On June 20th, 2001, Andrea Yates drowned her five children in their home in Texas. She then called 911 and waited for them to arrive. Her and her husband Russell lived a religious lifestyle, but at some point, Andrea became convinced that her and her children would be going to hell. After Andrea birthed each child, her postpartum depression seemed to get worse. By the time Mary was born, their last child, Andrea became dangerously influenced by false religious teachings. On June 17th, 1999, Andrea intentionally overdosed on Trazodone and was hospitalized, she was in a coma for 10 days. When she was released from the hospital, she was found to be holding a knife to her throat pleading to die. Andrea was told and convinced that women derived from sin, and she would see her children burn in hell. She stated, "it was the seventh deadly sin; my children weren't righteous, and they stumbled because I was evil". Dr. Eileen Starbranch said she found that Yates was among the five sickest patients she had ever seen, and Andrea was then prescribed an antipsychotic. Although the family was advised not to have any more children, they did not listen and birthed Mary on November 30th, 2000. At this point, Andrea stopped taking her medications and less than three weeks later on June 20th, 2001, Russell, her husband, left for work in the morning and has his mother coming to the house to help Andrea with the kids. By the time his mother arrived, it was too late. After her husband left, Andrea made breakfast for all four children and then began to drown them from youngest to oldest. Noah, the oldest child, tried to run from his mother after seeing the lifeless bodies of his siblings, but Andrea caught him. She left Noah in the tub and layed Mary on the bed and called 911. Even though Andrea confessed to killing all of her children and purposely waited for her husband to leave before she did it and locked the dog up in the kennel. Andrea was found not guilty by reason of insanity. In my opinion, sane or not, this was premeditated first degree murder. She was prescribed medication to help her that she willingly stopped, and tragedy struck. It is my personal opinion that Andrea Yates should have been held accountable for the deaths of her five children that day. She has the sense about her to wait until her husband was gone and lock the dog up, she knew exactly what she was doing. Also, her husband Russell knew that she was in no shape or form to care for those children and did not take any immediate precautions to keep this from happening. He should have been charged with neglect. Please note: all opinions are mine and mine only, the criminal justice system makes all of the decisions they see fit for each case. This wouldn't be a blog if I agreed with everything that occurred or the outcomes.