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Andrea Yates was the mother of five children whom she proceeded to drown in a bath tub one night. A Texas jury said she was not insane but a few years later, a court of appeals determined that she indeed was insane.

Read the article and let me know what you think.

Andrea Yates

Is she insane or not You Be the Judge!


Andrea Yates
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Votes accepted starting: 08/15/08 05:36 AM
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Vance Rowe
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At the time that this crime happened I was horrified and read everything I could find about it. After reading the entire story I was even more horrified at her husband.

Andrea had been diagnosed with postpartum psychosis after her 4th child was born. Postpartum psychosis is to postpartum depression what a broken finger is to a hangnail! She was treated successfully and both she and her husband were told she should NEVER have another child.

Her husband was well aware of her condition and chose to continue living the life HE chose...she home schooled all the kids, lived in a trailer, kept the house clean, cooked, and got pregnant again.

He was also well aware of her condition on that fateful day when he left her alone with the kids. If she is guilty, and I don't believe she is, he is equally guilty and should have been punished the same as her.

Last edited by Helen Wharton; 08/16/08 09:24 AM.
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Helen, you can't be serious. You are insinuating that Rusty knowingly left his children to be murdered. Come on, now.

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I have to agree with Gorgeousred. He had no idea that he was leaving his kids alone with a psychotic woman like that. He went to work and she called him there telling him that she just killed the kids. Plus she had to chase down the oldest one and then killed him.

I dont know what set her off to kill as I am not a psychiatrist and it could be that she had just stopped taking her medication as well and that affected her. She could have been having a rough time with one or more of the kids yelling and that set her off too. Who knows what was going on in that brain of hers.

I do not believe that her husband should be held liable either and apparently the law didnt either. There was no way he could know what she was feeling and what about if the kids had some one sleeping over, do you think she may have tried to kill them too?


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I agree with Helen - and yes, she can be serious, just as serious as I am. The husband was well aware of his wife's medical and mental condition and should have taken every precaution to make sure she always had the help she needed and someone (another adult) living in the household to guard against any possible problems (as what happened). If it was not possible to have another adult always present, then the children should have been taken out of harm's way to live with relatives or friends. Andrea should never have been allowed to have had more children after the first diagnosed case of post-partum depression to the severity of it being labeled a psychosis - psychosis is nothing to dally around with and must be taken seriously. No one with a psychosis of any kind should ever be left alone with children, whether the children are their own or not. The husband and doctor should have made every precaution to keep her on pills or other contraceptive to prevent pregnancy, or the husband could have had surgery to prevent impregnation.

In this case, I think the husband is either just as guilty as Andrea for the death of the children by leaving them in harm's way - or - he is down right stupid and should have his own mind examined.

I believe Andrea's doctors did not handle her case very well and someone should have been doing a lot more for her. Insanity can come and go in certain cases. Someone may seem totally sane and normal one minute then go totally berserk without warning. If the doctors and her husband did not acknowledge this then they were avoiding the obvious.

Oh! - poor Rusty! Of course he had known Andrea was psychotic! She was diagnosed as such and the husband was aware of that. Would you leave your child alone with a psychotic person? Well, he left five of them alone with a psychotic person. By leaving Andrea alone with the children at any time was like locking up the children in a room with a hungry lion! Anyone with enough common sense and love for the children would never do such a thing.



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PS: Why would it be so impossible to believe that the husband "knowingly left his children to be murdered"? Who knows what went on before he left home? He lived with Andrea, he knew her habits, he knew what pushed her to the edge, he knew what ticked her off. Is it not theoretically possible that he could have been talking with her, playing mind games with her, putting ideas into her head while pretending to empathize with her on how hard it must be for her to take care of five children, do all the housework, do all the cooking, then tell her something like, he himself could never do that and maybe putting ideas and words of satan into her head - some people are extremely clever when it comes to playing mind games and manipulating the mind of a psychotic person. This is no more impossible than it is for the husband to "knowingly leave his children to be murdered".

Gee! Now the husband is free of the psychotic wife and the five children. Poor guy.


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Originally Posted By: Phyllis, BellaEd
Gee! Now the husband is free of the psychotic wife and the five children. Poor guy.


Are you serious? Suppose he is the type of man who loved his wife and children dearly? She was just apparently depressed a lot but was apparently trying to live a normal life. There is no way that anyone can seriously blame him for this as well. Maybe she stopped taking the medication that she was on and snapped.

There could have been several things leading her to snap and kill her children that fateful night or maybe it was just one thing. She did say that she heard Satan's voice telling her to do it and he said that this was the first time that he knew of her hearing voices.

Maybe she wasn't crazy? Maybe it was all an act and she was just tired of taking care of the children and killed them. Maybe she knew that if she said she heard voices and with her past medical history, she thought that she would be hospitalized and not sent to jail. I am sure the hospital is a lot more comfortable than the jail and she will have a chance to leave the hospital once she is all better. Even if she doesn't and she does spend the rest of her life in a hospital, it is still better than spending her life in an 8x10 cell.

