How A Cult Drove This Mother To Kill Her 5 Children

Shortly after leaving for work, Russiates got a call from his wife telling him that he had to come home. He asked his wife, "Is anyone hurt?" And she said, "Yes." He asked his wife, "Are the kids hurt?" And his wife said, "Yes." So he asked, "Which one of our children is hurt?" And his wife replied, "All of them." I wish her night in her place. What the problem? I just lay in the calm. Did your heart snap? No. What was the problem? I need those to calm. We're going to bring you some breaking news now out of the clear lake, Eric. You loved your children. Yeah, shut. Not my right way, Ellen. What drives a woman that everyone in her life described as the perfect mother to kill all five of her children. And she loved them. And so I knew, I knew that there's no way. I mean, there's just no way that she would ever do anything like what happened. But she did. This is the heartbreaking case of the Yates' children and their mother, Andrea Yates. My name is Breonna, and I'm hot on the case. For legal clarity, this episode discusses both confirmed facts and alleged events. Some portions include commentary and opinion based on publicly available information, including alternate theories about individuals connected to this case. Hot on the case is not affirming the truth of any claims discussed in this episode. Andrea Yates was born Andrea Pia Kennedy to her parents Jada and Andrew Kennedy. And she was raised in Houston, Texas. Andrea was the youngest of five children and growing up in this big family. Andrea always knew that she wanted to find her perfect man and have a big, beautiful family with lots and lots of children. Andrea was also raised in a very religious family. So she knew one day that faith would be a huge part of her marriage and her family. For the most part from the outside looking in, Andrea looked like any other normal girl living a normal life and having a very normal childhood. But there were secret battles that she was facing. As a teenage girl, Andrea struggled with depression as well as an eating disorder. And at only 17 years old, Andrea mentioned suicide for the very first time. But these struggles, no one would ever know about. Because Andrea hid this darkness really, really well. Andrea was a high achiever in every single aspect of her life. She was a member of the National Honor Society. She was the captain of her swim team. And when she graduated high school, Andrea was even the valedictorian. Andrea went to nursing school at the University of Houston and began working as an RN in 1986. Three years later, she met the man that would be her husband. Russell Yates, who goes by Rusty, was also a very smart, high achiever. Rusty got his degree in mathematics and applied science from Auburn. And then he went and got a lot of degree from the University of Houston. And would start his career as a computer engineer working for NASA. So Rusty and Andrea are both these really high achievers. They're both really, really smart. And they seemed like they would be the perfect match. Rusty first saw Andrea when she was swimming at her apartment pool. And the first thing he noticed about her was how beautiful he thought that she was. But it was after really talking to Andrea that he noticed how much they had in common. And he really, really fell for her. He admired how smart she was and how educated she was, how devoted she was to God, and how she wanted the same big family that he also wanted. And Andrea really liked all those things about Rusty too. So there was this really magnetic, explosive connection between them. Andrea and Rusty got married on April 17th, 1993. Andrea was a beautiful bride and it was a very beautiful ceremony. Like I said, Rusty and Andrea both knew that they wanted to have a big family. And they actually said that they were going to have as many children that God blessed them with. The Yates planned to raise their family with religion, God, and traditional values at the forefront of their lives. Each child was even named after different names in the Bible. And each of their children were pretty much born like one right after the other. The longest time between births was actually just under two years. So there was never even a two year long postpartum recovery period for Andrea before she was pregnant again. The shortest period between Andrea giving birth and Andrea finding out she was pregnant again was only six months. Their first born Noah was born on February 26th, 1994, followed by John born on December 15th, 1995. And then there was Paul born on September 13th, 1997. Rusty and Andrea both believed in traditional family values. Rusty was the provider and Andrea was the caregiver. Along with their traditional values and God, there was another huge influence on how the Yates planned to raise their children. And that was a legit cult leader, Michael Warnecke. Michael Warnecke also came from a very large family. He actually came from a very large Polish Catholic family. And I feel like I have a little bit of insight on how Michael was raised. My mother was also from a very large Polish Catholic family. And from what I've heard about her stories about her childhood, they run a tight ship. Michael Warnecke grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was an altar boy as a child and he was the golden star athlete in his town as a teenager. People from his town say that growing up, Michael was your stereotypical jock. He was cocky, overly confident. He was arrogant and somehow always the center of attention. Growing up, it was expected that Michael attended church, but there were definitely moments while Michael was growing up that religion, God church was more of an obligation than an actual priority for him. But then in 1972, Michael claims that he made a deal with God. If he made all city tail back and got a football scholarship for college, he would dedicate his life to the Lord. And when both of those things ended up happening, Michael stuck to his promise. While attending college, Michael met his future wife, a woman that was originally born under the name Lesley, but would go by the name Rachel for the rest of her life. In 1974, while still attending college and playing football, Michael claims that he came face to face with Jesus Christ in the flesh. Jesus, you know, in the flesh came to him and showed him the kingdom of God. And this forever altered his life because he's a prophet. Of course, he's the chosen one that God has chosen to appear in front of and speak with him directly. Michael graduated college with a behavioral science degree. So we really has all the makings of a cult leader. He's charming. He has a grandiose