Andrea Yates
Encyclopedia
Andrea Yates is a former Houston, Texas
resident who killed her five children on June 20, 2001 by drowning them in the bathtub
in her house. She had been suffering for some time with very severe postpartum depression
and postpartum psychosis
. Her case placed the M'Naghten Rules
, a legal test for sanity, under close public scrutiny in the United States. Yates's 2002 conviction of capital murder and sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole
after 40 years was later overturned on appeal
.
On July 26, 2006, a Texas
jury found that Yates was not guilty by reason of insanity. She was consequently committed by the court to the North Texas State Hospital
, Vernon Campus, a high-security mental health facility in Vernon, Texas
, where she received medical treatment and was a roommate of Dena Schlosser
, another woman who committed filicide
by killing her infant daughter. In January 2007, Yates was moved to a low security state mental hospital in Kerrville, Texas
.
. She is the youngest of five children and was raised in a Catholic household. She graduated from Milby High School in Houston in 1982. She was the class valedictorian, captain of the swim team, and an officer in the National Honor Society. She completed a two-year pre-nursing program at the University of Houston and then graduated in 1986 from the University of Texas School of Nursing in Houston. She worked as a registered nurse at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center from 1986 until 1994. In the summer of 1989, she met twenty-five-year-old Russell “Rusty” Yates at the Sunscape Apartments in Houston, Texas. They soon moved in together and got married on April 17, 1993, and they announced that they "would seek to have as many babies as nature allowed". Afterwards, they bought a four-bedroom house in the town of Friendswood. Following the birth of their, son Noah, in February 1994, Rusty accepted a job offer in Florida, so they moved there and lived in a small trailer in Seminole. After the birth of their third son, Paul, they moved back to Houston and bought a GMC motor home.
It was after the birth of Luke, her fourth son, that Andrea became depressed. Her condition may have been brought on by the extremist sermons of Michael Peter Woroniecki
, the preacher who sold them their bus. Her family was concerned by the way that she was so captivated by the minister’s words.
On June 16, 1999, Rusty found Andrea shaking and chewing her fingers. The next day, she attempted to commit suicide by overdosing on pills. She was admitted to the hospital, and prescribed antidepressants. Soon after her release, she begged her husband to let her die as she held a knife up to her neck. Once again hospitalized, she was given a mixture of medications including Haldol, an anti-psychotic drug. Her condition improved immediately, and she was prescribed it on her release. After that, Rusty moved the family into a small house for the sake of her health. Things were going very well. In July 1999, she succumbed to a nervous breakdown
, which culminated in two suicide
attempts and two psychiatric hospitalizations that summer. She was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis
.
Her first psychiatrist, Dr. Eileen Starbranch, testified that she urged the couple not to have more children, as it would "guarantee future psychotic depression". They conceived their fifth and final child approximately 7 weeks after her discharge. She stopped taking the Haldol in March 2000 and gave birth to daughter Mary on November 30 of that year. She seemed to be coping well until the death of her father on March 12, 2001.
She then stopped taking medication, mutilated herself, and read the Bible feverishly. She also stopped feeding Mary. Yates became so incapacitated that she required immediate hospitalization. On April 1, 2001 she came under the care of Dr. Mohammed Saeed. She was treated and released. On May 3, 2001, she degenerated back into a "near catatonic
" state and drew a bath in the middle of the day; she would later confess to police that she had planned to drown the children that day, but had decided against doing it then. She was hospitalized the next day after a scheduled doctor visit; her psychiatrist determined she was probably suicidal and had filled the tub to drown herself.
Yates continued under Dr. Saeed's care until June 20, 2001, when Rusty left for work, leaving her alone to watch the children against Dr. Saeed's instructions to supervise her around the clock. Rusty's mother, Dora Yates, had been scheduled by him to arrive an hour later to take over for her. In the space of that hour, she drowned all five children. She started with the youngest boys, and after drowning them in her bathtub, laid them in her bed. She then drowned Mary, who she left floating in the tub. Her oldest son, Noah, came in and asked what was wrong with Mary. He then ran, but she soon caught up with him and drowned him. She then left him floating in the tub and laid Mary in her brothers' arms. Afterwards, she called the police. Then she called Rusty, saying only “It’s time” repeatedly.
that she waited for Rusty to leave for work that morning before filling the bathtub because she knew he would have prevented her from harming the children. After the killings, police found the family dog locked up; Rusty advised Welner that it had normally been allowed to run free, and was so when he had left the house that morning, leading the psychiatrist to conclude that she locked it in a cage to prevent it from interfering with her killing the children one by one.
