In a story that continues to shock and confound, a father has revealed he maintains regular contact with his ex-wife, the woman who murdered their five young children in one of America's most harrowing criminal cases.
A Day of Unimaginable Horror
On 20 June 2001, NASA engineer Rusty Yates left for his job at the Johnson Space Centre, unaware of the tragedy about to unfold in his family home in Clear Lake, Texas. His wife, Andrea Yates, was suffering a severe episode of postpartum psychosis coupled with schizophrenia. After Rusty departed, she carried out an act of incomprehensible violence.
The former nurse drowned the couple's five children in the bathtub. Their sons Noah, aged seven, John, five, Paul, three, and Luke, two, along with their six-month-old daughter, Mary, were all killed. Andrea Yates then laid their bodies on a bed and covered them with a sheet. She called emergency services to report the deaths before phoning her husband and telling him to come home.
When police arrived at the suburban Houston home, Yates confessed, stating plainly, "I just killed my children."
Trials, Insanity, and a Life in Care
Charged with five counts of capital murder, Andrea Yates faced the death penalty. Her defence successfully argued that her extreme mental illness, which intensified after baby Mary's birth, meant she required treatment, not prison. Initially found guilty and sentenced to life in 2002, that verdict was overturned on appeal.
In a 2006 retrial, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The case, recently examined in an HBO documentary, highlighted the devastating intersection of postpartum psychosis and violent crime.
Yates now resides in a mental health facility in Kerrville, Texas. Court documents reveal she remains delusional, having believed she was saving her children from "eternal damnation." She told a prison psychiatrist, "My children weren't righteous. They stumbled because I was evil. The way I was raising them, they could never be saved."
An Enduring and Complicated Bond
Despite divorcing in 2005, Rusty Yates, now 61, continues to visit his ex-wife. In a candid interview with People magazine, he explained their unique connection. "I try once a year to visit in person, and we text back and forth some and talk on the phone some," he shared.
He described Andrea as "caring and loving and devoted," and cherishes their shared memories of family life before the tragedy. "Andrea and I always got along. That's a time of our life that we both cherish, and she's the only person I can talk to about it," Rusty said. "She and I are the only two who can get together and reminisce about what it was like to enjoy those years together."
He added, with poignant simplicity, "It's nice to reminisce. Honestly, I never imagined anything like this could happen, especially with her."
The three-part HBO Max docuseries, 'The Cult Behind the Killer: The Andrea Yates Story,' explores the full context of this profound tragedy.