sense of self. He has a strong belief system and claims to be the chosen one by God. And now he's even educated in behavioral science. So he's an expert on how to manipulate people. After college, Michael showed interest in joining the priesthood. But he was rejected from seminary school multiple times because even they felt that Michael's beliefs were too fanatical and extreme. And if that's not a red flag, then I don't know what is. But after many, many failed attempts, Michael was eventually accepted in the seminary school. He graduated in 1980 and then returned with his wife Rachel to his hometown of Grand Rapids to spread the word of the Lord under his brand new missionary that he called the cornerstone Christian missionary. But instead of preaching out of a church, Michael was one of those guys that would show up on the street with a megaphone and a big homemade sign and would yell at you as you walk by that you're going to hell. And only one year later, the Warnuckies were actually exiled out of Michael's hometown of Grand Rapids after Michael was brought into police custody after allegedly harassing a woman outside of the town's annual circus. He was screaming at her that she was going to hell unless she gave up all of her worldly possessions and chose to become one of his followers and listened to every single thing that he said. He even said that he was going to like swallow her and vomit her out. It was really, really strange. So Michael was actually given an ultimatum. If you wanted to have the charges dropped against him, then he had to leave Grand Rapids forever. So after being excommunicated out of his hometown, Michael became the world's problem. Michael claims that he has visited over 60 countries around the entire world to spread his extreme ideologies. He was preaching his word to everybody and everyone, and he gained a following throughout the years. Throughout major cities and college campuses across the United States, Michael would carry his megaphone and his big homemade sign, and he would tell people that their soul was going to be tortured in the afterlife for eternity. Unless, of course, they chose to follow him, him, only him. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new groupie setting mist from Mavily New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all-day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just plum, dewy hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new groupie setting mist from Mavily New York. Maybe it's Mavilynnn. He would even drag around this large wooden cross, I guess, as like a conversation starter. For most people, Michael was seen as an obnoxious new sense, but for a select group, Michael was spreading the truth. There were people that were really drawn to him and connected with his message. Michael drew people in because he was unlike any other religious leader that they had ever seen before. Michael spoke out against conventional organized religion and told people that they didn't need to go to church to be close with the Lord. He spoke out against the fakers and the phonies in Christianity that were exploiting people's faith for profit. It's a little ironic. There's a common misconception when it comes to cults and cult leaders, that they all have to be exactly the same. When we think of cults, we think of charming men that isolate a group of followers and they all live together in the woods in a commune under this one man, this cult leader's complete rule. But that is not the case. Actually, when you are trying to determine if someone's a cult leader, there's a list of identifying factors that we typically see in cult leaders and the cult all living on a commune together is not one of them. Michael had devout loyal followers across the entire country that he met and collected through his travels. Michael actually lived in converted buses or converted RVs with his wife Rachel and their six children and together they would drive around the major cities and the college campuses, so Michael could spread his his sermon, his beliefs, his preachings. And Michael would maintain control over all of his devout loyal followers in every, you know, town across the entire country by sending them mail, constant letters, pamphlets, VHS and cassette tapes filled with his teachings. Later in this video, I'm going to go into further detail about how much control Michael had over his followers, but according to Michael's former followers that referred to them nowadays as his victims, Michael was a master at spiritual and psychological manipulation. He was great at finding out their biggest insecurities and their biggest worries in life and then he would use them against them so he could maintain absolute control. Michael would really focus on doomsday, like most cult leaders do. Michael would have his followers totally convinced that judgment day was coming soon and unlike what is actually written in the Bible where it says that there's room in heaven for everyone, Michael would tell his devout loyal followers that heaven was not a place with room for everyone. In fact, there were very limited spots in heaven and only a select few would ever go there. And of course, if you don't go to heaven, that means you're going to burn and hell be tortured for eternity in hell. Thing about alleged cult leaders, they use fear because fear equals control. If Michael had a follower really, really anxious about whether or not they were a good person, he would allegedly convince them that they were actually very, very bad people and if they didn't listen to everything that he said, then they were going to go to hell. Same thing for mothers worried if they are raising good God-fearing children. Michael would convince these parents to have lots and lots of children, but then after these kids were born, he would tell them that their children were bad and they were all going to hell. He would literally use these children's souls as like a manipulation tactic against these people so he could fear them into following his every single word. He also allegedly told that these parents, more specifically, these mothers, that to discipline your children, you had to beat them and you would have to beat your children so they could go to heaven. And he would also tell these parents these mothers because Michael has a very misogynistic view on women. Again, to this more later, but Michael says that women are not equals. They're actually servants to men and his wife, Rachel, would literally call herself Michael's servant, not like Michael's wife. But Michael believes that how a child turns out is the sole responsibility of a mother. So Michael would tell these mothers that unless