Mother Confesses to Killing Her Five Children
Wednesday June 20 4:25 PM ET
By C. Bryson Hull
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A 36-year-old woman suffering from postpartum depression confessed to killing her five children in their Houston home on Wednesday and was expected to face charges that could bring the death penalty, police said.
The four boys and a girl, aged 6 months to 7 years, appeared to have been drowned in the bathtub, they said.
The woman, Andrea Yates, had taken medication for depression since the birth of her youngest boy two years ago, but whether that contributed to the crime was not clear because she had not made a formal statement to investigators, Houston Police Department spokesman John Cannon said.
A television report showed the long-haired, bespectacled Yates, her shirt torn in numerous places, being led away in handcuffs by police.
She was not charged for the crimes, but Cannon said, ``Rest assured, it is going to be carried as a capital murder case.'' In Texas capital murder carries a maximum penalty of death by lethal injection.
He said the woman called police to her home in a quiet suburb near NASA's Johnson Space Center. She was wet, breathing heavily and clearly disturbed when the first officer arrived.
``She said to the officer 'I killed my children' and the officer said 'Where are they?''' Cannon told reporters.
``She led the officer to the bedroom where there were four bodies,'' he said.
The bodies of sons Luke, 2, Paul, 3, and John, 5, and daughter Mary, 6 months, were wet and on a bed covered with a sheet.
The fifth child, Noah, 7, was found in the bathtub by a second officer responding to the call, Cannon said.
Cannon said the father, whose name was not released, arrived at home at the same time as police. His wife had called him at work and told him simply ``You better come home,'' Cannon said.
He was not a suspect in the crime and was cooperating with investigators, Cannon said.
Distraught neighbors stood outside the home and expressed shock at the crime. ``I'm so shocked this happened so close to where I live, and there are five children who will never get a chance to grow up. It's horrendous,'' said a weeping Shelly Sampson.
Another neighbor, Pat Salas, told reporters the boys attended a birthday party in her home on Saturday.
``They were very happy kids ... they were having a blast out there,'' she said.
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