Maternal Instinct

In October 2020 a woman is stopped in a vehicle in Texas. She has a newborn with her and says she has just given birth. The blood on her is not hers. Neither is the baby. From that traffic stop the documentary works backwards through how a lie sustained for months was built. The subject is not the murder but a faked pregnancy being accepted for months by everyone around her. She gave a due date, held a gender announcement, had a shower thrown for her; nobody asked for a document. The film's real question is how that gap stayed open so long. The form rests on court records, phone calls and interviews with those close to the case. The murdered woman's family is placed at the centre and the narration works at not pushing the victim into the background. The production's most striking decision is an absence: the director did not film the perpetrator. Jessica Dimmock explained that she was not sure there was anything the woman could say that would be additive or believable, and that including her account would be disrespectful to those she hurt most. Given how habitually true crime documentaries hand the perpetrator a microphone, that is a choice worth noting. It was released on Netflix on 12 June 2026. Who it is for: viewers who follow true crime documentary. Who it is not for: anyone the subject will strain; the narration stays out of detail but the case is extremely heavy.