Although the defense's expert testimony agreed that Yates was psychotic, Texas law requires that, in order to successfully assert the insanity defense, the defendant must prove that he or she could not discern right from wrong at the time of the crime. In March 2002, a jury rejected the insanity defense and found her guilty. Although the prosecution had sought the death penalty, the jury
refused that option. The trial court sentenced her to life imprisonment
in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
with eligibility for parole
in 40 years.
On January 6, 2005, a Texas Court of Appeals reversed the convictions, because California psychiatrist
and prosecution witness Dr. Park Dietz
admitted he had given materially false testimony during the trial. Dietz stated that shortly before the killings, an episode of Law & Order
had aired featuring a woman who drowned her children and was acquitted of murder by reason of insanity. Author Suzanne O'Malley, who was covering the trial for Oprah magazine and had previously been a writer for Law & Order, immediately reported that no such episode existed; the appellate court held that the jury may have been influenced by his false testimony and that thus a new trial would be necessary.
On January 9, 2006, Yates again entered pleas of not guilty by reason of insanity. On February 1, 2006, she was granted release on bail
on the condition that she be admitted to a mental health treatment facility
.
On July 26, 2006, after three days of deliberations, Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity, as defined by the state of Texas. She was thereafter committed to the North Texas State Hospital - Vernon Campus.
In January 2007, Yates was moved to a low security state mental hospital in Kerrville, Texas
.
Andrea was bulimic during her teenage years. She also suffered from depression and, at the age of seventeen, spoke to a friend about suicide.
While in prison, Andrea stated she had considered killing the children for two years, adding that they thought she was not a good mother and claimed her sons were developing improperly. She told her jail psychiatrist: "It was the seventh deadly sin
. My children weren't righteous. They stumbled because I was evil
. The way I was raising them, they could never be saved. They were doomed to perish in the fires of hell
." She also told her jail psychiatrist that Satan influenced her children and made them more disobedient.
on a broadcast of CNN
's Larry King Live
that Rusty expressed to him in 2001 while transporting her to Devereux treatment facility that all depressed people needed was a "swift kick in the pants" to get them motivated. Her mother, Jutta Karin Kennedy, expressed shock when she heard of Rusty's plan while at the gathering with them, saying that she wasn't stable enough to care for the children. She noted that her daughter demonstrated she wasn't in her right mind when she nearly choked her still-toothless infant daughter Mary by trying to feed her solid food. According to authors Suzy Spencer
and Suzanne O'Malley, who investigated her story in great detail, it was during a phone call Dr. Saeed made to Rusty during the breaking news of the killings that he first learned that she was not being supervised full time.
Andrea's first psychiatrist, Dr. Eileen Starbranch, says she was shocked to disbelief when the Yates expressed a desire to discontinue her medications so that she could become pregnant again during an office visit with them. She warned and counseled them against having more children, and noted in the medical record two days later, '"Apparently patient and husband plan to have as many babies as nature will allow! This will surely guarantee future psychotic depression."' Nevertheless, she became pregnant with her fifth child, Mary, only 7 weeks after being discharged from Dr. Starbranch's care on January 12, 2000. Despite Rusty's statements to the media that he was never told by psychiatrists that she was psychotic nor that she could harm her children, and that he would have never had more children had he known otherwise, She revealed to her jail psychiatrist, Dr. Melissa Ferguson, that prior to their last child, "she had told Rusty that she did not want to have sex because Dr. Starbranch had said she might hurt her children." Rusty, she said, simply asserted his procreative religious beliefs, complimented her as a good mother, and persuaded her that she could handle more children.