a child was saved by the time they turned 12 years old, then it was too late. They would never go to heaven and the process to save the child's soul was of course the mother's soul responsibility and there was no easy task. So Michael Warnaki had these families completely convinced that judgment day was coming very, very soon and they were running out of time to save their own souls and their children's souls and all of them are just going to burden hell for eternity. Like I said, we're going to go into more detail later about how much control Michael had over some of his followers. But a lot of Michael Warnaki's followers have come out and expressed that because of what Michael told them, they have experienced anxiety, depression, delusions and thoughts of hurting themselves or others. Rusty Yates met Michael Warnaki when he was a college student. Michael was at Rusty's college. Rusty and Andrea really related with what Michael and Rachel told them at first and what they believed and Rusty and Andrea even ended up buying one of the Warnaki's old like converted buses. So then Rusty and Andrea with their young children would live out of this converted bus and travel around the world together. They traveled around the country for a short period of time before finally settling down in the Houston suburb of Clear Lake City. When life got busy for Rusty, you know, being a father to a bunch of young children and also being an engineer for NASA, he eventually lost a majority of contact with the Warnaki's. But his wife, Andrea, did not. She stayed a very loyal consumer of Michael's preachings and all of his teachings. And he would continue to send her pamphlets, letters, VHS tapes and cassette tapes. And the more they learned about Andrea Yates, the more personal these pamphlets, letters, VHS tapes would be. Because more personal, more manipulation. And in my opinion, what the Warnaki's told Andrea had a very tragic effect on her and her mental health. Everyone around Andrea Yates saw her as a loving, devoted mother. Andrea was always playing with her kids. She wasn't afraid to get dirty with her young boys. She was always carrying around a camera, filming her children's childhoods, you know, home movies that they'd be able to look back on for years and years to come. For every single birthday, Andrea would bake and decorate these really intricate, elaborate birthday cakes based on whatever the birthday boy's interest was that year. Like Noah, it was really into butterflies. So one year he got a butterfly cake. Paul just thought what his daddy did for a living, working for NASA was the coolest thing ever. When the rest of the little boys wanted to watch cartoon network, Paul wanted to watch the NASA channel. So one year for his birthday, he got this really sick NASA rocket ship cake that his mom made him. People saw Andrea as carrying gentle. She was super hands-on, she even opted to homeschool all her children. People truly saw Andrea Yates as the perfect wife and mother. But beneath the surface, those mental health struggles that Andrea struggled with when she was a teenager had started to come up again. Andrea expressed feeling very depressed and overwhelmed having three kids in four years. Andrea left her job to be a stayed-home mom and her husband was gone all of the time. He was either working long hours and if he wasn't working, he was out golfing. And when Andrea eventually wrote to her friends, Michael and Rachel Warnecke about how stressed and overwhelmed and sick. sad she was, they wrote her back saying a woman's job is not to be a partner but to be a servant for her husband, so suck it up. Eventually, Rusty quit the afternoon and weekend golf trips to be their morphers family and everyone around them saw Andrea and Rusty as the perfect parents. But these feelings that Andrea had only intensified after the birth of her fourth son, Luke, on February 15th 1999. After Luke was born, there was a very obvious and immediate switch in Andrea. She didn't act like herself anymore. She often became very withdrawn. She was almost like in a catatonic state. She would just sit there, completely silent. She wouldn't say anything, she would just stare blankly ahead. She wouldn't acknowledge you if you were right next to her and trying to talk to her. In mid July 1999, so only four months after giving birth to Luke, Rusty found his wife shaking and trying to chew at her own fingers. The next day, Andrea attempted to take her own life by overdosing on pills. Andrea was admitted to a hospital and after being released, she began regularly seeing a psychiatrist who later said that Andrea Yates was amongst the top five most sickest patients that she had ever seen. Only a month later, Rusty found his wife Andrea in the bathroom with a knife up to her neck, begging her husband to just let her die. Rusty begged for the knife, but Andrea would not give it to him. So, Rusty had to wrestle the knife out of his wife's hands. Meet new, grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue. Just plump, dewy, hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new, grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Maybe it's Mabling. And I said, "Give me the knife." And she said, "Let me do this." And I said, "No, give me the knife." She wouldn't do it. She just stood there like this. So, I grabbed her arm and pulled it down, and I prod the knife out of her hand. She was hospitalized again. This time Andrea spoke to a psychologist where she admitted that she had been seeing visions. She spoke about hearing voices and seeing things that weren't there. She also expressed how stressed and overwhelmed she was with four really, really young sons. Andrea also was very open with the psychologist about how much she was fearful that she was going to fail at being a mom, how scared she was, that she was a bad mom, and she kept having these rare-curring obsessive thoughts about how her children were going to end up in the end. It was there for the first time that Andrea Yeats was diagnosed with post-partum depression, and also it was determined that she was likely suffering from post-partum psychosis. Post-partum psychosis is a very rare but extremely serious condition where a woman after giving birth will essentially lose touch with reality, have hallucinations, extreme mood swings, and very confusing dark thoughts. And women that are diagnosed with post-partum psychosis hold a much higher risk of self-harm suicide and harming their children. And this diagnosis was described in great detail to both Rusty and Andrea. Andrea was prescribed anti-depressants and also an anti-psychotic, called heldol, and she seemed to be doing much better. But