1. Andrea Pia Yates is an American woman from Houston, Texas, who confessed to drowning her five children in their bathtub on June 20,2001.
37 Facts About Andrea Yates
1. 2.
Andrea Yates was convicted of capital murder, but the jury refused the death penalty option.
3.
Andrea Yates was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after forty years.
4.
On July 26,2006, a Texas jury in her retrial found that Andrea Yates was not guilty by reason of insanity.
5.
Andrea Yates was consequently committed by the court to the high-security North Texas State Hospital in Vernon, where she received medical treatment and was a roommate of Dena Schlosser, another woman who committed infanticide by killing her infant daughter.
6.
In January 2007, Andrea Yates was moved to Kerrville State Hospital, a low-security state mental hospital in Kerrville, Texas.
7.
Andrea Yates was born Andrea Pia Kennedy in Houston, Texas, the youngest of the five children of Jutta Karin Koehler, a German immigrant, and Andrew Emmett Kennedy, whose parents were Irish immigrants.
8.
Andrea Yates suffered from bulimia and depression during her teenage years, and at age 17 spoke to a friend about suicide.
9.
Andrea Yates was the class valedictorian, captain of the swim team, and an officer in the National Honor Society.
10.
Andrea Yates then completed a two-year pre-nursing program at the University of Houston and graduated from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
11.
From 1986 until 1994, Andrea Yates worked as a registered nurse at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
12.
Andrea Yates' condition improved immediately, and she was prescribed it upon her release.
13.
In July 1999, Andrea Yates had a nervous breakdown, which culminated in two suicide attempts and two psychiatric hospitalizations that summer.
14.
Andrea Yates stopped taking Haldol in March 2000 and gave birth to her daughter, Mary, nine months later.
15.
Andrea Yates seemed to be coping well until the death of her father on March 12,2001.
16.
Andrea Yates then stopped taking medication, mutilated herself, read the Bible feverishly, and stopped feeding Mary.
17.
Andrea Yates became so incapacitated that she required immediate hospitalization.
18.
Andrea Yates was hospitalized the next day after a scheduled doctor visit; her psychiatrist determined she was probably suicidal and assumed she had filled the tub to drown herself.
19.
At the time of the murders, the Andrea Yates family was living in the Houston suburb of Clear Lake City.
20.
Andrea 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.
21.
Andrea Yates started with Paul, Luke, and John and then laid them in her bed.
22.
Andrea Yates then drowned Mary, whom she left floating in the tub.
23.
Andrea Yates then ran, but Yates soon caught and drowned him.
24.
Andrea Yates left him floating in the tub, and laid Mary in John's arms in the bed.
25.
Andrea Yates then called the police, repeatedly saying she needed an officer but refusing to say why.
26.
Andrea Yates then called Rusty and told him to come home right away.
27.
On January 9,2006, Andrea Yates again entered pleas of not guilty by reason of insanity.
28.
On July 26,2006, after three days of deliberations, Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity, as defined by the state of Texas.
29.
Andrea Yates' brother, Brian Kennedy, claimed during a broadcast of CNN's Larry King Live that Rusty expressed to him in 2001, while transporting her to a mental treatment facility, that all depressed people needed was a "swift kick in the pants" to get them motivated.
30.
Andrea Yates's mother expressed shock when she heard of Rusty's plan while at the gathering with them, saying Yates wasn't stable enough to care for the children.
31.
Andrea Yates noted that Yates demonstrated she wasn't in her right mind when she nearly choked Mary by trying to feed her solid food.
32.
Rusty stated to the media he was never told by psychiatrists that Andrea Yates was psychotic nor that she could harm the children, and that, had he known otherwise, he would have never had more children.
33.
Andrea Yates had fantasies of having more children with her after she was successfully treated in a mental health facility and released on the proper medication.
34.
Andrea Yates worked his way through various fixes for their damaged lives, such as a surrogate motherhood and adoption, before giving in to reality.
35.
Andrea Yates claimed that, despite his urging to check her medical records for prior treatment, Dr Saeed had refused to continue her regimen of the anti-psychotic Haldol, the treatment that had worked for her during her first breakdown in 1999:.
36.
Andrea Yates said he noticed the staff lower their heads as if in shame and embarrassment, turning away without saying a word.
37.
Andrea Yates suggested rather that Yates' psychosis returned as a result of the Haldol having been discontinued by her doctor two weeks earlier.