Author Suzanne O'Malley highlighted Russell Yates's continuing sense of unreality regarding having more children:
Dr. Lucy Puyear, an expert witness hired by Yates's defense team, countered their contention regarding the administration of her antidepressants, saying the dosages prescribed by Dr. Saeed are not uncommon in practice and had nothing at all to do with her reemergent psychosis. She suggested rather that her psychosis returned as a result of the Haldol having been discontinued by her doctor two weeks earlier. The oral form of haloperidol (Haldol) takes 4–6 days after discontinuation to reach a terminal plasma level of under 1.5%—a medical standard for "complete" elimination of a drug from the body.
, a traveling preacher whom Rusty had met while attending Auburn University, bears some responsibility for the deaths due to his “fire and brimstone” message and certain teachings found in his newsletter “The Perilous Times” that they had received on occasion and which was entered into evidence at the trial. However, both Rusty and Michael Woroniecki reject these accusations. Rusty said that his family’s relationship with the Woronieckis was not that close and that Woroniecki did not cause her delusions. Woroniecki maintained that his correspondence with them was with the intention of helping them strengthen their marriage and find the love that he says his own family had found in Jesus. Both men agreed that the alleged connection between his message and her mental state was “nothing more than media created fiction”. The adherence of the Yates family to the principles of the Quiverfull
lifestyle, which encourages couples to have many children, has been posited as a factor contributing to the mental and emotional stress that she experienced. Some sources have suggested the lack of community may have contributed to her isolation.
The reason for the killings was unknown.
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
resident who killed her five children on June 20, 2001 by drowning them in the bathtub
Bathtub
A bath , bathtub , or tub is a large container for holding water in which a person may bathe . Most modern bathtubs are made of acrylic or fiberglass, but alternatives are available in enamel over steel or cast iron, and occasionally waterproof finished wood...
in her house. She had been suffering for some time with very severe postpartum depression
Postpartum depression
Postpartum depression , also called postnatal depression, is a form of clinical depression which can affect women, and less frequently men, typically after childbirth. Studies report prevalence rates among women from 5% to 25%, but methodological differences among the studies make the actual...
and postpartum psychosis
Postpartum psychosis
Postpartum psychosis is a term that covers a group of mental illnesses with the sudden onset of psychotic symptoms following childbirth. In this group there are at least a dozen organic psychoses, which are described under another heading "organic pre- and postpartum psychoses"...
. Her case placed the M'Naghten Rules
M'Naghten Rules
The M'Naghten rules were a reaction to the acquittal of Daniel McNaughton. They arise from the attempted assassination of the British Prime Minister, Robert Peel, in 1843 by Daniel M'Naghten. In fact, M'Naghten fired a pistol at the back of Peel's secretary, Edward Drummond, who died five days later...
, a legal test for sanity, under close public scrutiny in the United States. Yates's 2002 conviction of capital murder and sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
after 40 years was later overturned on appeal
Appeal
An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....
.
On July 26, 2006, a Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
jury found that Yates was not guilty by reason of insanity. She was consequently committed by the court to the North Texas State Hospital
North Texas State Hospital
The North Texas State Hospital is an in-patient mental health facility owned by the State of Texas and under the Texas Department of State Health Services.Its two campuses in Wichita Falls and Vernon.-Wichita Falls Campus:...
, Vernon Campus, a high-security mental health facility in Vernon, Texas
Vernon, Texas
Vernon is a city in Wilbarger County, Texas, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 11,660; it was 11,077 in the 2005 census estimate. Vernon is the county seat of Wilbarger County....
, where she received medical treatment and was a roommate of Dena Schlosser
Dena Schlosser
Dena Schlosser is a Plano, Texas woman who, on November 22, 2004, amputated the arms of her eleven-month-old daughter, Margaret, with a knife. Plano police responded to a 9-1-1 call made by concerned workers at a local day care center who had spoken to Schlosser earlier that day...
, another woman who committed filicide
Filicide
Filicide is the deliberate act of a parent killing his or her own son or daughter. The word filicide derives from the Latin words filius meaning "son" or filia meaning daughter and the suffix -cide meaning to kill, murder, or cause death...
by killing her infant daughter. In January 2007, Yates was moved to a low security state mental hospital in Kerrville, Texas
Kerrville, Texas
Kerrville is a city in Kerr County, Texas, United States. The population was 20,425 at the 2000 census. In 2009, the population was 22,826...
.