before being discharged from the hospital, the doctor warned Rusty and Andrea that Andrea was at significant risk for another psychotic break if she ever had another child. And the doctor did not sugarcoat any of this either, told both Rusty and Andrea very bluntly, very bluntly what was going to happen if they ever had any more children. The doctor warned them, "Do not have another child, do not have any more children at all," or Andrea would very likely suffer another psychotic break. The Yates family moved into a new home and it really seemed like this was going to be a fresh new start for the family. And Rusty was really hopeful that he had his wife back. The medicine really really seemed to help Andrea. But unfortunately, like we see so often, because taking this medicine made Andrea feel better, she thought that she was just better. And she didn't need the medicine anymore, not realizing that it was the medicine making Andrea feel better or more like herself in the first place. So Andrea decided to take herself off of anti-depressants and the anti-psychotic without consulting her doctor in November 1999. But even off the medicine, Andrea still seemed more like herself. But only seven weeks after being discharged from the hospital. Okay, less than two months, seven weeks after being warned by her doctor that another child would, and I quote, "guaranteed future psychotic depression," Rusty and Andrea conceived their fifth child. And on November 30th of the year 2000, their first daughter, Mary, was born. And after giving birth to Mary, Andrea, unfortunately, reverted right back to where she was after she gave birth to Luke. Honestly, it was even more extreme this time. And it got even worse after Andrea's dad died in March of 2001. She returned to her catatonic state. She stopped feeding herself. She stopped feeding her newborn daughter. She would obsessively scratch at her own head until she caused bald spots in her hair. And her husband would see her just neurotically, fanatically reading her Bible. It was very, it was very obsessive. So a few days after Andrea's father died, Rusty called the hospital to let them know that his wife was sick again. She was once again admitted into the hospital where the doctor's witnessed her catatonic state and her delusions. Andrea was discharged just two weeks later with yet another warning from her doctor. Someone should be with Andrea at all times. And under no circumstances should Andrea ever be left alone with the children. Rusty defense himself saying that he did not know how serious his wife's condition was and he didn't understand what psychosis meant at the time. He knew that his wife's doctor said that they should not have any more children and he understood that she would likely get sick again if they did. But he justified his decision for them to try again for a fifth child for his wife to get off the medication so they could conceive this fifth child because even though Andrea really suffered after Luke was born, they were still really happy that they had Luke in their lives. So even if things got bad again after Mary was born, Rusty expected that Andrea would just go back to the doctor and they would just fix her just like they did the first time and everything would just go back to normal again. Rusty also claims that he was unaware of the hold that Michael and Rachel Warnecke had over his wife Andrea. Like I previously mentioned, according to Michael's former loyal followers, Michael and Rachel would exploit their followers' deepest fears in a way to control them. And Andrea was terrified that she was a bad mommy and her children were going to hell because of her. Andrea would admit to her doctor that she believed that the devil was inside of her that the devil was always around and that the devil wanted her children. Andrea truly believed that she was marked by the devil. She thought that she had 666, which is the mark of the devil, the devil's numbers, tattooed on her head. After Luke was born, but before Mary was born, Rachel Warnecke sent Andrea a letter. Andrea, who was at this time experiencing a nervous breakdown, post-partum depression, post-partum psychosis, reached out to her friend Rachel to express how anxious she was and how overwhelmed she was. And this is what Rachel sent back to Andrea as a response. Andrea, Jesus knows that you are a sinner. Jesus knows how wicked you are, how weak and vulnerable. I know you're frustrated. Andrea, you are accountable for these children. You can change them. There will be a day when it's too late. And only a few months later, after Andrea Yates received that letter, she killed all five of her children. The hold that these people allegedly had over Andrea, in my opinion, had very deadly consequences. Here you have this woman that already has a history of mental illness. And you couple that with these people that are quite literally fueling and affirming her delusions. She thinks that she's a bad mom and her kids are going to go to hell. So they're literally telling her, yeah, you are wicked. Jesus, they things that you are a bad mom, and you need to save your children, and there's going to be a day when it's too late for you to do so. On May 3rd, 2001, Andrea just filled up the bathtub in the middle of their noon for absolutely no reason, and when asked why she filled it up, she only replied, "I might need it." She was hospitalized yet again, and the doctors just assumed that Andrea was likely suicidal and planned to drown herself, but Andrea would later admit to the police that she planned to drown her five children in the bathtub that day, but just decided not to. This was just one month before the tragedy in today's case. Andrea was discharged from the hospital only 10 days later and was once again prescribed her antidepressant and her anti-psychotic, and after only one day on the medication that Andrea probably should have never gone off of in the first place, Andrea seemed to be doing much better. She was taking care of herself, and she was taking care of her children. So within one month her doctor decided that maybe he should start to wean Andrea off the medication. This is also a different doctor, by the way, than Andrea was previously seeing during different hospital visits. And by July 18th, Andrea was off of the anti-psychotic medication completely and only two days later, she would do the unthinkable. On June 20th, 2001, Rusty got up for work and he found his wife in the kitchen. She was holding a box of cereal and eating the cereal dry just out of the box with her hands, which he said was very unusual behavior for his wife. She hugged each of his kids goodbye and he left for work. Rusty's mother was set