When a Texas trooper pulled her over, Taylor Parker said she was rushing to the hospital, doing CPR on the newborn baby she just gave birth to in her car. But when doctors examined her, they realized she’d never been pregnant. For months, Parker had told everyone she was carrying her boyfriend’s baby, posing on social media with a pregnant belly. But friends knew she’d had a hysterectomy years before. Then as her purported due date arrived, miles away, police made a gruesome discovery.

The Netflix documentary “Maternal Instinct” recounts the 2020 story of Taylor Parker, and how her efforts to fake a pregnancy resulted in a tragic conclusion. The film uses body-worn camera footage, digital evidence, and interviews with Parker’s boyfriend and others to piece together her elaborate scheme and the lengths she went to resolve it.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "MATERNAL INSTINCT" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 10 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

In Crime of the Week: I wanna get off...the ride!

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Relatives of those who died by suicide discovered their loved ones had been active in online forums for those looking for ways to end their lives. They were directed to a retailer selling fatal quantities of sodium nitrite to people in crisis in more than 40 countries. Police and journalists hunted down Kenneth Law, who admitted to selling to hundreds of people worldwide. But authorities wanted to know whether Law was just providing a lethal product — or whether he was actively pushing people in crisis to take it.

The CBC podcast “Hunting the Suicide Salesman” recounts the effort to stop Law and shutdown the business of selling sodium nitrite. Host Daemon Fairless goes beyond the criminal investigation and takes an unusually frank and intimate examination of the issue of suicide — including causes, prevention efforts, and the hidden online world for those considering ending their lives.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "HUNTING THE SUICIDE SALESMAN" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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As André deals with the shock of his girlfriend’s brutal murder, he reluctantly allows police to question the only witness to the crime: his two-year-old son. When the interviews prove too traumatic and press coverage too intrusive, André flees London with Alex — but finds putting the past behind them is difficult. Meanwhile, using information from the toddler, police home in on a man who shares his violent sexual fantasies with an undercover cop. Detectives are sure they’ve got Rachel Nickell’s killer — even though a similar murder suggests a different suspect.

Netflix’s “The Witness” is a dramatized version of the infamous 1992 case, and a companion series to the documentary “The Murder of Rachel Nickell.” The show focuses on father and son, as Rachel’s unsolved murder adds strain to their relationship. It also follows the detectives' efforts to close the case, even though their assumptions about their lead suspect take them in the wrong direction.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE WITNESS" BEGIN IN THE FINAL NINE MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

In Crime of the Week: Noah-countability.

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