If the message has multiple References headers, and one is empty, simpleParser will return a boolean false as that element in the array instead of a string as expected. Example headers:
...
Reply-To: <[email protected]>\n
References:\n
References: <[email protected]>\n
MIME-Version: 1.0
...
The references field of the parsed message would then be
references: [ false, '[email protected]' ]
Note that the false in the above array is a boolean false, not the string 'false'