Danielle Ledoux

Southern New Hampshire University

Psychology 216

Professor J. Antilus

Andrea Yates- A filicide

Abstract:

Filicide is defined as the murder, by a parent, of one’s own children. Such an unimagin-

able crime, however, has not been unheard of in recent years. Andrea Yates, a mother

of five, drowned all of her children in her home’s bath tub. Growing up in Houston,

Texas, she excelled in school, was active and had a job as a successful nurse. After

meeting her extremely religious husband, she planned a future as a mother. They

hoped to have as many babies as nature would allow, however, it took a turn for the

worse when Andrea was diagnosed with postpartum depression and psychosis. Andrea

became a stay at home mother who home schooled her five children. She became ex-

tremely isolated, practiced religion feverishly and became psychotic. Yates’ harmful

thoughts caused her to attempt suicide a handful of times in order to prevent herself

from killing her children. When her father died in 2001, Andrea had her final melt down.

When her husband left Andrea unattended with the children after departing for work,

she drowned all five of her children one by one in the bathtub. She immediately called

the police and turned herself in: leading to trials that initially sentenced her to life in

prison. After appeal, she was put into a mental hospital for the rest of her life. She was

diagnosed as postpartum/major depressive disorder with psychotic episodes. Mental ill-

ness can drive people to unimaginable extremes and must not gone untreated.

Knowing the difference between right and wrong seems like an easy concept for

the every day person. When mental illness surfaces, however, knowing that difference

is far from easy. Some crimes are unimaginable to the public. Hearing of filicide, the

murder by a parent of one’s own child, sends chills up just about anyones spines. An-

drea Yates, a former resident of Houston, Texas did the unthinkable when she mur-

dered her five children in June of 2001. It is common for women to suffer from postpar-

tum depression, as Andrea had, but postpartum psychosis is something that seems to

be diagnosed in only one in a million women. Andrea suffered from both illnesses, caus-

ing her to drown her five children in the bathtub of her own home. Multiple life factors

may have contributed to the mental illness that Andrea suffered during his mid life.

Yates was born in Houston, Texas and spent the majority of her life there. An-

drea grew up in a very catholic household where religion was a huge part of the family’s

life. Her mother, Jutta Karin Koehler was a German immigrant and her father Andrew

Emmett Kennedy had suffered from depression during his years. Yates and her father

were extremely close and she was known to be very caring and loving towards him.

Later in his life, he also suffered from Alzheimer’s disease which significantly impacted

Andreas health. Yates was the youngest of five children and out of her siblings she was

the child who spent the most time with her father, especially as he grew older.

In 1982 Yates had graduated from Milby High School in Houston, Texas.

Throughout all of her years in school she had been known as a star student as well as a

perfectionist. She graduated as the valedictorian of her class as well as being captain of

the women’s swim team. While in school Andrea was also the head officer in her

school’s National Honors Society. Some of Andrea’s earlier friends had documented

that Yates had spoken of her suicidal thoughts while she was in her adolescent years.

In high school she also suffered from bulimia and extreme lack of self confidence.

After high school, Yates went into a two year nursing program which she com-

pleted at the University of Houston. After finishing there, she graduated from the Univer-

sity of Texas School of Nursing. She then continued onto working as a registered nurse

at the Anderson Cancer Center from 1986 until 1994 (Nuchia, 2006). She had passion

in her field and loved being a nurse but gave up her career when she began to have

children with her husband Rusty Yates.

Andrea and Rusty met when they were both twenty five. In 1989 they had both

been living in the Sunscape apartment complex in Houston when they crossed paths.

They soon moved in together after dating for a while and were married in April of 1993.

Rusty was a strong Protestant christian who was a disciple of the minister Michael Peter

Woroniecki. Michael was a traveling minster who eventually had a big impact on the

Yates’ life’s. Rusty had only agreed and lived by some of Michael’s sermons but Andrea

embraced the extremist’s every word. After getting married, the couple announced that

they would have as many babies as nature and God would allow them to have. The two

moved into a four bedroom home in the town of Friendswood, Texas. By February of

1994, the couple had their first child, Noah. Andrea and Rusty decided that they would

name all of their children after religious figures. Following the birth of their first son,

Rusty had accepted a job in Florida which he felt he could not pass up. Because of this,

they relocated to the southern state and resided in a small trailer home. Andrea quit her

job as a nurse and had hopes for the future as her family began to grow.

While in Florida, Andrea become pregnant again and gave birth to their second son,

John in 1995. By the time Andrea was impregnated with her third son, Paul, they moved

back to Texas and purchased a GMC motor home to live in. The family, however, was

quite isolated. After quitting her job as a nurse, Andrea did not do much but spend

twenty four hours a day in a cramped space with her three boys and husband. In order

to avoid the “evils” of the world, Andrea and Rusty decided to home school their chil-

dren.

