Americans who follow the news were chilled in 2001 to find that Houston native Andrea Yates had drowned her five small children in the family bathtub.
Yates had suffered severe depression, reported hearing strange voices, twice attempted suicide,and suffered a nervous breakdown in the years leading up to this horrendous event.
The killing of her own children, she said, was done out of religious motivation. Demons told her to do it, she claimed. Yates also said that she had to kill them because she herself was evil and had caused the children to become unrighteous and in danger of going to hell.
This poor, sad woman had gotten off to a good start in life before mental illness overpowered her. She had been her high school class's valedictorian and a member of the National Honor Society. Later she had worked as a registered nurse.
Yates was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to life in prison. In 2006, another court ruled that she had been insane and hence overturned her prison sentence, sending her instead to a high-security mental hospital.
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