When Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the bathtub of her Houston home on June 20, 2001, she told investigators she was trying to save them from going to “hell.”
The tragedy quickly became headline news across the country and Yates was branded the most hated mother in America. Yates was a former nurse who had suffered for years from severe postpartum depression and psychosis. She was later found not guilty by reason of insanity in the deaths of Noah, 7, John, 5, Paul, 3, Luke, 2, and 6-month-old Mary. The case became a grim touchstone in conversations about motherhood, mental illness, and the limits of criminal responsibility.