Overview
Andrea Yates was born in Houston to Jutta Karin Koehler, a German immigrant, and Andrew Emmett Kennedy, whose parents were born in IrelandIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. She is the youngest of five children and was raised in a Catholic household. She graduated from Milby High School in Houston in 1982. She was the class valedictorian, captain of the swim team, and an officer in the National Honor Society. She completed a two-year pre-nursing program at the University of Houston and then graduated in 1986 from the University of Texas School of Nursing in Houston. She worked as a registered nurse at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center from 1986 until 1994. In the summer of 1989, she met twenty-five-year-old Russell “Rusty” Yates at the Sunscape Apartments in Houston, Texas. They soon moved in together and got married on April 17, 1993, and they announced that they "would seek to have as many babies as nature allowed". Afterwards, they bought a four-bedroom house in the town of Friendswood. Following the birth of their, son Noah, in February 1994, Rusty accepted a job offer in Florida, so they moved there and lived in a small trailer in Seminole. After the birth of their third son, Paul, they moved back to Houston and bought a GMC motor home.
It was after the birth of Luke, her fourth son, that Andrea became depressed. Her condition may have been brought on by the extremist sermons of Michael Peter Woroniecki
Michael Peter Woroniecki
Michael Peter Woroniecki, , born February 4, 1954, is an independent, non-denominational Christian missionary who became known for his ministry on college campuses and at various public events across the US over the span of the last 30 years and his contact with Andrea Yates, the Texas woman who...
, the preacher who sold them their bus. Her family was concerned by the way that she was so captivated by the minister’s words.
On June 16, 1999, Rusty found Andrea shaking and chewing her fingers. The next day, she attempted to commit suicide by overdosing on pills. She was admitted to the hospital, and prescribed antidepressants. Soon after her release, she begged her husband to let her die as she held a knife up to her neck. Once again hospitalized, she was given a mixture of medications including Haldol, an anti-psychotic drug. Her condition improved immediately, and she was prescribed it on her release. After that, Rusty moved the family into a small house for the sake of her health. Things were going very well. In July 1999, she succumbed to a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
, which culminated in two suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
attempts and two psychiatric hospitalizations that summer. She was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis
Postpartum psychosis
Postpartum psychosis is a term that covers a group of mental illnesses with the sudden onset of psychotic symptoms following childbirth. In this group there are at least a dozen organic psychoses, which are described under another heading "organic pre- and postpartum psychoses"...
.
Her first psychiatrist, Dr. Eileen Starbranch, testified that she urged the couple not to have more children, as it would "guarantee future psychotic depression". They conceived their fifth and final child approximately 7 weeks after her discharge. She stopped taking the Haldol in March 2000 and gave birth to daughter Mary on November 30 of that year. She seemed to be coping well until the death of her father on March 12, 2001.
She then stopped taking medication, mutilated herself, and read the Bible feverishly. She also stopped feeding Mary. Yates became so incapacitated that she required immediate hospitalization. On April 1, 2001 she came under the care of Dr. Mohammed Saeed. She was treated and released. On May 3, 2001, she degenerated back into a "near catatonic
Catatonia
Catatonia is a state of neurogenic motor immobility, and behavioral abnormality manifested by stupor. It was first described in 1874: Die Katatonie oder das Spannungsirresein ....
" state and drew a bath in the middle of the day; she would later confess to police that she had planned to drown the children that day, but had decided against doing it then. She was hospitalized the next day after a scheduled doctor visit; her psychiatrist determined she was probably suicidal and had filled the tub to drown herself.
Yates continued under Dr. Saeed's care until June 20, 2001, when Rusty left for work, leaving her alone to watch the children against Dr. Saeed's instructions to supervise her around the clock. Rusty's mother, Dora Yates, had been scheduled by him to arrive an hour later to take over for her. In the space of that hour, she drowned all five children. She started with the youngest boys, and after drowning them in her bathtub, laid them in her bed. She then drowned Mary, who she left floating in the tub. Her oldest son, Noah, came in and asked what was wrong with Mary. He then ran, but she soon caught up with him and drowned him. She then left him floating in the tub and laid Mary in her brothers' arms. Afterwards, she called the police. Then she called Rusty, saying only “It’s time” repeatedly.
