# Andrea Yates · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

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The Cult Dossier · No. 176 · Shared Psychosis / Mandated Killing
Andrea Yates
The Clear Lake drownings
2001-2006 · Clear Lake City, Houston, Texas, USA
XVII. SHARED PSYCHOSIS AND THE MANDATE TO KILL
Severe, isolating and home-centred Christianity. The family followed an itinerant evangelist; THE DELUSION WAS BUILT OUT OF ITS MATERIAL, WHICH IS NOT THE SAME AS BEING CAUSED BY IT.
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 1999 POSTPARTUM PSYCHOSIS AFTER THE BIRTH OF HER FOURTH CHILD. Two suicide attempts that summer and repeated hospital admissions. She is stabilised on the antipsychotic HALDOL. DR EILEEN STARBRANCH RECORDS THAT A FURTHER PREGNANCY WOULD GUARANTEE FUTURE PSYCHOTIC DEPRESSION.
- MARCH 2000 Haldol is discontinued and she conceives her fifth child.
- MARCH 2001 Her father dies and she deteriorates sharply. She is hospitalised again, discharged, and her antipsychotic is discontinued in the weeks before the deaths.
- 20 JUNE 2001 ALONE IN THE HOUSE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MONTHS, SHE DROWNS ALL FIVE CHILDREN IN THE BATH. She then telephones the police and her husband and tells them what she has done. She does not conceal anything, does not flee, and is arrested at the house.
- 12 MARCH 2002 CONVICTED OF TWO COUNTS OF CAPITAL MURDER. Note the scope: SHE WAS INDICTED FOR THREE OF THE FIVE DEATHS — Noah, John and Mary — and never tried for Paul or Luke. The jury rejects the death penalty; on 15 March she receives life with parole eligibility after forty years.
- AT THAT TRIAL PARK DIETZ, TESTIFYING FOR THE PROSECUTION, TELLS THE JURY SHE MAY HAVE TAKEN THE IDEA FROM AN EPISODE OF LAW AND ORDER IN WHICH A MOTHER DROWNED HER CHILDREN AND WAS ACQUITTED. NO SUCH EPISODE HAS EVER EXISTED. The error is not discovered until after the verdict. Dietz later acknowledged it.
- 6 JANUARY 2005 THE FIRST COURT OF APPEALS IN HOUSTON REVERSES THE CONVICTIONS AND ORDERS A NEW TRIAL, on the ground that the false testimony went to the heart of the state's case. The case is sent back for retrial.
- 26 JULY 2006 AFTER THREE DAYS OF DELIBERATION THE SECOND JURY FINDS HER NOT GUILTY BY REASON OF INSANITY. She is committed to the North Texas State Hospital at Vernon.
- JANUARY 2007 Transferred to KERRVILLE STATE HOSPITAL, a low-security facility, where she remains.
- 2007 to date HER COMMITMENT IS REVIEWABLE EVERY YEAR AND SHE HAS REPEATEDLY WAIVED THE HEARING, electing to stay. She has not sought release.
### Its people
### Andrea Yates
Andrea Pia Kennedy
Found not guilty by reason of insanity; committed since 2006 · born 2 July 1964 · active 2001–present
Before the law. Convicted 2002; conviction reversed 6 January 2005; NOT GUILTY BY REASON OF INSANITY 26 July 2006; civilly committed since. LIVE STATUS — reviewed every year and capable of changing at any review.
Where things stand. THIS IS AN ANNUALLY REVIEWABLE STATUS AND MUST BE RE-CHECKED BEFORE IT IS RELIED ON. No age is printed here on purpose; hardcoded ages rot. THE MOST VALUABLE THING ABOUT HER CASE IS THE CONTROL IT ACCIDENTALLY PROVIDES. The same defendant, the same act and substantially the same psychiatric evidence produced a CONVICTION in 2002 and an ACQUITTAL in 2006. HER MIND WAS NOT THE VARIABLE. What changed was that a prosecution expert had invented evidence and a court held the invention had decided the case. The insanity defence did not succeed here because psychiatry improved. And against L299: Texas asked the same narrow question California asked Mullin's jury. MULLIN ANSWERED IT WITH HIS FEET AND SHE ANSWERED IT WITH A TELEPHONE CALL.
- 20 JUNE 2001 Alone in the house for the first time in months, she drowns NOAH, 7, JOHN, 5, PAUL, 3, LUKE, 2, and MARY, 6 months. SHE THEN TELEPHONES THE POLICE AND HER HUSBAND AND TELLS THEM WHAT SHE HAS DONE. She conceals nothing and does not flee.
- 12 MARCH 2002 Convicted on two counts of capital murder covering three of the five deaths. She was never tried for Paul or Luke. The jury rejects the death penalty.
- 6 JANUARY 2005 THE FIRST COURT OF APPEALS IN HOUSTON REVERSES THE CONVICTIONS after the prosecution's expert was found to have invented a television episode that did not exist. See L302.
- 26 JULY 2006 THE SECOND JURY FINDS HER NOT GUILTY BY REASON OF INSANITY.
- JANUARY 2007
- 2007 to date Her commitment is reviewable annually and SHE HAS REPEATEDLY WAIVED THE HEARING, electing to remain.
Checked 2026-09-06 · living: health details are kept at home
### Park Dietz
Park Elliott Dietz
Forensic psychiatrist; his false testimony overturned the first Yates verdict · born 13 August 1948 · active 2002–2005
Before the law. None arising from this. He was not charged with anything; the appellate finding was about the effect of the evidence, not about intent.
Where things stand. LIVING AND STILL PRACTISING AS AT THE DATE ON THIS STAMP — A ROLE CLAIM, AND ROLE CLAIMS ARE THE FASTEST-DECAYING FACTS IN THIS FILE. Re-check before relying on it. WHY HE IS IN A DOSSIER ABOUT CULTS AT ALL. This file spends a great deal of its length on expert claims that turned out not to survive contact with evidence — the brainwashing theory in 150, the recovered-memory testimony in 152, the ergotism hypothesis in 165. THIS IS THE SAME FAILURE AT ITS SMALLEST AND MOST TRACEABLE: one sentence, from a credentialed witness, about a television programme, that nobody in the courtroom checked. IT COST A WOMAN THREE YEARS AND THE STATE AN ENTIRE TRIAL. The lesson is not that he lied. It is that the courtroom had no mechanism to verify a checkable claim in real time, and still largely does not.
- 1948 Born.
- 1987 Founds Threat Assessment Group, creating the field of workplace violence prevention.
- 2002 Testifies for the prosecution at the first Yates trial. THE LAW AND ORDER CLAIM IS PUT TO THE JURY AND IS FALSE.
- 6 JANUARY 2005 THE FIRST COURT OF APPEALS REVERSES THE CONVICTIONS, holding that the false testimony went to the heart of the state's case.
- 2005 onward Acknowledges the error publicly. His practice continues.
- 2026 Still professionally active.
Checked 2026-09-06 · living: health details are kept at home
### Michael Woroniecki
—
Itinerant preacher whose teaching the Yates family followed · — · active 1980s–present
Before the law. NONE. HE HAS NEVER BEEN CHARGED WITH, ACCUSED IN COURT OF, OR FOUND RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING ARISING FROM THIS CASE.
Where things stand. LIVING AND, ON HIS OWN ACCOUNT, STILL PREACHING. THIS FILE IS DELIBERATELY NARROWER THAN THE COVERAGE OF HIM AND THAT IS THE POINT OF THE ENTRY. What the record supports is that the family followed him and that his imagery is recognisably present in what Andrea Yates said she believed. WHAT THE RECORD DOES NOT SUPPORT IS THAT HE INSTRUCTED HER, KNEW WHAT SHE INTENDED, OR DIRECTED ANYTHING AT ALL. He denies it. So does her husband. A DELUSION USES THE MATERIAL A PERSON HAS TO HAND, and she was psychotic on documented medical evidence before any of this mattered. Read against era XI, this is the difference between A GROUP THAT ISSUES AN ORDER and A DOCTRINE THAT WAS LYING ABOUT THE HOUSE.
- 1980s Rusty Yates encounters him at Auburn University.
- 1990s The family follows his newsletter and correspondence.
- 2001–2006 The connection is raised repeatedly in coverage of both trials.
- 2001–present HE HAS CONSISTENTLY AND PUBLICLY DENIED THAT HIS TEACHING CAUSED THE KILLINGS, and has accused broadcasters of distorting events. Rusty Yates has denied it as well.
- 6 JANUARY 2026 A television documentary frames the connection as a cult story, renewing attention on him twenty-five years on.
Checked 2026-09-06 · living: health details are kept at home
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