I cannot believe that you and Helen would blame any of this on the husband. Even if he was that cold and calculating there would be no way he could be sure that she would snap and kill the kids. If he loved his family like he says he did, and if he thought for a moment that she would be capable of doing something like that, dont you think he would have had her committed or had someone staying with her.

I dont feel he thought that she was capable of doing something like that, but a couple of you do and you are certainly entitled to your opinion and You Can Be the Judge anyway you see fit.

That is the beauty of this country of ours. lol


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Originally Posted By: Vance Wrestling and Crime
Originally Posted By: Phyllis, BellaEd
Gee! Now the husband is free of the psychotic wife and the five children. Poor guy.


Are you serious? Suppose he is the type of man who loved his wife and children dearly? She was just apparently depressed a lot but was apparently trying to live a normal life. There is no way that anyone can seriously blame him for this as well. Maybe she stopped taking the medication that she was on and snapped.

There could have been several things leading her to snap and kill her children that fateful night or maybe it was just one thing. She did say that she heard Satan's voice telling her to do it and he said that this was the first time that he knew of her hearing voices.

Maybe she wasn't crazy? Maybe it was all an act and she was just tired of taking care of the children and killed them. Maybe she knew that if she said she heard voices and with her past medical history, she thought that she would be hospitalized and not sent to jail. I am sure the hospital is a lot more comfortable than the jail and she will have a chance to leave the hospital once she is all better. Even if she doesn't and she does spend the rest of her life in a hospital, it is still better than spending her life in an 8x10 cell.

I cannot believe that you and Helen would blame any of this on the husband. Even if he was that cold and calculating there would be no way he could be sure that she would snap and kill the kids. If he loved his family like he says he did, and if he thought for a moment that she would be capable of doing something like that, dont you think he would have had her committed or had someone staying with her.

I dont feel he thought that she was capable of doing something like that, but a couple of you do and you are certainly entitled to your opinion and You Can Be the Judge anyway you see fit.

That is the beauty of this country of ours. lol


Are you listening to yourself, Vance? smile You are using words such as "maybe", "supposing", "if". I do not write anything like that if I am not serious, Vance. Suppose I am right, suppose you are right - supposing does not give us the truth, does it? People can be portrayed any way we want to see them and some people can have themselves portrayed any way they want us to see them. All of your opinions are the same as mine: assumptions. No one knows what went on between Andrea and her husband on that fateful day or the days or weeks or months leading up to it.

How many crimes have been committed by people who we (the general public) think it would be impossible for that person to have done that? How many people do you think have gotten away with horrendous crimes because the public or the jury/courts think there is no way that person could have done that? Juries are made up of people just like you and me with their own assumptions and feelings and vulnerabilities.

Looks like if you, Helen, GorgeousRed and I had been on the jury, it would have been a hung jury. Suppose the poor guy had just had all he could take of the problems his wife was facing, the tremendous job of raising five kids, etc and he snapped and knew how to work ideas into her poor confused mind? Why would that be so difficult to accept and yet so very easy to accept that she was solely at fault? People usually have preconceived opinions and it is hard to change their judgement call.

My opinions may be preconceived, but, they are mine and they are possibilities and yes - I am serious! smile

By the way, I love these "You Be The Judge" articles of yours! It really prompts a lot of comment and thoughts. Good job! whistle

Last edited by Phyllis, BellaEd; 08/20/08 02:20 PM.

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Without going into major details here because I do have first hand knowledge about my following post, Yes there are alot of marriages where the husband is very "clueless" about what he should do when he KNOWS there is abuse going on or things just are not quite right so to speak. I think we all sort of forget that it really hasn't been that long since society has started to recognize that YES certain things are abuse and here is what you do about them. Sadly alot of Men still think their role is to earn money and it is the Wifes role to clean and raise children, which is what I am trying to say here, He may have thought it wasn't his place or "job" to interfere in that, I know it doesn't sound right but again I think everyone would be a little surprised at how this "mentality" is still going strong today. I do not know either one of them but I am pretty sure her husband had no idea that was going to happen and honestly he probably never even imagined that it would. Another thing I wonder about and have not seen mentioned is their religion, there are several religions that don't believe in treating anything or that there is even a "mental condition" for anyone and or if they just pray enough it will go away. I'm not trying to do the blame game here just trying to add more food for thought.

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There are a lot of possibilities that may or may not have been looked at and all we have to go on are our personal opinions. The point I am trying to get across is that it is no more difficult to think that the husband is in any way at fault then it is to think that the mother was solely guilty. I am sure that the mother, in her heart, loved the children and did what she did in a frame of insanity where she was out of control. The husband was aware of her mental condition and, in my opinion, should not have ever left her alone with the children.

If you, or anyone, had a spouse who was diagnosed with a psychosis, would you leave your child in their care? I certainly would not.

On the religious side, I do not know what their religion is or if it ever came up. I do know there are some religions that do not believe in professional medical assistance, but would that include allowing your children to be left alone with a person whom you know is mentally ill?


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