True Crime Database

Andrea Yates

This wasn't a murder tale regarding a cold blooded killer or an emotionless psychopath – in fact it was the opposite. This was the story of a mother, so induced in her mental illness and love for her children that she resorted to the only thing she could do that she thought would help them, and that was to drown them in a bathtub.

Andrea Yates was born in 1964 in Texas, the youngest of 5 children. Her mother was a German immigrant and her father was the son of two Irish immigrants. She was raised as a Catholic and seemed to have a relatively normal family life – no reports of abuse or neglect were reported during her childhood. However, upon her teenage years, she started to become plagued with mental illnesses, suffering from bulimia and depression, confiding in a friend that she had plans to commit suicide. Despite this, however, she excelled academically, graduating in 1982 as Class Valedictorian and was also the captain of her swim team and an officer in the National Honor Society. She began a university course in nursing and worked as a registered nurse from 1986 to 1994.

In the summer of 1989, Andrea met her eventual husband, Rusty Yates. They were married on April 17th 1993 and planned to have as many babies as possible. In 1994, she gave birth to their first child, Noah, their second John in 1996 and their third child Paul in 1998. At this point, the family were living in a motor home rather than an actual house. Andrea was a firm believer in religion; she was a huge fan of the extremist sermons of Michael Peter Woroniecki – the two were in close contact, having sold Andrea one of the trailers her and her family lived in and exchanging letters.

Andrea gave birth to her fourth son, Luke, in 1999. However, during this period, Andrea started becoming increasingly depressed. Some believed this was due to the sermons of Michael having too much of an influence over her. In June 1999, her husband came home from work to find her sitting, shaking and chewing her fingers. The next day, she suffered a breakdown and attempted suicide by overdosing on pills. She was prescribed a number of anti-depressant pills but that didn't stop another suicide attempt not long after being released from the hospital, where she held a knife to her throat and begged her husband to just let her die.

During her next hospitalisation, she was prescribed the anti-depressant Haldol – doctors saw an immediate improvement and continued to prescribe it after her release. Yet, as soon as she came out, she stopped taking the medication, upon Michael's beliefs that anti-depressants shouldn't be taken and she suffered from two suicide attempts and hospitalisations the next month. From that, she was diagnosed as suffering from post-partum psychosis, a condition in which, after having recently given birth, a mother will experience a lot of psychotic issues, including manic episodes, depression, severe confusion, paranoia, delusions and hallucinations. To help, her dosage of Haldol was more closely examined by her family and doctors, she was booked with a counsellor alongside her husband and her husband bought the family an actual house to live in. The couple were advised to not have anymore children after this.

For a while, things were looking up and Andrea seemed to be in a more stable frame of mind. With this, Rusty and Andrea decided to stop attending therapy sessions, to come off of the anti-depressants and that they wanted to have another child. Andrea gave birth to her first daughter, Mary, in 2000.

Sufferers of post-partum psychosis usually start showing symptoms within the first few weeks after giving birth – Andrea's behaviour was normal within that moment. Her family did not suspect her of relapsing into her old patterns. That was until the death of her father in March 2001. Immediately after this, she became very depressed again, stopped taking any medication given to her, read the Bible feverishly and stopped feeding her baby daughter Mary. She also mutilated and hurt herself within this period. In May 2001, she went into a near catatonic state and filled up a bathtub of water, yet did nothing. She revealed that she was going to drown her kids on that date but changed her mind.

She did not have the same change of heart on June 20th 2001, when Rusty, against the advice of medical professionals, left for work and made Andrea in charge of the children. His mother was due to arrive in an hour to supervise her. Upon his immediate departure, she filled up the bathtub. She called in the three middle children, John, Paul and Luke, aged 5, 3 and 2 and drowned them first, placing them in her bed after doing so. Next, she picked up Mary and smothered her in the water, leaving her in the tub while she summoned her eldest, Noah, who she drowned last. She placed him in the water, and laid Mary in the arms of her brother, John, in their parents bed. Immediately after, she rang the police, calling for help and also called Rusty to tell him to come home.

Andrea confessed to killing all 5 of her children not long after the police arrived, where she was arrested and held while awaiting trial. Evidence showed that she planned the murders, choosing a specific order for killing the children, saving Noah for last in case he put up a fight and alerted his other siblings. The family dog had also been locked up – Rusty claimed that the dog was usually allowed to run free throughout the house; Andrea wanted Rusty out of the house and the dog locked up so neither would interfere with the killings. Rusty, although conflicted, said in interviews that he still supported his wife.

It was agreed that Andrea was psychotic, however the defence's insanity plea was rejected – the State of Texas describes being legally insane as not knowing whether the criminal action was right or wrong. In this case, there was enough evidence to prove that Andrea knew that what she was doing was wrong and illegal. With that, she was found guilty and was sentenced to life, being eligible for parole in 40 years.

Yet shockingly, in 2005, prosecution witness Dr Park Dietz revealed that some of the information he had given out in his testimony was false: previously, he claimed that Andrea had been watching a Law and Order episode, in which a mother had drowned her children in the bathtub, thus giving her the urge and inspiration to commit the act itself. Records show, however, that there was no such episode of Law and Order that existed. This changed a huge perspective in the case, including a motive and a reconsideration of the insanity plea.

The courts decided that a retrial would be necessary and in 2006, Andrea was tried for the second time, again pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. She was granted release upon bail under the condition that she be referred to a psychiatric facility. Later that year, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was confined to multiple mental hospitals around Texas.

Her motive for the killings is still a mystery. Some members of the prosecution considered spousal revenge, however there was no evidence to suggest this. Others believe that, due to the delusions she was suffering from and the influence of Michael's sermons in her mind, she believed that the world was evil, that the devil was out to get her children, and that the only way to help them, in her mind, was to kill them.

A lot of people involved with the Yates were also blamed, including Rusty himself, who revealed at a family dinner that he wanted to leave Andrea on her own for an hour or so everyday in order for her to gain some independence, contrary to the advice of medical professionals who said she needed to be kept under constant supervision. Rusty also claimed that had he known she was psychotic, he never would have suggested having another child. Rusty, however, blames the last psychiatrist she was seeing, Doctor Saeed, for not putting her back on Haldol. Others believe that it was the influx of anti-depressants she was taking that caused her to start having homicidal urges and thoughts.

What happened to the entire family was a tragic tale that was never going to end well. Andrea Yates was someone with a lot of negative influences in her life and was unable to cope with all of this. Maybe if some aspects had been changed, such as continuing to administer Haldol and being under constant supervision, Andrea would have received the help that she needed and the Yates family would be a full one.