St. Claire Patterson Professor Murphy English 101 How does a perfectly normal woman, living in a typical suburban neighborhood wind up in jail on charges of murdering her five children? On June 20, 2001, Rusty Yates receives a call from his wife Andrea to return home from work. He learns that his wife of eight years has systematically drowned each of his five children in the family bath tub. She is arrested in Texas on charges of capitol murder and is convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Andrea Yates was born in Houston, Texas on July 2, 1964. In high school she was valedictorian, captain of the swim team, and Valedictorian.
She graduated from Mil by High school in Houston, Texas in 1982. She graduated in 1986 from the University of Texas, school of nursing. For the next eight years she worked at a cancer center for children as a nurse. At age twenty five she met her husband Rusty in the apartment complex where they both lived.
Rusty and Andrea married in 1993. During their eight years of marriage they had five children. In 1998 Rusty moved his family into a three hundred and fifty square foot remodeled bus. With four young children in such a cramped space, Andrea began to show signs of mental decline. In June of 1999, Andrea had her first suicide attempt then was hospitalized and diagnosed with a major depression disorder. She was prescribed an antidepressant and released.
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Hallucinations, self mutilation, and the hearing of voices began. On July twentieth of 1999, Andrea made a second suicide attempt. She put a knife against her throat, and begged to die. She was hospitalized and in a catatonic state for ten days. She was injected with the antipsychotic drug Haladol, and her condition improved. The attending psychiatrist warned them that having further babies might bring on additional psychotic episodes.
She was released from the hospital, placed in outpatient care, and prescribed Haladol. Upon the urging of Andrea’s family, Rusty purchased a home for Andrea and the children in a small suburban neighborhood and moved the family out of the cramped bus. Andrea’s condition began to improve to the point that she began to swim again, and socialize with the neighbors. She told Rusty that for the first time she felt encouraged about the future, but would always view their past life on the bus as failure as a mother. With much pressure from Rusty Andrea became pregnant again. This led to her not taking her antipsychotic medication, Haladol.
The last child, Mary, was born in November 2000. The following March 2000, Andrea’s father died and again Andrea declined mentally. She was again hospitalized and her new psychiatrist took her off her prescribed medication, Haladol. In May of 2000 she returned to the hospital for ten days. Two days after her release she murdered her five children. She drowned the three youngest boys first, placed them on her bed, and covered them with a blanket.
Mary, the infant was drowned next and left in the tub. Seven year old Noah asked his mother what was wrong with Mary. Andrea then forced him into the tub and drowned him. She left him in the tub and removed Mary.
Mary was then placed in the arms of her brothers on the bed. She calmly called her husband at work and said, “You need to come home.” In a monotone voice she said, “It’s time I did it.” Rusty asked hr to explain and she said, “It’s the children, all of them.” Andrea was arrested and charged with capitol murder. She would enter a plea of “not guilty by reason of insanity.” In Texas, the law on the insanity defense is the most restrictive in the nation. Even though she had attempted suicide twice, was hospitalized four times for psychiatric care, and was psychotic, she would have to prove to the jury that she didn’t know the difference between right and wrong when she drowned the children.
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The prosecution didn’t argue that Andrea suffered from a severe mental disease. By using taped interviews with Yates, they proved that she knew her actions were wrong and her acts were premeditated. She admitted on tape that she knew it was wrong to kill her children and purposely waited for Rusty to leave for work so that he wouldn’t stop her. She further admitted that she planned their murders for the past two years.
Andrea was convicted to life in prison where she remains today. She will be eligible for parole at the age of seventy seven. In my opinion her husband, Rusty is the one who deserves the punishment. Rusty has stated that he has no regrets about any of the choices he and Andrea made in their married life. There are no regrets about moving into a camper and then a bus with four children. He views the birth of the fifth child, Mary, as a blessing.
He blames the medical community for letting his wife down; completely ignoring that in her isolation and worsening condition he continued to have children with her. She was not given adequate medical treatment and was taken off of her medication. She was forced to care for five small children when she could not care for herself.
