News June 20, 2016
Andrea Yates: Her Life 15 Years After Drowning Her Five Children
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The Andrea Yates case was national news 15 years ago, when the 36-year-old mother drowned her five children in a bathtub at her suburban Houston home.
Now, sources are telling People what her life is like today in a Texas mental health facility.
Yates lives in a low-security facility in Kerrville State Hospital. She is the only resident not allowed to leave the premises. She did request a two-hour pass to attend a church service in 2012, but her attorneys withdrew the request before it was processed.
Sources say the now 51-year-old often watches videos of her children laughing and playing.
Yates systematically drowned the children, ages 6 months to 7 years, in 2001 before calling 911.
Her defense blamed severe postpartum psychosis. She was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, but her conviction was overturned in 2006. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Her defense attorney George Farnham told People she will likely live at the Kerrville facility for the rest of her life. His partner, Wendall Odom, added, "I don't think people understand how shy and reclusive and how afraid Andrea is, especially since all this publicity descended on her. She is truly afraid."
Andrea's ex husband Rusty Yates sat down with Oprah last year. When the talk show host asked if he had forgiven her, he replied, "Yes. Forgiveness kind of implies that I have ever really blamed her. In some sense I've never really blamed her because I've always blamed her illness."
