Nearly 25 years after Andrea Yates drowned her five children during a severe mental health crisis, her former husband, Rusty Yates, says he does not hold her responsible — and wants the public to understand who she was beyond the tragedy.
Rusty Yates said his ex-wife was not a monster, but a loving and devoted mother who was overcome by untreated mental illness at the time of the killings.
“She was a wonderful person,” he said. “Caring, loving, accomplished — someone who suffered immensely because of what happened.”
A Crime Shaped by Severe Mental Illness
In June 2001, Andrea Yates drowned her five children — Noah, 7; John, 5; Paul, 3; Luke, 2; and 6-month-old Mary — in the bathtub of their home in a Houston suburb. She was initially convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison.
That conviction was later overturned. In 2006, a jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity after concluding she was suffering from postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis, a rare but severe condition that can cause delusions, hallucinations and a break from reality.
Rusty Yates said once he understood the role her illness played, his feelings toward her changed completely.
“When I realized she only did this because she was mentally ill, that was it for me,” he said. “I didn’t blame her.”
He acknowledged that the loss of their children remains devastating, but said blame was never part of his grief.
“The pain doesn’t go away,” he said. “You can’t go around it — you have to go through it. But blaming Andrea was never something I felt.”
‘She Has Suffered Enough’
Rusty Yates said Andrea continues to live with profound internal suffering over what she did, something he believes exceeds almost any pain most people could imagine.
“She has suffered trying to come to terms with her actions,” he said. “That suffering is beyond anything I’ve experienced.”
He added that he believes she deserved proper mental health care long before the tragedy occurred.
“This never would have happened if she’d received the treatment she needed,” he said. “She doesn’t deserve to be defined forever by actions that only happened because she was gravely ill.”
The Day of the Killings
On June 20, 2001, Andrea Yates called police to her home. When officers arrived, they found her standing outside wearing a wet shirt. She told them she had killed her children.
Investigators later said she drowned them one by one, placed the bodies of the four youngest children on a bed, covered them with a sheet and repeatedly called emergency services.
After her arrest, Andrea told doctors she believed killing her children was the only way to save them from eternal damnation, reflecting the depth of her delusions at the time.
A Complicated Bond That Remains
Rusty Yates and Andrea divorced in 2005, but he says they remain in contact. He visits her about once a year at the Texas mental health facility where she now lives.
“She’s the only person who shared those years with me,” he said. “We’re the only two who can talk about what it was like to raise them and enjoy those moments together.”
He described their relationship now as both meaningful and painful.
“It’s nice to remember the good times,” he said. “But even talking to her reminds you of the tragedy. It’s always there.”
Despite that, he said he hopes people will see Andrea Yates not only for the crime that made headlines, but as a woman who was deeply unwell and whose life — and family — were destroyed by untreated mental illness.