Yates Children

Case background and investigation

On June 20, 2001, the five children of Andrea and Russell Yates were drowned in the bathtub of the family home in Clear Lake, in the Houston area. The Houston Chronicle reported that the children were Noah, 7, John, 5, Paul, 3, Luke, 2, and Mary, 6 months, and that their mother called police and led officers to them.

Andrea Yates, a former nurse, had a documented history of serious mental illness. According to a CNN chronology of the case, she was admitted to a psychiatric unit in June 1999 after an overdose and diagnosed with a major depressive disorder, was treated again the following month after a suicide attempt, and was admitted twice to a treatment facility in the spring of 2001. CNN reports that her prescription for the antipsychotic drug Haldol was discontinued by her psychiatrist on June 4, 2001, a little over two weeks before the deaths.

Yates was indicted on July 30, 2001, on two counts of capital murder and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. On March 12, 2002, a Harris County jury convicted her on charges covering the deaths of Noah, John and Mary; CNN notes she was not tried for the deaths of Paul and Luke. The jury rejected the death penalty and she was sentenced to life in prison.

On January 6, 2005, the Texas First Court of Appeals reversed the conviction. NBC News reported that the ruling turned on testimony by the prosecution's psychiatric expert, Park Dietz, who had told jurors about an episode of the television drama "Law & Order" involving a mother who drowned her children and was found insane. No such episode existed. The court said the record did not show that Dietz had intentionally lied, but that the false testimony could have affected the jury's judgment.

At a second trial in Houston, a jury deliberated for more than 12 hours over three days and on July 26, 2006, found Yates not guilty by reason of insanity, according to the Houston Chronicle. She was ordered to a state mental hospital. CNN reports that she was moved in January 2007 from North Texas State Hospital's Vernon campus to Kerrville State Hospital.

Yates has remained at Kerrville since. Today.com reported in 2022, citing her longtime attorney George Parnham, that she is entitled to an annual review of her commitment and has waived it each year. A fund established in 2002 in memory of the children supports education about postpartum depression and psychosis.