ANDREA YATES AND HOW THE SYSTEM FAILED HER.
Before I begin this episode, I would like to give some information. If you or someone you know is suffering from PTSD, PPD, Postpartum psychosis or postnatal depression, which is also known as baby blues, and you need someone to talk to, please reach out to your GP, Midwife or Health Visitor. You can also call the Samaritans on 116123, or send a text to SHOUT on 85258. Thank you.
This case is very close to my heart because I work directly in the Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service. I work with pregnant women, postnatal women and women who need pre-conception advice of who all have/is suffering from moderate to severe mental health problem. Like schizophrenia, bipolar, PTSD, PPD, bulimia, etc.
Also, leading on to this case, I would advise that any judgement you have towards this case should be realistic. And also, it would help to read the full case before you make any judgements. Mental health is very real, and we should learn to surround ourselves with people who understand mental health and the effect it has on people.
So, while I was wrapping up my research for this case, I decided to listen to a podcast, and I came across this podcast on apple by Elizabeth Chase. I think she’s a 52-year-old woman who owns a true crime podcast titled ‘Women Committing Crime’. She is so hilarious and I love her sense of humour. Also, when it comes to covering cases, especially this case, you will know that she researched thoroughly and just did not do half-baked work. She is literally an inspiration. She does all the research, recording and editing herself and she also works too. So, I will advise you to listen to her after this and get more indent knowledge about this case, she covers the hospital visits, the doctor’s records, testimonies from Andrea’s family and friends, and she covers everything. She covers A LOT!
WHO IS ANDREA YATES?
Andrea Yates was born in Hallsville, Texas on the 2nd of July 1964. Some sources said 1962, but most sources said 1964. Andrea was the youngest of 5 children. Her mum was named Jutta Karin Koehler, who was a German immigrant, while her father was Andrew Emmett Kennedy, which was an Irish immigrant. During her teenage years, she had bulimia and she also suffered from depression. There was even a time when she was 17 years that she spoke to her friend about suicide.
In 1982, she graduated from Milby High School where she became a class valedictorian. She was also the captain of the swim team and was also an officer in the National Honour Society.
Andrea also completed a 2-year pre-nursing program at the University of Houston after which she graduated from the University of Texas Health science centre at Houston. From 1986–1994, she worked as a registered nurse at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre. In the summer of 1989, she met Russell ‘Rusty’ Yates, who was an engineer at the Sunscape Apartments in Houston. Before marrying Rusty, Andrea had not really dated that much. She was kind of ‘awkward’ around guys. She wasn’t really the typical feminine type of girl, and she was very minimal. They moved in together and got married on April 17th 1993.
During their marriage, they said that they would, ‘seek to have babies as nature allowed’ and then, they bought a 4 bedroom house in Friendswood, Texas. Their first child, Noah, was born in February 1994, and this was shortly before Rusty accepted a job offer in Florida. So, due to this, they relocated to a small trailer in Seminole. They then moved back to Houston when their 3rd child, Paul was born, and here, they purchased a GMC motor home. At this time, Rusty made about $80k a year which was and is still a lot of money.
Andrea then gave birth to her fourth child. Following the birth of her 4th child, she became depressed. On the 16th of June 1999, her husband found her shaking and chewing her fingers. The next day she overdosed on pills in a bid to take her own life. Due to this, she was admitted to the hospital and then she was prescribed antidepressants. When she was released, it was reported that she begged Rusty, her husband, to take her own life and she then held a knife up to her neck, trying to locate the right vein to take her life. Due to this incident, she was hospitalised, she was then given several medications, including Haldol, which is an antipsychotic medicine. Her condition improved immediately, and she was still prescribed this drug after her release. After this episode, the family moved to a smaller house because of Andrea’s health. And it was also reported that she appeared temporarily stabilised.
In July 1999, Andrea had a nervous breakdown again, and this culminated in 2 suicide attempts and 2 psychiatric hospitalisations. She was then diagnosed with postpartum psychosis. When she survived one of her suicide attempts, Andrea said that she was grateful she didn’t die because she had a family to live for.
So, during my research, I found out that Yates's first psychiatrist, Dr Eileen Starbranch. Testified that she had urged Andrea and her husband not to have any more children and that if she did she would have future psychotic depression. But, they conceived her 5th child approximately 7 weeks after she was discharged. In march 2000, she stopped taking Haldol and this was where she gave birth to her daughter, Mary, on November 30th 2000. Everything seemed to be fine with Andrea, until she lost her father on march 12, 2001. Prior to her father’s death, he was diagnosed with depression, and her brother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, while her mother was allegedly a gambler.
When she lost her dad, she went back to severe depression. She stopped taking her meds, mutilated herself and constantly read the bible vigorously. She also stopped feeding her last child, Mary. She became so incapacitated that she required immediate hospitalisation. On April 1st 2001, she was under the care of Dr Mohammed Saeed, she was treated and released. Upon her release, on May 3rd 2001, she went into a near catatonic state where she filled the bathtub one afternoon. She then confessed to the police that that was her first attempt at drowning her children. The next day she was hospitalised after a scheduled doctor visit. Her psychiatrist determined that she was probably suicidal and that she filled the bathtub to drown herself.