to arrive just one hour after Rusty left for work, so she could help supervise and help Andrea out with the now five children. But within that very small window of time between Rusty leaving for work and Rusty's mom arriving at the house, Andrea Yates killed all five of her children. Less than one hour after leaving for work, Rusty got a call from his wife and immediately he felt this like sick feeling in his stomach. Andrea told Rusty that he needed to come home. He asked her if someone was hurt and Andrea said yes, he asked, "Are one of the kids hurt?" And Andrea said yes. And then Rusty said which of the kids are hurt and Andrea said all of them. And then after getting off the phone with her husband, Andrea called 911. And you can hear in that call how straight to the point Andrea is, there really isn't any emotion. But a time the police arrived at the Yates family home, Andrea was already waiting at the front door for them and she was soaking wet. And when they got there, she said, "I just killed my kids." Andrea was very cooperative with police. She was very calm, but still she showed very little emotion, even when being handcuffed and taken out to the police, Andrea just seemed like a zombie. After her husband left her work, Andrea failed at the bathtub and then she brought her children into the bathroom one by one and drowned them. She started with her three youngest sons, five-year-old John, three-year-old Paul and two-year-old Luke. She then laid their soaking wet bodies on top of her and Rusty's bed. Mary was in the bathroom crying while her three older brothers died. Andrea then drowned six-month-old Mary in the bath. Noah, the oldest, who was seven-year-old, was old enough to know that something was wrong. And unfortunately, seven-year-old Noah went into the bathroom and he saw his baby sister floating face down in the bathtub. Noah was terrified and he tried to run away, but his mother chased him down and grabbed him and began dragging him into the bath while he fought for his life. And in this struggle, Noah received bruises all over his body and then his mother also drowned him in the bathtub. Andrea placed Mary in the bed with her brothers before calling Rusty and calling the police. One the police arrived at the four youngest yates children still laid soaking wet on their parents' bed and seven-year-old Noah, the oldest yates child, was still floating face down in the bathtub. Even the most seasoned officers that never got emotional on the job left that scene crying. And by the time Rusty arrived back at his home, police cars were parked all the way down the block and it was there that he was told that all this children were gone and it was their mother, his wife, that killed all of them. Because when it let Rusty inside of his home, so as they questioned Andrea inside the home, Rusty was banging on the back door, crying, screaming, "How could you do this? I don't understand." I had no point in Andrea yates ever try to cover up her crime and she answered every single question that was asked to her. And over the years, she has tried to answer the biggest question that everyone has and that is why. Over the years and many different interviews, Andrea has explained some of what I've already told you. That for years, she had been experiencing visual and audible hallucinations. She was seeing things that weren't there, she was hearing things that weren't there and she truly believed that she was under a spiritual attack. That Satan had a grip on her, Satan was always around and the devil wanted her children. And that the devil was going to stop at nothing to make sure that her five children would burn and hell for eternity. Andrea thought that she was a bad mom and that of her kids grew up with her as their mother that they were going to be damned. But if they died while they were still innocent, then God would let them into heaven. What were you trying to accomplish then when you did take your children's lives? If you had not taken their lives, what did you think would happen to them? I was just going to say, I didn't know they were doing the children to do things. You mentioned their manners before and you can examine what their manners were. When your six mom would visit, they would not trade a whale and call her names. When this case first broke in the media, the public did not know yet a lot of what I've already told you how Andrea suffered with her mental health for years, how she tried to get help over and over again, how she was allegedly, spiritually and psychologically manipulated and abused by the Warnuckies. All the public saw was this emotionless mother that murdered her five children raging in ages from seven years old to as young as six months old. And rightfully so, the public was upset. They screamed out that this was an evil person and they demanded that she get the death penalty. And what the public could absolutely not understand was how Andrea's husband and her five children's fathers rusty yates stuck by her and defended her at the entire time. That was extremely controversial, especially then before all this stuff about alleged cults and severe mental health problems came out into the media, but Rusty then and Rusty now has always stuck by and defended Andrea. He said that Andrea was an amazing mother who loved her children and she was sick. He was even quoted saying people can think what they want, but they didn't live our life. They didn't sit there in the doctor's office. I thought the whole time, how ridiculous is this? Here's a loving mother who would have never, ever harmed our children in any way how she not been psychotic and this state is prosecuting her for capital murder. It wasn't just Rusty either, everyone that knew Andrea and the person that Andrea was defended her and they described her as a wonderful mother. The DA in this case was seeking the death penalty and it honestly looked like Andrea was going to receive the death penalty. I actually saw in my research that the county that Andrea and Rusty lived in actually sent more people to death row than any other county in the entire country. I also saw it reported that before Andrea received help in police custody that she was wishing for the death penalty because she thought if she died that the devil, the demons that were inside her would also be eliminated. Andrea's trial began in February of 2002 and the first time Andrea ever spoke with her defense attorney, her defense attorney said that he never met anyone that mentally ill before and it's the exact same thing that Andrea's first psychiatrist said after meeting Andrea for the first time saying that this was top five most sickest patients that she had ever seen