Andrea continued to have children with her husband, Rusty. She had called her-

self “fertile myrtle” because she had been conceiving year after year. Following the birth

of their fourth son, Luke, Andrea started to become extremely depressed. Spending ev-

ery minute in a small trailer as a full time mother and home school teacher, her condi-

tion started to surface.

Much of the media had also alleged that her condition was strongly influenced by

the extreme sermons of Michael Peter Woroniecki. Her family became concerned on

how significant his words had become to her. She seemed to be captivated by every-

thing that he had said. He had once preached “the role of women is derived from the sin

of Eve and that bad mothers who are going to hell create bad children who will go to

hell.” (Nuchia, 2006)

It came to the point where Andrea began to attempt suicide. On June 16, 1999,

Andrea called Rusty and had begged him to come home. When he arrived, he found

Andrea shaking on the kitchen floor while chewing aggressively on her fingers. He came

home and calmed her but the next day she attempted to commit suicide by swallowing

too many pills and overdosing. Following the event, she was admitted into the hospital

and afterwards was prescribed anti-depressant medication. Soon after being released

from the hospital, she made a second suicide attempt. In front of Rusty, she held a knife

up to her neck and begged her husband to let her die. She was hospitalized once again

and the doctors hoped that her condition would improve if she was prescribed anti-psy-

chotic medications such as Haldol. After taking the mixture of medications, she began to

improve almost immediately. Following the second suicide attempt, Rusty moved his

wife and the four boys into a small home for the sake of her health. When they were set-

tled in their new home, Andrea began to stabilize and returned to her old activities such

as swimming and exercising. She also began to socialize more as well as they had

moved into a peaceful neighborhood.

In July of 1999, Andrea had succumbed to another nervous breakdown out of the

blue. In that one summer she had attempted suicide two times and had been admitted

into psychiatric hospitalizations twice. Andrea had said that she believed that the devil

had been inside her. She did not want to harm the children and that’s what she felt that

she was going to do if she hadn’t killed herself. Ultimately, she claimed that she had the

urge to kill her children because she knew she was “bad” meaning her children would

be bad as well. At this point she had officially been diagnosed with postpartum psy-

chosis which is extremely rare in women.

While being treated for the illness, Andrea visited with various psychiatrists and

doctors in order to stabilize her condition. Her first psychiatrist urged that Andrea and

Rusty not have any more children after their fourth. She had said that it would “guaran-

tee future psychotic depression” (Nuchia, 2006) which is a condition that should not

have been taken lightly. For a little while, the couple had listened to the doctors and An-

drea was eventually discharged.

Approximately seven weeks after being discharged, Andrea and Rusty had disre-

garded the doctor’s ordered and had conceived a fifth child. While pregnant, Andrea

stopped taking all of her medications including the Haldol, her antipsychotic medica-

tions. This was an extreme issue due to the fact that being on and off anti-psychotic

medications can actually make the condition become worse. In November of 2000, An-

drea gave birth to her first daughter and fifth child, Mary. After giving birth, Andrea

seemed to be doing okay and her condition was not surfaced as it had suspected to be.

She seemed to be coping okay until six months later when her father had died

due to Alzheimer’s disease in March of 2001. Being the nurse of the family, Andrea took

the death very hard. She felt that she had the responsibility in the family to keep him

healthy and alive. After the death of her father, she stopped taking all of her medication,

mutilated and harmed herself and began to read the Bible feverishly. At the time, she

also stopped feeding Mary until it had become obvious by Rusty’s eye.

After the harmful behavior that had surfaced, Andrea was once again hospital-

ized immediately. She went under the care of experts and was treated and once again

released from the hospital. On the third of May, 2001 she had succumbed into a near

catatonic state. She drew a bath in the middle of the day which Rusty’s mother had

questioned. When his mother asked her why she drew the bath Andrea simply said that

she “had use for it.” Andrea had later admitted that she planned to drown the children

that day but had decided against it at the time (Walsh, 2001). After a scheduled doctors

visit the following day she had been hospitalized when she told her psychiatrist that she

had filled the tub with water. The doctor decided that she was once again suicidal and

had filled the tub to drown herself which drew concern and had her admitted. Andrea

was eventually discharged but continued under the care of her doctors.

The agreement between Rusty and the doctor’s was that Andrea could never be

left alone with their children. Rusty or another adult was to supervise Andrea around the

kids at all times. Rusty had gone against the doctors orders and started to leave her

alone with the children for a few weeks for short periods of time. He would leave for

work and have his mother arrive to supervise an hour after his departure. His hopes

were to improve her independence and that she would not become dependent on him

and others for her maternal responsibilities.

