20 Years Later: The Case Of Andrea Yates

Andrea Pia Yates, born July 2, 1964, in Houston, Texas, confessed to drowning her five children in the bathtub on June 20, 2001. What we knew about Yates was she had mental illness for several years before her children’s death. Her doctor diagnosed her with postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, and schizophrenia.

She was the youngest child of five. Her mother, Jutta Karin Koehler, a German immigrant, and Andrew Kennedy. Wikipedia reported that during her teenage years, she had bulimia, an eating disorder, and depression. She told a friend, at seventeen, she often thought about suicide.

She graduated from high school in 1982. Yates did very well in school and went to nursing school, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1986. She met Rusty Yates in 1989, an engineer, and they moved in together rather quickly. They married in 1993, eight years before the tragic event.

Soon after they exchanged their vows, the newlyweds announced they planned to “have as many children as nature allowed.” They bought a large home in Friendswood, Texas, after their first child, Noah’s arrival in 1994.

Not long after Noah’s birth, Rusty accepted a new job in Florida. The couple moved to a small trailer. By the time their third child came, the couple had relocated back to the Houston metro area.

They still were not living in a house. They lived in a small motor home, only big enough for one or two people. It wasn’t large enough for two adults and three children, especially considering Andrea has mental health struggles. After the birth of their fourth child, Andrea became severely depressed.

Andrea’s Mental Health Declined

On June 16, 1999, Rusty found his wife shaking and gnawing at her fingers. The next day, she tried to kill herself by overdosing on pills. Her doctor admitted her to the hospital and prescribed antidepressants.

Soon after her release, she scared her husband when she held a knife to her throat and begged him to let her die. She couldn’t handle the voices in her head and wanted it to stop.

Once again, she went back to the mental facility. This time, they prescribed her a cocktail of medications, including an antipsychotic medication. Her condition improved almost immediately. She asked Rusty to move into a house and out of the motor home. After her release, she went home with medications. Her medical team believed the medications stabilized her condition, at least temporarily.

The next month, she tried to commit suicide twice. Her doctor officially diagnosed her with postpartum psychosis. At the time, Yates’ doctor, Dr. Eileen Starbranch, testified she advised the couple not to have any more children. She believed another child would “guarantee” another psychotic break.

Seven weeks later, Andrea got pregnant for the last time, and she stopped taking her medications. She gave birth to Mary on November 30, 2000. She appeared to cope well without her medications until the death of her father on March 12, 2001.

Andrea began to self-harm and read the Bible constantly. She stopped feeding Mary. Rusty had no other choice but to hospitalize her again. She appeared to be doing well for about a month before returning to the near catatonic state.

Yates filled the bathtub with water and planned to kill her children that day but changed her mind. The next day, she had an appointment with her doctor, who determined she was suicidal and a danger to others.

The Horrific Murders

Andrea’s doctor, Dr. Mohammed Saeed, told Rusty not to leave his wife unattended with the children. He allowed (against the doctor’s advice) the young mother one hour a day to spend alone with the kids, which proved to be a fatal mistake.

Dora Yates, Rusty’s mother, arrived to attend to Andrea and the children one hour after leaving for work each morning. Andrea used that hour to drown all five of her children on June 30, 2001.

Andrea drowned her children, one at a time, and laid them on the bed. Noah, her oldest child, asked her what was wrong with Mary, who was floating facedown in the bathtub. He ran from his mother, but she caught him and killed him. She took Mary out of the tub and placed her in the arms of John, one of her children. She left Noah in the bathtub.

Yates called the police, asking for an officer to come to her home. She wouldn’t tell them why she needed help. After hanging up with the police, she called her husband and told him he needed to come home right away.

Andrea confessed to murdering her children right away. She said she waited for Rusty to leave for work before filling the bathtub. Yates knew he would try to stop her from hurting them. She locked the family dog in the crate to prevent him from interfering with her plan to drown the children.

Rusty called a family friend, George Parnham, to act as her attorney, All That Is Interesting reported. The defense claimed Yates was insane at the time of the murders and could not discern right from wrong.

In 2002, a jury rejected her insanity plea and found her guilty of murder. Although the prosecution sought the death penalty, the jury rejected that sentence. The judge sentenced her to life in prison with the chance of parole after 40 years.

Second Trial

On January 6, 2005, the Texas Court of Appeals reversed the conviction because prosecution witness, Dr. Park Dietz, admitted he lied on the stand. He testified shortly before the murders, an episode of Law & Order aired an episode featuring a woman who drowned her children. The show acquitted the mother on reason of insanity. During her second trial, the media learned no such episode existed. In 2004, Law & Order featured an episode based on Andrea’s case.

In 2006, Andrea entered her plea of not guilty by insanity. The judge released her on bond as long as they admitted her to a mental health facility for treatment.

On July 26, 2006, Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to North Texas State Hospital. A year later, they transferred her to Kerrville State Hospital, a low-security mental facility.

The defense and prosecution agreed Andrea was severely mentally ill at the time of the murders. The prosecution initially believed she killed the children to get back at Rusty, but they couldn’t prove that in court.

Rusty filed for divorce in 2004, claiming he hadn’t lived with his wife since the day of the murders. He later married again but divorced in 2015.

Many speculated Andrea’s mental illness had ties to their religious beliefs. She wanted to be a good wife and have babies, but her mental illness blocked that life for her. It caused internal turmoil for her.

Every year, Andrea denies a review for her release. She doesn’t want to be free. While inside the state hospital, she helps others. Yates’ real sentence was living with her crimes every day.

Twenty years later, it is still a story that captivated the nation. There were many people that failed Andrea and the five beautiful kids.

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Originally published on Medium.