before. Andrea's defense strategy was simple that Andrea was legally insane at the time that she killed her children but the thing is an insanity plea is really really hard to prove but they had a witness testimony. Andrea's medical records, multiple psychiatrists and psychologists all trying to prove that Andrea suffered with severe post-partum depression, post-partum psychosis and was experiencing a severe psychotic episode at the time that she killed her children. It was also during that trial that Michael and Rachel Warren-Necke's influence on Andrea was brought into evidence for the very first time in the public began hearing about this potential religious cult leader that drove this woman to kill her children and the prosecution's argument was also quite simple. They stated that no matter how mentally ill a loving mother would have never chased down her terrifying children, hold them underwater as they fought for their lives and drowned them and then do it again and again five times. It was also around this time that the public really started to hear from people that were followers of the Warren-Necke's and hear all of the terrible things that they allegedly did to their followers. Following the tragedy of what happened to the Yates children once loyal followers of Michaels started to come out with their stories. One of Michael Warren-Necke followers named Douglas actually started a support website for victims of Michael Warren-Necke that he called Michael Warren-Necke the ultimate false prophet and Douglas was actually quoted saying that the Andrea Yates case is the most symbolic fruit of Michael's missionary that you will ever get and at that doesn't sum it up for you. I don't know what else I could tell you. Through his website, Douglas was able to get in contact with dozens of Michaels' former followers and I would like to tell you a few of their stories. One former loyal follower of Michaels named David claims that throughout the eight years he was a follower of Michaels, Michael had full control over his life. He explains that after hundreds of hours of consuming Michaels' sermons and teachings, David developed what he calls spiritual schizophrenia or better known as religious psychosis. This might sound really familiar, but David was convinced that Satan was actually speaking to him. And he even began to contemplate suicide because he was convinced through Michaels' teachings that he was going to go to hell. No matter what he did, he was going to go to hell, so what was the point? No matter what he did, he felt like he was a terrible person, so he eventually lost the will to live. There's something in the way that Michael preaches the people that leads to religious psychosis. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just clump, dewey hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. "Maybe it's Mabelie!" David was later quoted saying, "I don't know what a doctor would call the combination of real clinical depression and spiritual depression. You got it together, so yeah, it was pretty dark." Oh, there was someone who had that, and her name was Andrea Gates. There's another follower of Michael. His name was Moses. Moses was actually related to Michael. Moses' mother was Michael's niece. And Moses' mother was a devout follower of her uncle, so Moses and his four siblings grew up under these extreme teachings and beliefs, just like the five yates children. As a kid, constantly hearing how you were likely going to burn in hell for eternity, Moses grew up having constant nightmares. And his sister actually started hallucinating, and it got so bad that she would hit herself over and over again to make it stop. Michael told Moses' mother that she was not disciplining her children enough, and this was going to send them straight to hell, so she would beat her children with planks of wood that she wrote like Bible passages all over. Michael taught his followers to completely isolate their children. The kids had to be homeschooled, and the kids were not allowed to interact with other children that were like not a part of Michael's alleged cult. So one day when Moses' sister met a friend that was not a part of Moses' alleged cult, her mother beat her for an entire day. Moses was later quoted, saying, "In less you were in it, you wouldn't understand how much control he had over us." In my opinion, Moses' family and his mother is very similar to the yates family and Andrea yates. Both mothers had five children, and they were told to have a bunch of children through Michael. One day Moses' mother said to her five children that if she could find a way where they could all die, that that would be a blessing because that would mean that they would all get to go to heaven. It sounds exactly like Andrea yates' reasoning for killing her children. After Andrea yates killed her five children, allegedly Michael Warnecke used this tragedy in his fear-fueled preachings. Moses claims that Michael told his followers that what happened to the yates' children was a good thing because that meant that they got to go to heaven. So Moses says, as a child, he was actually jealous of the yates' children after their mother killed them because they got to go to heaven and he didn't think that he was going to get to go to heaven. After the end of a very long trial, Andrea yates was found guilty for the murder of her five children. The jury agreed not to give her the death penalty, so Andrea yates was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility a parole after 40 years. But in January of 2005, Andrea's conviction was overturned. Turns out, one of the expert witnesses for the prosecution was caught on the stand under oath, providing false testimony. This expert witnessed during Andrea's first trial claims that before Andrea killed her five children, she watched an episode of law in order and in this episode, a mother drowned her children and then used postpartum depression as part of her defense and was later found not guilty by reason of insanity. And if that was true, I mean, that would be pretty hard hitting evidence, but that's the thing. This wasn't true at all. And I'm not saying this wasn't true in like the sense that Andrea never saw that episode. I'm saying that this isn't true in the sense that that episode of law and order did not exist. And it's just so shocking to me that this guy who was like a very well-known expert for forensic psychiatrists made this claim that Andrea was inspired to kill her children and use this defense from this episode of a TV show and that episode literally did not exist. Like how do you how do you mess that up? How do you mess up that bad? So Andrea Yates was awarded an