning, someone had phoned in with a bomb threat to the hospital. Hundreds of patients and staff had to been evacuated.

[00:48:20] Kyle Risi: Okay. Absolutely busy day.

[00:48:24] Adam Cox: So news footage even showed people moving to temporary shelters and things like that. So it's kind of chaos. But again, they're like that Bloody Shona.

[00:48:32] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Just

[00:48:32] Adam Cox: done it again.

[00:48:33] Kyle Risi: And the thing is though, she's putting other people at risk. What if there's a high risk pregnancies there or like premature babies or

[00:48:40] Adam Cox: anything?

Yeah. I don't,

[00:48:41] Kyle Risi: they didn't it the whole hospital. It's not just the maternity ward.

[00:48:43] Adam Cox: Exactly. Other procedures could have been going on some life threatening stuff that day.

[00:48:47] Kyle Risi: Yeah. So bad.

[00:48:49] Adam Cox: Fortunately the hospital was quick to reschedule. Taylor's appointment is now gonna be October the ninth, so. So just a few days later.

[00:48:55] Kyle Risi: Sure. Okay. What's she gonna come up with on the, on the 9th of October? Jesus you's got a few days to think about it.

[00:49:02] Adam Cox: Yeah. So they're now at Wades. And Connie Wade's mom, she wasn't necessarily relieved to see them. No, she looks concerned because when Taylor disappears for a while, Connie confronts her son and says, I'm, I seriously question if there's gonna be a baby at this point.

[00:49:19] Kyle Risi: I also wanna know where Taylor has disappeared to. She is in her ninth month. She's heavily pregnant. Women like that don't just disappear quickly. I'm just nipping out. Do you? It's like, I'm sweating, I'm fed up. I just want this baby outta me. You are not going anywhere. You are lumping on the couch and just waiting it out.

Do you know what I mean?

[00:49:42] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm.

[00:49:43] Kyle Risi: So she's nipped off somewhere and that's given Wade's mom an opportunity for her to confront him.

[00:49:50] Adam Cox: Yeah. I mean I don't think this is the first conversation, but she's, I don't think there's a baby. I think the bomb threat was probably Taylor.

[00:49:55] Kyle Risi: Yes.

[00:49:56] Adam Cox: She sees everything for what it is and Wade's like this is exactly what Shona would say would happen.

That it, everyone's gonna think it's Taylor. So for Wade, he obviously, he gets angry, gets upset with his mother, and he does confront Taylor about it, saying like, you know, I'm really concerned. People still keep saying this. Obviously Taylor is hurt by what Wade has said and she's, you know what, in a couple of days everyone is gonna see the truth.

No one's gonna doubt us again.

[00:50:21] Kyle Risi: Exactly. Everyone's gonna see. I'll show you all.

[00:50:24] Adam Cox: Yeah. And that managers to calm Wade down on October the eighth, the atmosphere inside where Wade and Taylor were living was tense. The previous few months had been exhausting. And after the fire on the fifth, a forensic investigator was asked to determine what caused the blaze.

And initially they thought, or maybe it's an electrical fault, but on closer examination they had said it had been started deliberately.

[00:50:48] Kyle Risi: Oh really? How

[00:50:49] Adam Cox: they said it was arson. And so first thing that Taylor and Wade think of of course, is

[00:50:53] Kyle Risi: show no.

[00:50:54] Adam Cox: Yep.

[00:50:56] Kyle Risi: They just need to get her in custody again. She might kill herself again.

[00:51:00] Adam Cox: So again, they're obviously concerned that Shona is watching their every move. Um, so to create a little distance, they decide they need a backup hospital somewhere outside of Texas, somewhere beyond Shia's Reach. Taylor spends a few hours making calls and most hospitals turn her away, but they managed to find a hospital in Oklahoma that says, actually, yep, we've got space.

