Page 17 - Andreap Yates News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> overwhelmingly, 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 insane? >> you can be mentally ill and the standard under the law is that if you know right from wrong, that's not a medical standard. that's a legal standard. >> there's no legal definition for what's right or wrong, and the law tells us that if there's no legal definition, then a juror is able t...

Wildfire. reporters and first responders swarm the area. frank stumpo was assigned to take andrea yates to jail. >> the news media were there en masse. they were there, 50, 60, 70 people. a mother could wipe out a family and becomes a star. and that's what she was. and i told her that. i said, now you're a celebrity. and i brought her into the homicide division, brought her upstairs, and that was it. >> a mother killing her own child is unthinkable. a mother killing all five of her children is completely unimaginable. how can we begin to comprehend the circumstances that brought andrea yates t...

Just sitting there. she never looked at me. i walked into the room, and i was expecting to find a man on the floor. a body. and i was looking around, looking around. saying, what? i see this little, tiny head. and it was looking right at me. and a little head was about maybe 10 or 15 feet from there at the edge of the bed. i said, what in the world? i thought it was a doll. and i walked over to that little tiny head, and i touched it right here, put my finger on it and i said what in the -- i picked up the blanket, and there was that little tiny body. it was a human being. i said, oh, my. as i...

Was inevitable. almost overnight andrea yates became a household name and a condition called postpartum psychosis a hotly contested topic. >> it is not the same as the baby blues, which are very common. postpartum psychosis is about 1 case in 1,000 births. often a woman is very psychotic, hallucinations, delusions, confused, usually so severe, it requires hospitalization. >> on june 20th, 2001, andrea yates called police to her home, showed them the bodies of her drowned children. noah, 7, john, 5. paul, 3. luke, 2 and mary, 6 months. you know, i had no idea what was going on. i mean, i didn't...

>> are you having a disturbance? are you ill or what? >> yes, i'm ill. >> you need an ambulance? >> no. i need a police officer. >> the woman on the phone is andrea yates. she is living the american dream, a house in the suburbs, an rv in the backyard. >> what's the problem? >> um. i just need them to come. >> they all seemed so happy, five healthy children, a loving mother and a successful dad who worked for nasa. >> is your husband there? >> no. >> what's the problem? >> i need them to come. >> it's a tuesday morning just after 9:00. yates has just fed the kids, then she draws the bath. >> w...