entirely new trial. And in this trial, the prosecution was no longer going to seek the death penalty. And the defense chose to heavily focus on Andrea's religious beliefs that led to her psychosis, which led to her believing that her children would suffer for eternity if she did not kill them while they were young and innocent. This new trial also really heavily focused on Michael Werenekki and how his teachings might have affected Andrea's mental health. Like the letter, his wife sent to Andrea seven months before she killed her children, telling her that the Lord knows that she is wicked and it's her job to save her children and one day there will come a day when it's too late to save them. Or like how one of Michael's cassette tapes that were filled with his like weird preaching, some weird sermons was actually found inside of Andrea Yates cassette player on the day that she killed her children. Or like how one of his creepy weird pamphlets that he sent to Andrea was in her home when she killed her children. And this pamphlet told Andrea how lazy mothers are driven mad by the bad kids. And how it's the mother's responsibility they get their children into heaven. And how on judgment day, this bad mom, who made her children bad babies, were all sent to hell. And as you can imagine, a trial like this would be so hard for anyone to sit through, arguing about what should happen to Andrea Yates. But it's really important to remember that in this case, five very innocent, very young lives, you know, were taken, they're gone now, and they're never coming back. So on the last day of deliberation, the jury had a moment of silence for each of the Yates children. Noah, John, Paul, Luke, and Mary. And when the jury finally came back with their verdict, they found their mother, Andrea Yates, not guilty, by reason of insanity. So instead of spending the rest of her life behind bars in a prison, Andrea Yates will spend the rest of her time, the rest of her life in a psychiatric hospital. Rusty Yates stayed married to Andrea throughout her first trial, but in 2005, Rusty and Andrea officially divorced. But he made it very clear that this was not because he didn't love Andrea anymore and he didn't support Andrea. But he felt like he had to move on with his life and begin to heal. Rusty says that he completely forgives Andrea. He doesn't even really feel like she needs forgiveness. Throughout her first trial, he would visit her every single Tuesday and Friday. And in a 2016 interview with Oprah, Rusty says that he continues to have contact with his ex-wife Andrea. He calls her once a month and he visits her once a year. And together, they talk about their children, all the memories they had, and who they think their children would grow up to be today. Rusty remarried in 2006. I believe he actually officially got married like two days before Andrea's second trial began. And Rusty did go on to have another child, but sadly, his second marriage also ended in divorce. Rusty Yates will never forget his five children. He actually created a website dedicated to them and a memorial of them. On the website, you can see photos of each of his children, old home movies, and Rusty writes a little bit about who each of his babies were, and who he thinks they would be today. And on the website, he does not say anything cruel about Andrea. In fact, he speaks very highly of the mother that she was. After his children died, Rusty would have nightmares all the time that some of his children died, but then he would wake up to the reality that all of his children were gone. And he said that he would wonder how he was living in a nightmare that was worse than his worst nightmare. In the divorce, Andrea was also granted the right to be buried with her five children after she also passes away. Today, Andrea understands the scope of what she did. She greaves her children, and she spends a lot of her days watching old videos that she took of them. Andrea lives in the Curveville, Texas, mental hospital, and she has never once asked to be released or to be transferred. She makes crafts that are donated to charity, and Andrea tries to help out some of the other female patients that she lives with. Over the decades, how this case is viewed in the public has definitely evolved a lot. And I'm under the opinion that there's no wrong way to view this case. Some people view Andrea Yates as a villain, and some see her as a victim. There's some people mostly a lot of women mothers that really sympathize with Andrea Yates. This is something that I found very, very interesting and actually has to do with my favorite TV show. Mark Cherry, the creator of the soap drama TV show Desperate Housewives, says that he was inspired to create the show after watching the Andrea Yates case coverage with his mother. He said that growing up, he saw his mother as like superwoman. The most perfect mother in the entire world, and he never once saw her struggle or stumble. And it was while he was watching the Andrea Yates case coverage with his mother. I'll put in the video in a second, but he says something along the lines of like, how could a mother ever do something like that? And his mother replied that she has been there before. I was visiting my mother down in Orange County. She lives in Brea about two and a half, three years ago, and we were watching coverage of the Andrea Yates trial. And I remember turning to my mom, just horrified about this. And I said to her, "Gosh, can you imagine a woman being so desperate?" So desperately unhappy that she would hurt her own children and my mom took her cigarette out of her mouth and turned to me and said, "I've been there." And I was surprised by this response. And for the very first time, my mom started telling you all these stories about how desperate and alone she had felt while my dad was off getting his master's degree at the University of Oklahoma, and she was alone on the farm with us three kids. And I thought, "God, I always thought my mom was the perfect wife and mother." So if she had moments of desperation, then I'm thinking, "Every woman has." So I decided, "Yeah, this is a show." So I decided to write it. She understood what raising a bunch of young kids was like to your members, and she said there were some times that she felt very desperate. And it was through the Andrea Yates case coverage, and they're speaking with his mother about these struggles that his mother faced, that he never saw growing up. That mark wanted to create a story talking about womanhood and motherhood and the things that especially at the time in the early 2000s weren't really represented in mainstream media. So he created my favorite TV show, The Hit TV