You can come here, no questions asked. So for the first time in a few days, the couple felt a sense of relief. They had a plan, things were back in motion, but there was just one problem, and that was money. They were already under enormous financial pressure and the expense of a pregnancy. Well, that's obviously something that's expensive.

You have to pay for that. But fortunately, Taylor believed she had a solution. Mm-hmm. Several weeks earlier, she had arranged a deal with a ranch owner in Oklahoma named Scott Robinson. Scott was hosting hunting groups on his property and needed wild hogs for the weekend. The agreement with him would bring in more than $6,000, which would cover the costs of the pregnancy and kind of, you know, the immediate finance issues that they had.

[00:52:02] Kyle Risi: Okay. Well, 6,000 is a lot lower than I thought it would normally cost.

[00:52:06] Adam Cox: Yeah. Maybe it's just what they needed to tie things over to be fair. Sure.

Now, the timing of this deal wasn't ideal because it was around the time that Taylor's induction was going to happen, but they felt that they didn't have much choice.

They had to go forward with it. They were gonna leave before Sunrise, drive the hogs to Oklahoma, complete the sale, and then go to the hospital to have the induction.

[00:52:27] Kyle Risi: That's such a busy day.

[00:52:28] Adam Cox: It's a busy day. Right. So Wade is preparing the truck for the following morning, and that evening, Taylor goes to visit her friend Reagan, when they just have a, like a catch up.

And then the morning arrives and before Sunrise, Taylor says to Wade, she'd spent the night suffering severe cramps and couldn't face the four hour drive to Oklahoma. Instead, she planned to just head to the hospital straight away. Essentially, she didn't wanna do the detour.

[00:52:53] Kyle Risi: Fine. And so Wade is going to go and sort out the hogs on his own.

[00:52:56] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm.

[00:52:56] Kyle Risi: So basically he's not gonna be there at the pregnancy convenience. She's gonna fucking steal a baby.

[00:53:01] Adam Cox: Wade hated the idea.

[00:53:03] Kyle Risi: No. He wants to be, see, he wants to introduce his new baby girl.

[00:53:06] Adam Cox: Yeah. But he realised that the hog delivery couldn't wait. And so he agrees. He leaves around 4:00 AM planning to meet Taylor over at the hospital, but almost immediately things start going wrong.

When Wade arrived at the ranch in Oklahoma, nobody seemed to know who he was or why he was even there.

[00:53:23] Kyle Risi: I got some hooks to sell.

[00:53:25] Adam Cox: Yeah, he waits, for ages wanting to talk to the owner, Scott Robinson. And Scott comes out, he's confused and he says, look, I've got your 150 hogs. And Scott's like, I never ordered them.

he's said, but wait, there's this whole conversation. He kind of shares in this chain of messages and stuff like that and he is like, oh, hang on a minute, Gryphon. That rings a bell. Yeah. I was speaking to a Taylor Gryphon a couple of weeks back, but I felt like she was messing me around and I never agreed to any deal whatsoever.

[00:53:54] Kyle Risi: Uhhuh

[00:53:54] Adam Cox: and Wade's like, ah, I really need this money. I got 150 hogs. I need to get rid of them. He needs to leave ASAP. Essentially, he manages to convince Scott to still accept them, but he only gets two and a half thousand for them. ' cause apparently getting rid of animals across state lines without permission or something like that's a criminal offence essentially.

I haven't gone about this the right way.

[00:54:16] Kyle Risi: Sure. And so he was like, so you're breaking the law son, but I'll take these hogs off your hands

[00:54:21] Adam Cox: for a steal. Yeah. But for Wade, he's like, oh, that bloody sh her again. She's Saab sabotaging our lives. Anyway. He do does the deal and he arrives at the hospital and he hurries inside.

He walks straight to the reception and asks for Taylor's room number and then points him down the hallway. Three police officers were already approaching and before Wade could even ask what's happening, they order him to turn around and place his hands against the wall. His heart drops. And for a moment he thought the ranch deal had caught up with him, that somehow the hogs had landed him in some kind of legal trouble.

