it in the crook of john s arm so he could look after her in the afterlife as he had been a good big brother during their lifetime together. it promised to be the trial of the century in houston, texas. there was no question regarding the basic facts. on the morning of june 20th, 2001, 36-year-old andrea yates systematically drowned all five of her children. defense attorney george parnham knew that his client s only chance was to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. but as the details emerged, the public outrage grew. give us some room. get back. get back. the public opinion of andrea was obviously negative, to say the very least. people did not understand the mental illness. overwhelmingly, the people were very harsh in their assessment. the community of psychiatric workers, doctors were horrified that we would prosecute someone who had a legitimate mental illness but that was a minority. andrea yates actions were certainly incomprehensible. but did that mean she was i
heaven. you are sort of pinned in to a corner in that way of thinking. by 1996, the yates had two children, noah and john. and a short-term job opportunity in florida, rusty opted not to be burdened by owning another house. going in to an rv was kind of more of an experiment for us. and so what we did was we rented our house that we had here and bought a 38-foot travel trailer and pulled it to florida and lived at a campground in florida during the course of that assignment. at the time, andrea was again pregnant. she miscarried just after the move. in 1997, the yates returned to houston, where their third son is born. in 1998, they trade in the rv for a renovated 350-square-foot bus, a bus they bought from
rusty yates. i think people want to assign blame. how did this happen? why did this happen? who s at fault? and if you believe that andrea yates was mentally ill, then you say, okay, well it wasn t her fault, she was sick. it must be rusty s fault. i think what turns people off is that he smiled a lot. he didn t show the kind of emotion that was expected. and once he was kind of typecast as not showing enough emotion no matter how much he showed after that, that s how he was viewed. rusty s demeanor so incensed the houston community that some people believed he was complicit in the murders. the harris county district attorney s office received inquiries of whether he was liable for the deaths of children and people on the street will express that idea to you. did i do everything that i could and knew to do to help andrea and protect our children and i d say that s the case. i didn t i really didn t know
it s a tuesday morning, just after 9:00. yates has just fed the kids. then, she draws the bath. what s the problem? um. is someone burglarizing your house? i mean what is it? the dispatcher assigned me that particular call for service being that it was in my zone of responsibility. another unit, david knapp, he checked by with me, which is common practice, you know? day shift. slow. guys killing time, helping each other out. eight minutes after dialing 911, andrea yates calls her husband rusty yates and tells him it s time to come home. it s not yet 10:00 a.m. i couldn t imagine what actually happened but i m worried. andrea called me was firm tone, said i needed to come home, so i did. i moved in to the house and
think you re going to heaven, then that proves you re going to hell because that s prideful and only god knows who s going to heaven. you are sort of pinned in to a corner in that way of thinking. by 1996, the yates had two children, noah and john. and a short-term job opportunity in florida, rusty opted not to be burdened by owning another house. going in to an rv was kind of more of an experiment for us. and so what we did was we rented our house that we had here and bought a 38-foot travel trailer and pulled it to florida and lived at a campground in florida during the course of that assignment. at the time, andrea was again pregnant. she miscarried just after the move. in 1997, the yates returned to houston, where their third son is born. in 1998, they trade in the rv for a renovated 350-square-foot bus, a bus they bought from