Show Desperate Housewives, which follows five women, five best friends, Mary Alice, Marie, Gabby, Lynette, and Susan, and dives into what makes each of these women feel alone depressed, anxious, and desperate. And then because I'm really interested in the butterfly effect, I started diving in a little bit more because of the overwhelming success of the TV show Desperate Housewives. The TV show and book series Pretty Little Liars was created, which is pretty much the exact same story as Desperate Housewives, but in Desperate Housewives, the women are middle-aged and in Pretty Little Liars or teenagers. And also following the success of Desperate Housewives, Bravo wanted to cash in on something similar, so they created the real Housewives reality TV show franchise. And it's so sick to think about how all of these popular things in pop culture might not exist if this terrible tragedy never happened. There's a lot of people that look at this case and really criticize Resty Yates. I've seen a lot of people's opinions in YouTube videos, podcasts, YouTube comments on Reddit that just see Resty or think that Resty saw his wife as just a baby-making machine and nothing else. I mean, I will definitely admit when I first heard of this case many, many years ago, there were a lot of things when it came to Resty that I had a really hard time getting past like how he ignored the doctor's warnings that Andrea ever had another baby that she was pretty much guaranteed to have another psychotic break. How he ignored the doctor's warnings that Andrea should under no circumstances be left alone with the children. I believe that Resty Yates truly did love his wife and his children, but at the same time, I think that he was negligent and ignorant and I don't think he took what the doctors were saying as seriously as he should have. I don't think he actually took what the doctors said seriously at all, but I also don't think in his wildest nightmare that he ever thought that something like this would have ever happened. And I think that if he truly believed that it was a possibility that he would have done better or at least I hope so. I mean, I personally think this the entire situation is just extremely, extremely complicated. Because on one hand, I do believe that Resty was very negligent and ignorant and I completely understand why there's people out there that believe that some sort of responsibilities should lie on his shoulders. On the other hand, I do believe that this man is also a victim in this case. A truly terrible thing happened to him. He lost all five of his children. Like I said, I don't think that there's a wrong way to feel about this case. I think everyone is allowed to make up their own opinion and I'm extremely interested to hear your opinion. How much responsibility do you believe lies on Andrea? How much responsibility do you think should be on Rusty and how much responsibility do you think should be on Michael Warnecke and his wife? Michael and Rachel Warnecke have never faced any legal repercussions when it comes to the Yates children's deaths and they continue to preach to this very day. Very, very recently, in the beginning of this year, a new docu-series on this case came out called the cult behind the killer. Definitely recommend you checking it out if you're interested in hearing more about this case. It had a lot of people involved in the docu-series that were involved directly in this case, like some former followers of Michael's Rusty. was also involved in the case if you want to hear straight from him. Michael and Rachel Warren-Ecky chose for very obvious reasons not to participate in the docuseries and have adamantly denied having any involvement in the death of the Yates children and they also adamantly denied being cold to leaders. I want to finish off this week's episode, just talking, media. Postpartum mental health is extremely common and you never have to go through it alone. I'm going to include on the screen and in the description of this episode some resources if you believe you or someone you know might be suffering with postpartum depression or even postpartum psychosis. And if you are currently dealing with postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis, I want you to know that you are not alone even if it feels isolating, confusing, frightening, what you're experiencing does not make you weak and it absolutely does not define you as a parent or a person. These conditions are real, they're a medical and they're 100% treatable and it is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. You are still you and you are still a great parent and with the right help you can start feeling like you again and you do not have to go through this alone. And I want to finish off this week's episode remembering each of the yates children. The oldest Noah was seven years old and he was the best big brother ever. There was John, he sadly only got to live five years on the surf. The third boy was Paul, he was sadly only three years old when his life ended. Luke was only two years old. He is very, very cute. And little Mary, the only girl, the little sister to four older brothers was sadly only six months old when she lost her life. Thank you so much for making it to the very end of this very, very long episode and I want to apologize again for this episode being delayed. I promise this is not going to be a reoccurring thing. Had some stuff going on this week but I promise I'm okay and everyone's okay and I really appreciate all the kind of words. So many people reached out to me with so much. Just love and understanding and I appreciate that so, so much. So interested to hear all of your thoughts and opinions on this case. Drop that for me on the comments. I truly read all of your comments. So I'm definitely going to be interested to hear what we all think about this truly really, really sad case no matter how you look at it. This is an absolute tragedy. And I just want to remind everyone to please be respectful in the comments. Please be respectful to each other because we're allowed to have different opinions and that's okay. While you're on the comments, please let me know what case to see me cover next. I have it been grabbing some case suggestions from the comments because I'm going to have to start stockpiling some episodes coming up here because I have a wedding coming up and then a honeymoon coming up. So I'm stockpiling case suggestions. So please drop in the comments. YouTube Spotify wherever. What cases you want to see covered on hot in the case and that's all I have for this week's investigation. And I will see you guys all next Friday. I promise when we are hot in the case once again.