But that wasn't the issue. 'cause our, earlier at around 10:00 AM the ambulance had arrived at the very same hospital carrying a woman named Taylor Parker. And of course she had a baby with her. Now, according to Taylor, she had given birth whilst driving on the highway. The new baby girl she held in her arms, wasn't breathing.

Medical staff rushed the infant into her emergency care and Taylor told nurses the baby's name and everything like that. When staff asked her due date, Taylor gave an answer that immediately confused them. 'cause she said, oh, it was September the 22nd. The baby she claimed was already overdue, but the child in front of them was tiny.

She looked like

[00:55:31] Kyle Risi: No, she was premature.

[00:55:32] Adam Cox: Yeah.

Well, possibly Has someone got the dates wrong? Either way, the nurses, they see this infant in trouble and they don't dwell on the kind of the timelines. They just make sure that they focus on getting the, you know, looking after the baby.

[00:55:44] Kyle Risi: Sure. Yes.

[00:55:46] Adam Cox: Doctors worked desperately to save her CPR incubation. Every intervention available, but nothing worked. A few hours later after arriving at the hospital, baby Clancy Gale was pronounced dead.

[00:56:00] Kyle Risi: Oh no.

[00:56:01] Adam Cox: The atmosphere in the emergency department was sombre. A newborn had died, but that wasn't what had staff whispering amongst themselves.

[00:56:08] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Why are they arresting Wade?

[00:56:10] Adam Cox: Because while doctors were fighting to save the infant, they made a discovery that made no sense. A doctor is captured on camera saying it surely doesn't look like a baby. Came out of their

[00:56:22] Kyle Risi: What?

[00:56:22] Adam Cox: Taylor had not given birth. In fact, medical examinations indicated she hadn't been pregnant at all.

The baby she brought to the hospital wasn't hers. And suddenly a horrifying question emerged. If Taylor wasn't the mother, where was the real one?

[00:56:38] Kyle Risi: She is Cut this baby out of another person, basically, is what you're saying.

[00:56:43] Adam Cox: It didn't take long for people to find out the answer. Within the hour, reports come through from New Boston, Texas.

A young woman had been found murdered inside her home. Oh, her name was? Reagan, Simmons, Hancock. The same Reagan that Taylor had visited the night before. The same Reagan who had been seven months pregnant, and the same Reagan who had been helping Taylor prepare for motherhood. When officers arrived at the house, they discovered a scene so violent that even experienced investigators struggled to process it, blood covered the room, furniture, walls, flooring everywhere.

This wasn't an accident, it wasn't a robbery gone wrong. As officers began examining the scene, another terrifying detail emerged. Reagan's three-year-old daughter, Kinley, was still inside the house alive, confused, asking where her mother was. And when investigators turned their attention back to Reagan's body, they finally understood what happened because Reagan hadn't simply been murdered.

The C-section like wound proved her unborn baby had been taken from her. And for the first time, the investigators began to suspect that the woman calling herself the mother of Clancy Gale, wasn't a victim at all. She was their prime suspect.

[00:57:52] Kyle Risi: I'm so shocked who would ever do something like that. That's what happens when you get yourself into such an absolute pickle that the only way out is to resort to doing something like this.

And she's done it.

[00:58:07] Adam Cox: Yeah. Is the most horrific thing.

[00:58:10] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Not only that, that match, she's killed a mother To a small toddler as well.

[00:58:15] Adam Cox: And that's the end of part one. In part two, we'll uncover more of Taylor's lies going back years, how Taylor spent months convincing friends, family, doctors, and even her own boyfriend that she was pregnant, the lies she told, the identities she created, and why she did this in the first place.

And the disturbing obsession that prosecutors would later argue had been building long before Reagan Hancock had even met Taylor. ' cause the question wasn't just what happened on October the ninth, 2020. Mm-hmm.

