Andrea Yates Research Paper

At any point in time, someone’s world can be turned upside down by an unthinkable horror in a matter of seconds. On June 20th, 2001 in a small, suburban household in Houston, TX, Andrea Yates drowned her five children in a bathtub after her husband left for work. The crime is unimaginable, yes, but the history leading up to the crime is just as important to the story. Andrea Yates childhood, adulthood, and medical history are all potent pieces of knowledge necessary to understanding the crime she committed.

From birth to teen years, the childhood of Andrea Yates was both positive with accomplishments, and negative with different sufferings from various mental diseases. Andrea Pia Kennedy was born the youngest of five children on July 2nd,

1964, in Hallsville, Texas. She attended Houston’s Milby High School, and graduated valedictorian in 1982. Throughout high school, she was a captain of the swim team and held an officer position in National Honor Society. Putting aside her accomplishments, she also suffered from bulimia and depression as a teen, and then throughout her whole life. Being raised in a Roman Catholic household, she could only tell her friends about her depression because it was a sign of weakness in one’s godly beliefs in the church. After high school, Andrea finished a two year nursing program at the University of Houston, then graduated from University of Texas School of Nursing. She worked at MD Anderson as a nurse for eight years, then stopped working after she married Russell Yates on April 17th, 1993. Before she married Russell, she dated many different men, but the idea of sex before marriage usually ended the relationship before it was ever really able to formulate. She claimed that her “virginity was a heavy burden to her” and that these breakups lead to depression when she was only 24 (O’Malley 28). Over the course of their marriage, they would have 5 children and one miscarriage together. The new couple moved into a 4-bedroom home in Friendswood, TX shortly after tying the knot, but this would not be their permanent home.

Not only did the Yates's move constantly throughout motor homes, but they were inspired to live this way by Russell and Andrea’s dear friends and religious inspirations, Michael and Rachel Woroniecki. Shortly after the Yates's moved into their home in Friendswood, TX, Russell’s job required a six-month stint in Tampa, FL. The family decided to rent out their home and live in a trailer home, like the Woroniecki family. Andrea’s parents were extremely disappointed because they thought that their daughter and grandchildren didn’t belong in the trailer-park lifestyle. After their stay in Tampa, they learned that the Woroniecki’s were selling their GMC motor home, and they decided to make the trip to Miami to check it out in the Spring of 1998. Instead of the trip being productive according to the Yates’s, Michael and Rachel Woroniecki noticed detrimental flaws to the Yates’s marriage, and felt it necessary to give them all the advice they could. Michael viewed Russell as a workaholic, and believed that he would “sacrifice his wife and children for the sake of his job” (O’Malley 31). Michael also commented on the loneliness of Andrea and how it must have affected her psychologically, and didn’t allow enough time for the children’s needs. At the conclusion of the weekend, the Yates’s drove off with the Woroniecki’s GMC motor home to find somewhere to settle in to. Later in 1998, Rachel wrote a letter to Andrea with a quote from the bible talking about the misfortunes of one not interacting in their faith, and being led away by the evils of Satan. After this letter, Andrea started to read the bible with great intensity, indulging herself into every word on the page, preparing herself for her fourth baby boy, Luke. The combination of temporary homes, multiple children, and unsteady faith led to Andrea’s spiral downwards into a pit of mysterious psychological issues.
Among the bussing around of four children, Andrea dealt with problems of her own psychologically.

The downfall of Andrea was sudden, and started with the overdose of a drug that treats major depressive disorder, Trazodone on June 1. After this incident, she was put in the hospital and diagnosed with major depressive disorder by her doctors, but her husband was told that this was an isolated event and was put on a few antidepressants. Barely a month later, Andrea attempted suicide for the first time on June 20th, 1999 by putting a knife to her throat. This attempt frightened Russell Yates, and he started to notice the unusual actions and words his wife was doing and saying. He worried about Andrea’s visions and descriptions that she provided to the hospital staff when she described a knife that was “dull, thin, long like a slicer, and had a wood handle” (O’Malley 38-39). The hospital staff also reported an incident where Andrea may have spoken to Satan, or the dark idea possessing her mind, and she screamed, “What do you want?!!” (O’Malley 40). After 19 days of hospital stay in the psych ward, and an intense mixture of antidepressants called Haldol and Cogentin, Andrea was discharged to a Partial Hospitalization Program. By August 18th, 1999, Andrea’s doctor, Dr. Starbranch, wrote in her notes during a post hospital appointment that the couple wanted to have “as many babies as nature would allow” and designated the fact that this would “guarantee future psychotic depression”

(O’Malley 41). The apocalypse of events that started to spiral Andrea’s life downhill again was the birth of her fifth child Mary and the death of her Father, Andrea became severely depressed again. Her husband found a new doctor that could maybe cure her permanently, rather than temporarily, from her psychotic and depressed episodes. Dr. Mohammed Saeed prescribed her multiple different combinations of medicines, but Haldol seemed to do the trick if she took 2 milligrams twice a day. After much improvement, she was gradually taken off the Haldol, but the symptoms came back more intense, and felt suicidal again. Dr. Saeed prescribed a “rocket fuel” effect of antidepressants which were Effexor and Remeron, and then prescribed Haldol again because of the success of the drug previously. On June 4th, 2001, Andrea’s use of Haldol was discontinued, and was not prescribed another antipsychotic medication due to her miraculous recovery mentally. Just 16 days later, all five of her children were dead, and Russell Yates was a widow. Throughout the adulthood of Andrea Yates, her struggle with psychotic and depressive issues happened in a downward spiral of events that altered her life in ways no one could perceive.
The crime of Andrea Yates is an unimaginable crime that no one can quite comprehend.

Although many events happened before and after the crime that could have altered her future, the background of Andrea is the most vital information to have to understand where she came from, like the births of five children or constantly moving around in a motor home. By understanding her medical past, the drastic actions that she took on June 20th, 2001 are as clear as they will ever be in a twisted crime like this one at hand. Andrea Yates childhood, adulthood, and medical history are all essential in understanding the murders of her five

children.