One June 20, 2001 Rusty had left for work and left Andrea unattended with the

children. His mother was scheduled to arrive an hour after he had left as Rusty was try-

ing to ween Andrea back into caring for the kids on her own. In the hour slot that she

had, Andrea had done the unthinkable. One by one, Andrea had drowned all five of her

children. She started by drowning the youngest boys and after doing so, laid them in her

bed. After drowning the younger boys, she drowned her six month old, Mary, and left

her floating in the tub. While she was in the tub, her oldest boy, Noah, had walked in

and asked what was wrong with the baby. He realized something was wrong with his

mother and ran from her. She eventually caught up to him and drowned him while he

struggled to survive. She had admitted that he had gotten his head above water a cou-

ple of times. One of which he said “mommy, I’ll be good.” (Quot) She continued to kill

him anyway. Andrea left Noah floating in the bathtub. She laid Mary in her brother

John’s arms who was a good older brother to her. Andrea left her laying with him so that

he would protect her in heaven. After drowning the children, she called the police and

told the operator to simply send a police officer with no reason. While waiting for the po-

lice to arrive, Andrea called Rusty saying only “it’s time” over and over again (Nuchia,

2006). When the police officer walked into the home, Andrea was sitting on the couch

with a blank stare as she would not look up from the carpet. The police officer discov-

ered her unimaginable crime and she was arrested on the spot.

Throughout her trials, her husband had stood by her the entire time. He claimed

that the illness had killed the children, not Andrea. She had pleaded innocence by rea-

son of insanity where she had cited postpartum psychosis. In 2002 the jury rejected her

plead of insanity and found Andrea guilty of first degree murder. She was then sen-

tenced to life in prison with possibility of parole after forty years. Due to errors in the

court, the convictions were reversed and Yates was then found not guilty by reason of

insanity. She now remains in North Texas State Hospital, a high security mental hospi-

tal. Rusty divorced Andrea in 2004 and remarried in 2006.

Andrea would be diagnosed with postpartum depression and postpartum depres-

sion. She had major depression disorder with psychotic episodes. Under axis I in the

DSM(5), Andrea suffered particular clinical syndromes which lead her to her crimes with

postpartum depression and psychosis. Axis II was defined by her personality disorders

in which she was not stable. She dealt with depression that made it almost impossible

for her to function properly. Axis III included her general medical conditions that came

with her pregnancies. She also began to overdose on medications in order to kill her-

self. With her pregnancies she was also on and off crucial medicine. Axis IV would be

characterized in Andrea’s case with psychosocial and environmental problems. She had

multiple births with left her with severe symptoms such as depression and psychosis.

Under Axis V, it is clear that she had a problem functioning and needed immediate at-

tention.

As a teenager, Andrea was a good kid who perfected her studies and social life.

She had overcome bulimia and had once spoke of suicide and a teenager. Her father

dealt with depression throughout his life so I feel as if this was passed down to Andrea

biologically. Postpartum depression was also said to had run in her family, which of

course is why Andrea had suffered from it as well. As a registered nurse out of college,

her future seemed bright. When Andrea met Rusty, she fell in love and got married to a

man that wanted to have as many babies as possible. He was a close follower of an ex-

tremist minister who Andrea caught onto as well. Andrea was completely captivated by

the minsters words to the point that Rusty and her family became concerned with her

obsession. She become so obsessed with his sermons that it had impacted her views

on herself as well as on her children. She became delusional, believing that she was a

bad mother which would cause her children to go to hell. Her extremist views on religion

greatly impacted her mental stability as she admitted to believing that the devil was in-

side her.

Throughout her married life, Andrea was extremely isolated. After the birth of her

first son the family moved into a small trailer where she had two more children. She quit

her job as a nurse and focused on the family. The cramped living conditions and con-

stant moving surfaced some of her depression. As the children grew older she become

their home-school teacher which fed to her isolation. Andrea had no time for herself and

had tended to her children in small spaces 24/7. By the fourth child, living conditions

were still cramped and her insanity came on harder. Depression and postpartum de-

pression were passed down to her biologically, however, her environmental factors and

religious influences in her life seem to have certainly led her to insanity. I feel that if the

family had lived in a home where there was room for a large family then there would

have been a brighter future. They moved around too much and continually stayed in

small spaces even with such a large family. If the children went to public school rather

than home school, Andrea may have had more time for herself and would not have

been isolated to the point of insanity as well.

References

• Andrea Yates. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 11:14, Apr 19, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/an-drea-yates-235801.

• Andrea Yates. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nndb.com/people/026/000085768

• Nuchia, S. (2006). Andrea Yates | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers. Re-trieved from http://murderpedia.org/female.Y/y/yates-andrea.htm

• Walsh, D. (2001, July 2). World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved from https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2001/07/yate-j02.html

• Quot, W. (n.d.). A mother's madness Andrea Yates. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt6a1OJcvJU