[00:58:44] Kyle Risi: It

[00:58:44] Adam Cox: was how far Taylor Parker had been willing to go to make everyone believe her fantasy was real.

[00:58:50] Kyle Risi: Wow.

[00:58:51] Adam Cox: Yeah.

[00:58:52] Kyle Risi: And that is the story, Adam.

[00:58:53] Adam Cox: That is the story. That's half the story there. I tried to do this in one episode, and as you can see, there was so many twists and turns and lies. I could not cover it in one, I

[00:59:01] Kyle Risi: can't believe how many lies she's told. And but also then how so many people have just fallen for them.

Mm. That's wild.

[00:59:09] Adam Cox: So yeah, there's been so many lies and quite early on. You were very sceptical

Of these lies because they seem so outlandish

[00:59:17] Kyle Risi: and also because Adam we're doing a, a podcast episode about it. Yeah. There's gotta be some kind of twist there, right?

[00:59:23] Adam Cox: It's never gonna be straightforward.

But it seems incredible the amount of stuff that she managed to get away with or convince people.

[00:59:31] Kyle Risi: Yeah. And I'm kind of disappointed in myself in not seeing where this was going because the lies continued on up until literally the day she was due to give birth on the 22nd of September.

[00:59:41] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm.

[00:59:42] Kyle Risi: And you think to yourself, how's she going to get round that? Right. She's

[00:59:45] Adam Cox: been a liar on this one.

Yeah,

[00:59:47] Kyle Risi: exactly. And you did say about the, the bomb threats, but at the end of the day, the bomb threat, that doesn't end the fact that she's pregnant.

[00:59:55] Adam Cox: It probably just bought her more time, didn't it?

[00:59:57] Kyle Risi: Yeah. And I guess she was waiting as much as she could for this woman to come as close to term as possible to give that baby that she was planning on stealing the best chance.

That's probably what that was, right?

[01:00:07] Adam Cox: Yeah. I mean, I dunno if this was always her intention. I think there's evidence to suggest that she had tried or cover in part two if she tried to get babies in the past, in, in other ways,

[01:00:19] Kyle Risi: really.

[01:00:20] Adam Cox: Um, but I don't think people were suspicious of her pregnancy. I don't think anyone thought this was how it was gonna end.

[01:00:28] Kyle Risi: No. Who would ever, ever think that.

[01:00:32] Adam Cox: In fact, I thought this was such a rare thing. But in fact, there is like over 30 attempted or actual foetal abductions in the last, I dunno, 10, 15 years.

[01:00:42] Kyle Risi: The fact that it has the name foetal abductions is horrifying.

[01:00:47] Adam Cox: Yeah. And they all tend to have this similar pattern of these women who are in these relationships wanna do anything they can to hold onto them.

And this is some of the links that they go to.

[01:01:00] Kyle Risi: Well, I'm looking forward to listening to part two and I think so are a lot of our listeners,

[01:01:04] Adam Cox: shall we run the outro?

[01:01:05] Kyle Risi: I think so. Let's run the outro for this week.

[01:01:08] Adam Cox: And that brings us to the end of another fascinating foray into the compendium, an assembly of Fascinating Things.

[01:01:14] Kyle Risi: If today's episode has sparked your curiosity, then please do us a favour and follow us on your favourite podcasting app. It really makes a world of difference and helps other people like you find the show.

[01:01:24] Adam Cox: And for our dedicated freaks out there, don't forget, next week's episode is already waiting for you on our Patreon, and it's completely free to access.

[01:01:32] Kyle Risi: And if you want even more, then join us Certified Freaks here to unlock our entire archive, delve into exclusive content and get a sneak peek of what's coming next. We'd love you guys to be part of our growing community.

[01:01:44] Adam Cox: We drop new episodes every Tuesday. So until then, never underestimate how far someone might go to keep their story alive.

[01:01:53] Kyle Risi: Ooh, see you next time.

[01:01:54] Adam Cox: See ya.