Trials
Yates confessed to drowning her children. She told Dr. Michael WelnerMichael Welner
Michael Mark Welner, M.D., is an American Forensic Psychiatrist. He is founder and Chairman of The Forensic Panel, a forensic science practice, is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor of Law Duquesne University School of Law...
that she waited for Rusty to leave for work that morning before filling the bathtub because she knew he would have prevented her from harming the children. After the killings, police found the family dog locked up; Rusty advised Welner that it had normally been allowed to run free, and was so when he had left the house that morning, leading the psychiatrist to conclude that she locked it in a cage to prevent it from interfering with her killing the children one by one.
Although the defense's expert testimony agreed that Yates was psychotic, Texas law requires that, in order to successfully assert the insanity defense, the defendant must prove that he or she could not discern right from wrong at the time of the crime. In March 2002, a jury rejected the insanity defense and found her guilty. Although the prosecution had sought the death penalty, the jury
Jury
A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
refused that option. The trial court sentenced her to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is a department of the government of the state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails and private correctional facilities, funding and certain...
with eligibility for parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
in 40 years.
On January 6, 2005, a Texas Court of Appeals reversed the convictions, because California psychiatrist
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
and prosecution witness Dr. Park Dietz
Park Dietz
Park Elliott Dietz is a forensic psychiatrist and criminologist who was educated at Cornell University and Johns Hopkins University...
admitted he had given materially false testimony during the trial. Dietz stated that shortly before the killings, an episode of Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
had aired featuring a woman who drowned her children and was acquitted of murder by reason of insanity. Author Suzanne O'Malley, who was covering the trial for Oprah magazine and had previously been a writer for Law & Order, immediately reported that no such episode existed; the appellate court held that the jury may have been influenced by his false testimony and that thus a new trial would be necessary.
On January 9, 2006, Yates again entered pleas of not guilty by reason of insanity. On February 1, 2006, she was granted release on bail
Bail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...
on the condition that she be admitted to a mental health treatment facility
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
.
On July 26, 2006, after three days of deliberations, Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity, as defined by the state of Texas. She was thereafter committed to the North Texas State Hospital - Vernon Campus.
In January 2007, Yates was moved to a low security state mental hospital in Kerrville, Texas
Kerrville, Texas
Kerrville is a city in Kerr County, Texas, United States. The population was 20,425 at the 2000 census. In 2009, the population was 22,826...
.
Andrea Yates
Although psychiatrists for both the Texas State prosecutors and Yates' defense lawyers agreed that she was severely mentally ill with one of several psychotic diseases at the time she killed her children, the state of Texas asserted that she was by legal definition aware enough to judge her actions as right or wrong despite her mental defect. The prosecution further implied spousal-revenge as motive for the killings, despite the conclusion of defense experts that there was no evidence to support such a motive. Although the original jury believed she was legally aware of her actions, they disagreed that her motive was spousal-revenge. The jury in 2006 completely disagreed with the prosecution's assertions and her earlier conviction from 2002 was overturned.Andrea was bulimic during her teenage years. She also suffered from depression and, at the age of seventeen, spoke to a friend about suicide.
While in prison, Andrea stated she had considered killing the children for two years, adding that they thought she was not a good mother and claimed her sons were developing improperly. She told her jail psychiatrist: "It was the seventh deadly sin
Seven deadly sins
The 7 Deadly Sins, also known as the Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins, is a classification of objectionable vices that have been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers concerning fallen humanity's tendency to sin...
. My children weren't righteous. They stumbled because I was evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
. The way I was raising them, they could never be saved. They were doomed to perish in the fires of hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
." She also told her jail psychiatrist that Satan influenced her children and made them more disobedient.
Russell "Rusty" Yates
According to trial testimony in 2006, Dr. Saeed advised Rusty not to leave his patient unattended. He, however, began leaving her alone with the children in the weeks leading up to the drownings for short periods of time hoping to improve her independence. He had announced at a family gathering the weekend before the drownings that he had decided to leave her home alone for an hour each morning and evening, so that she would not become totally dependent on him and his mother for her maternal responsibilities. Her brother, Brian Kennedy, told Larry KingLarry King
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....
on a broadcast of CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....
