Andrea Yates’ Ex-Husband Rusty Says She Was a ‘Wonderful’ Person: ‘Didn’t Blame Her’ for Drowning Their 5 Children

Rusty Yates, Andrea Yates’ ex-husband, says he doesn’t blame his former wife for drowning their five children — Noah, 7, John, 5, Paul, 3, Luke, 2, and 6-month-old Mary — in the bathtub of their home nearly 25 years ago.

Andrea, a stay-at-home mother at the time of the June 2001 deaths, was initially convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison. That verdict was later overturned. In July 2006, a jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity after agreeing with defense attorneys that the former nurse suffered from postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis — a rare disorder that can involve delusions and hallucinations.

“When I realized she only did this because she was mentally ill, then I was done,” Rusty says in an interview. “I didn’t blame her.”

“I still suffered a loss,” he adds. “It’s still super painful. That’s a pain you can’t go around, you got to go through that. But as far as blaming Andrea, no.”

Rusty also pushed back against the way some people view his ex-wife.

“She’s not a monster,” he says. “I hope people can know that about her — that she’s just a wonderful, accomplished person, caring, loving, who suffered immensely because of this.”

He says Andrea has “suffered internally trying to come to grips with her actions,” and believes that pain is beyond anything he has experienced — and beyond what most people can imagine.

“Really, in my opinion, she doesn’t deserve that,” he says. “She deserves to be the wonderful person she is, not saddled by her bad actions of the past that only occurred because we really couldn’t get the decent mental healthcare treatment for her.”

Police were called to the Yates home in the Houston suburb of Clear Lake, Texas, on June 20, 2001.

When officers arrived, they found Andrea standing outside the three-bedroom brick house wearing a wet shirt. She allegedly told officers: “I just killed my children.”

Andrea reportedly told police she submerged her children one by one — then placed the four youngest on her bed and covered them with a sheet before repeatedly calling 911.

After she was taken into custody, Andrea told doctors she believed the only way to save her children from Satan was to kill them, according to the Texas Tribune.

“It was the seventh deadly sin,” she reportedly told a jail psychiatrist who later testified at her trial. “My children weren’t righteous. They stumbled because I was evil. The way I was raising them, they could never be saved. They were doomed to perish in the fires of hell.”

Today, Rusty says he visits his ex-wife once a year at the mental health facility in Texas where she lives.

“Andrea and I always got along,” he says. “That’s a time of our life that we both cherish and she’s the only person I can talk to about it. She and I are the only two who can get together and reminisce about what it was like to enjoy those years together.”

Rusty, who divorced Andrea in 2005, says that while they value their continued connection, “it’s bittersweet.”

“I mean, it’s nice to reminisce. Honestly, I never imagined anything like this could happen, especially with her, especially how caring and loving and devoted Andrea is,” he says. “I don’t hold it against her, but even just communicating with her is a reminder of that. So, we try to focus on the better times, but it’s a little hard to, even in our conversations, avoid that most significant tragedy.”