2. Andrea Yates
Yates lived with her husband and four kids in Houston, when she suffered her first recorded mental breakdown in 1999. She attempted to commit suicide with a pill overdose, but was found in time by her husband. Within a month, she had attempted suicide two more times and was diagnosed with postpartum depression and psychosis. One psychiatrist urged the couple not to have any more children, to prevent a re-occurrence of the depressive episodes.
The couple had one more child seven weeks after her discharge from hospital. At this point, Yates had stopped taking her meds but things seemed to be fine. When her father died in 2001, she attempted suicide again and her family was advised never to leave her unsupervised. Her husband disregarded this advice on June 20, 2001, when he went to work, leaving Yates with the kids. She filled the tub and proceeded to hold each of her kids, aged six months to seven years, under the water till they drowned. Then she called the police and turned herself in.
Her first trial lasted three weeks and she was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison. The case remains highly controversial as some psychologists claim she was mentally unstable at the time and so shouldn’t be punished so harshly. Others are of the opinion that she is simply a cold and calculating woman who knew exactly what she was doing.
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