that Rusty expressed to him in 2001 while transporting her to Devereux treatment facility that all depressed people needed was a "swift kick in the pants" to get them motivated. Her mother, Jutta Karin Kennedy, expressed shock when she heard of Rusty's plan while at the gathering with them, saying that she wasn't stable enough to care for the children. She noted that her daughter demonstrated she wasn't in her right mind when she nearly choked her still-toothless infant daughter Mary by trying to feed her solid food. According to authors Suzy Spencer
Suzy Spencer
Suzy Spencer is an American writer who made the New York Times Best Seller list with her first true-crime book WASTED in 1998. Since then, she published three additional true-crime books.- Early life :...
and Suzanne O'Malley, who investigated her story in great detail, it was during a phone call Dr. Saeed made to Rusty during the breaking news of the killings that he first learned that she was not being supervised full time.
Andrea's first psychiatrist, Dr. Eileen Starbranch, says she was shocked to disbelief when the Yates expressed a desire to discontinue her medications so that she could become pregnant again during an office visit with them. She warned and counseled them against having more children, and noted in the medical record two days later, '"Apparently patient and husband plan to have as many babies as nature will allow! This will surely guarantee future psychotic depression."' Nevertheless, she became pregnant with her fifth child, Mary, only 7 weeks after being discharged from Dr. Starbranch's care on January 12, 2000. Despite Rusty's statements to the media that he was never told by psychiatrists that she was psychotic nor that she could harm her children, and that he would have never had more children had he known otherwise, She revealed to her jail psychiatrist, Dr. Melissa Ferguson, that prior to their last child, "she had told Rusty that she did not want to have sex because Dr. Starbranch had said she might hurt her children." Rusty, she said, simply asserted his procreative religious beliefs, complimented her as a good mother, and persuaded her that she could handle more children.
Author Suzanne O'Malley highlighted Russell Yates's continuing sense of unreality regarding having more children:
"During the trial, he'd successfully maintained the position that Andrea would be found innocent. He had fantasies of having more children with her after she was successfully treated in a mental health facility and released on the proper medication. He worked his way through various fixes for their damaged lives, such as a surrogate motherhood and adoption (horrifying Andrea's family, attorneys and Houston psychiatrists) before giving in to reality."
Medical community
Rusty Yates contended that as a psychiatrist, Dr. Saeed was responsible for recognizing and properly treating his wife's psychosis, not a medically untrained person like himself. He also claimed that, despite his urgings to check her medical records for prior treatment, Dr. Saeed had refused to continue her regimen of the antipsychotic Haldol, the treatment that had worked for her during her first breakdown in 1999. He added that she was too sick to be released from her last stay in the hospital in May, 2001. He said he noticed the staff lower their heads as if in shame and embarrassment, turning away without saying a word. The hospital had no other choice due to the ten day psychiatric hospitalization insurance constraints of their provider, Blue Cross-Blue Shields, subcontracted by Magellan Health Services.Anti-depressants and homicidal ideation
Rusty and her birth family came to believe that a combination of antidepressants improperly prescribed by Dr. Saeed in the days before the tragedy was responsible for Andrea's violent, psychotic behavior. According to Dr. Moira Dolan, executive director of the Medical Accountability Network, "homicidal ideation" was added to the warning label of the antidepressant drug Effexor as a rare adverse event, in 2005. Yates, she said, had been taking 450 mg, twice the recommended maximum dose, for a month before killing her children. Dr. Dolan reviewed Yates's medical record at the request of Rusty.Dr. Lucy Puyear, an expert witness hired by Yates's defense team, countered their contention regarding the administration of her antidepressants, saying the dosages prescribed by Dr. Saeed are not uncommon in practice and had nothing at all to do with her reemergent psychosis. She suggested rather that her psychosis returned as a result of the Haldol having been discontinued by her doctor two weeks earlier. The oral form of haloperidol (Haldol) takes 4–6 days after discontinuation to reach a terminal plasma level of under 1.5%—a medical standard for "complete" elimination of a drug from the body.
Religious influences
Media outlets alleged that Michael Peter WoronieckiMichael Peter Woroniecki
Michael Peter Woroniecki, , born February 4, 1954, is an independent, non-denominational Christian missionary who became known for his ministry on college campuses and at various public events across the US over the span of the last 30 years and his contact with Andrea Yates, the Texas woman who...