THE DAY OF THE MURDERS
One day, when Rusty left for work, he left Andrea alone to watch the children. The doctor, Dr Saeed had instructed that Andrea should always be supervised around the clock and should never be left alone. His mother, Dora Yates, had also been scheduled by Rusty to arrive an hour later to take over and watch Andrea. During that hour, Andrea drowned all 5 of her children.
The first person Andrea drowned was John, then Paul, and then Luke. When she did this, she laid them on her bed. After which, she drowned Mary, whom she left floating in the tub. Then after, during this process, Noah came in, he saw Mary in the tub and asked what was wrong with her. When he processed what was going on, he attempted to run for his life, but his mother caught him and drowned him too. She then left him floating in the tub and laid Mary in John’s arms on the bed. She called the police repeatedly saying that she needed an officer, but she didn’t state why. She then called Rusty and told him to come home immediately.
TRIALS
Andrea confessed to drowning her children. Prior to her second trial, she told Dr Michael Welner that she had waited for her husband to leave for work before filling the bathtub because she knew he would’ve prevented her from harming them. After the murders, the police found out that the family dog was locked up. Rusty had explained to the detectives, that the dog was hardly locked up. In fact, when he had left for work that morning, he had seen the dog walk freely. This led the detectives to speculate that Andrea had locked the dog up that morning to prevent it from interfering with her when she was killing her children.
Although the defence expert testimony agreed that Yates was psychotic, Texas law requires that, in order to successfully assert the insanity defence, the defendant must prove that they could not discern right from wrong at the time of the crime.
In March 2002, a jury rejected the insanity defence 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.
However, 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. In his testimony, Dietz had stated that shortly before the murders, an episode of Law & Order had aired featuring a woman who drowned her children, and was acquitted of murder by reason of insanity.
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, she was moved to the Kerrville State Hospital, a low-security mental facility in Kerrville, Texas.
LET’S TALK ABOUT HER HUSBAND, RUSTY YATES.
Remember, Dr Saeed had advised Rusty not to leave Andrea unsupervised. However, even before the date of the murder, it was reported that he had been leaving her unsupervised and going about his normal duty for an hour each day. 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. Some reports said that it seemed that Andrea was controlled by her husband, Rusty. It was also reported that Rusty would spend so much money on computer equipments but would limit the amount Andrea was to spend each month. Rusty had no empathy for his wife. Every time the hospital suggested that Andrea undergoes electro-shock therapy, he would disagree. He did not believe in medication tbh. There was a time she had to stop her medication so she would conceive. When she was asked why she did, she said she did not believe in the medication. And this was even after she was told by Dr Eileen Starbranch not to conceive again. He did not fully believe that the doctors diagnosed Andrea right like PTSD. He thought that the way she was acting was due to her hormones. Kmt. It was even reported that there was a time he compared her with another woman who had 9 children. Rusty had once said that his wife was struggling with the concept of religion.
YATES RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM
Russell Yates had met Woroniecki who is a missionary in college. He was an unaffiliated cleric who preached a zealous form of righteousness that could only come from immediate family living austerely. By 1997, Andrea and Russell had lived in close quarters in a camper van that was purchased from Woroniecki, and this was when Andrea started home-schooling her children in the 38-foot mobile home. She also suffered increasingly severe bouts of PTSD. During her trial, she said that she had heard Woroniecki preach that women are derived from sin and those hell-bound mothers would see their children burn in hell. According to her, she said ‘it was the 7th 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’. Also, the media and people also think that the preacher, Michael Woroniecki bears some responsibility for the deaths due to his ‘fire and brimstone’ messages and certain teachings which were found in the newsletter titles ‘The Perilous Times’ which the Yates had received on occasion and which also entered into evidence at the trial. While in prison, Yates stated that she had considered killing the children for two years, adding that they thought she was not a good mother and claiming that her sons were developing improperly.
DIVORCE
In August 2004, Rusty filed for divorce, stating that he and Yates had not lived together as a married couple since the day of the murders. The divorce was granted on March 17, 2005, after which Rusty began dating his second wife, Laura Arnold. They married on March 25, 2006, and had one son. She filed for divorce in 2015.
WHERE IS ANDREA YATES NOW?
Since January 2007, Yates has been at Kerrville State Hospital, a mental facility in Kerrville, Texas. Although she was remanded to the mental facility more than 15 years ago, Yates can undergo a review every year to see if she is competent to leave the facility.
Now 57, Yates opts each year to waive her right to be reviewed. PEOPLE confirms that she has never undergone review, choosing instead to continue treatment. Details of her treatment have not been released.
Her defence attorney, George Parnham, keeps in contact with Yates and says that Yates is “happy” in the facility.
“She’s where she wants to be. Where she needs to be,” Parnham told ABC News last year. “And I mean, hypothetically, where would she go? What would she do?”
Parnham previously told PEOPLE that Yates “grieves for her children” every day, often watching home videos of the kids who she killed. She also spends her time making aprons, cards and gifts in the craft room and anonymously selling them. The money goes to the Yates Children Memorial Fund, which was founded by Parnham and his wife Mary and dedicated to women’s mental health, particularly postpartum mental health.
SOURCES
Why Andrea Yates Drowned Her Children And Where She Is Now — All That’s Interesting
Andrea Yates | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers
