5 Kids Die; Mother in Texas Held

A woman who had been taking medication for postpartum depression told police in Houston that she killed her five young children Wednesday, apparently by drowning them one at a time in a bathtub in the family’s home.

An officer responding to a phone call from the woman, Andrea Yates, 36, found the wet bodies of four of her children on a bed, covered by a sheet, said police spokesman John Cannon. Minutes later, a second officer found a fifth child’s body in a bathtub full of water, he said.

Yates called police to her home in Houston’s Clear Lake neighborhood near NASA’s Johnson Space Center about 10 a.m. She answered the first officer’s knock on the door wet and bedraggled and immediately announced, “I killed my children,” Cannon said.

She led the officer to the bedroom, where he found the bodies of three of Yates’ sons, ages 2, 3 and 5, and her 6-month-old daughter. The dead child in the bathroom was Yates’ 7-year-old son.

Yates was taken into custody but had not been charged as of Wednesday evening.

Yates’ husband left home about 9 a.m. Wednesday for Johnson Space Center, where he is a computer specialist, said police spokesman Silvia Trevino. Andrea Yates called him at work after she called the police.