, a traveling preacher whom Rusty had met while attending Auburn University, bears some responsibility for the deaths due to his “fire and brimstone” message and certain teachings found in his newsletter “The Perilous Times” that they had received on occasion and which was entered into evidence at the trial. However, both Rusty and Michael Woroniecki reject these accusations. Rusty said that his family’s relationship with the Woronieckis was not that close and that Woroniecki did not cause her delusions. Woroniecki maintained that his correspondence with them was with the intention of helping them strengthen their marriage and find the love that he says his own family had found in Jesus. Both men agreed that the alleged connection between his message and her mental state was “nothing more than media created fiction”. The adherence of the Yates family to the principles of the Quiverfull
Quiverfull
Quiverfull is a movement among some conservative evangelical Christian couples chiefly in the United States, but with some adherents in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Britain and elsewhere. It promotes procreation, and sees children as a blessing from God, eschewing all forms of birth control,...
lifestyle, which encourages couples to have many children, has been posited as a factor contributing to the mental and emotional stress that she experienced. Some sources have suggested the lack of community may have contributed to her isolation.
The reason for the killings was unknown.
Popular culture
- The ABC-TVAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
show Desperate HousewivesDesperate HousewivesDesperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
was partly inspired by the Yates drownings, according to creator Marc CherryMarc CherryMarc Cherry is an American writer and producer, best known for creating the show Desperate Housewives.-Early life and career:...
. - The Law & Order: Criminal IntentLaw & Order: Criminal IntentLaw & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...
episode "MagnificatMagnificat (Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode)Magnificat is a fourth season episode of the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.-Plot summary:In this episode, Detectives Goren and Eames investigate the deaths of three boys and injury to their mother and older brother when a car exploded...
" was based on the Yates case. - The 2008 film Baby BluesBaby Blues (2008 film)Baby Blues is a 2008 American horror film co-directed by Lars Jacobson and Amardeep Kaleka, based on the 2001 killings of five children by their mother Andrea Yates...
(AKA Cradle may Fall in U.K.) is based on the killings, although the story is largely changed from the true events. - On his song "World Gone Crazy", rapper Aaron Yates (AKA "Tech N9ne") references his last name being the same, and also references a woman drowning her babies in the lyrics: "Sick mothers drowning they babies" & "Why I got the same last name as Andrea?"
- A song by the band TriviumTrivium (band)Trivium is an American heavy metal band from Orlando, Florida, formed in 1999. Signed to Roadrunner Records, the band has released five studio albums, eleven singles, and twelve music videos...
, entitled "Entrance of the ConflagrationEntrance of the Conflagration"Entrance of the Conflagration" is the first single released by Trivium from their third studio album, The Crusade. The single was released on September 6, 2006....
", deals with the drownings, and is mostly based on Andrea Yates' testimony. - The TV documentary series, American JusticeAmerican JusticeAmerican Justice is an American criminal justice television program on the A&E Network, hosted by Bill Kurtis. The show features interesting or notable cases, such as the Selena Murder of a Star, Scarsdale Diet doctor murder, the Hillside Stranglers, Matthew Shepard, or the Wells Fargo heist, with...
, has an episode about the case. - In the 2008 BollywoodBollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
film, U, Me aur Hum, there is a scene where KajolKajolKajol Devgn , better known as Kajol, is an Indian film actress appearing in Hindi films. She is regarded as one of India's most successful and talented female actors....
plays the role of a patient suffering from Alzheimer's, who leaves her baby in the bath tub with the tap running while her husband is away. This has been inspired by Andrea's case. - In 2009, the Andrea Yates incident and its aftermath was adapted by playwright Douglas M. Parker into the play Thicker Than Water.
External links
- Father's website for the family
- Father's Blog (formerly a fact gathering database concerning the incident)
- Are You There Alone? website for Edgar-nominated book and blog on the Yates case
- Timeline of Andrea Yates' Life and Trial
- Who is Andrea Yates? A Short Story of Insanity, Deborah Denno
- CrimeLibrary review
- About.com profile
- Despite 'Not Guilty' Verdict, Doctor Who Examined Yates Is Unconvinced." ABC NewsABC NewsABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
. - PowerPoint evidence presented by Dr. Michael Welner during trial.