Member-only story
The Yates Family Murders
What drove a mother to drown her five children?
Andrea Pia Yates confessed to drowning her five children in the bathtub on June 20, 2001. She had been suffering from a severe case of postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, and schizophrenia. She was convicted of capital murder, but the jury refused the death penalty option. Instead, she was sentenced to life with a possibility of parole in 40 years. The verdict was overturned on appeal due to false testimony on the part of one expert psychiatric witness.
In her second trial, a jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity. The verdict was handed down on July 26, 2006, and she was committed to the North Texas State Hospital, a high-security mental health facility in Vernon. She remained there until January 2007, when she was moved to Kerrville State Hospital, a low-security state mental hospital in Kerrville, Texas.
Andrea left her job as a registered nurse at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center the year after marrying Russell “Rusty” Yates, an engineer. They had been dating since the summer of 1989 and moved in together until their marriage on April 17, 1993. The couple both wanted a large family and intended to start having children as soon as possible, purchasing a four-bedroom house in Friendswood, Texas in preparation.
Their first child was born in February 1994, just before Rusty accepted a job offer in Florida. They relocated to a small trailer in Seminole. Before their third child was born, they moved back to Houston, where they purchased a GMC motor home. By the time their fourth child was born, Andrea had become severely depressed. She attempted suicide in June 1999 by overdosing on prescription medications. She was admitted to the hospital and prescribed antidepressants.
Soon after her release, she held a knife to her own neck and begged her husband to let her die. She was once again hospitalized and given anti-psychotics. Her condition improved and she was prescribed the Haldol she had been taking upon her release. Rusty moved the family into a small house to help with her mental health and things appeared to improve, but by July 1999, Yates had suffered a nervous breakdown and attempted suicide two more times, landing her in two separate psychiatric hospitals over…
