Are You There Alone? The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates

Oh boy, who doesn't know the name Andrea Yates?

If you haven't, here's a quick recap:

One morning in June 1999, Andrea Yates waited for her husband to leave for work before drowning their five children in the bathtub. She immediately called her husband, Rusty, saying he needed to come home. She then called 911 asking for police to be dispatched to her home....

 

I'm honestly not sure when I first heard of the Andrea Yates case (I was 4 when it happened) but I have done extensive research and written many, many papers on Post-Partum Depression (called Post Partum Psychosis in the book) and many papers on Infanticide (called Filicide in the book).

That being said, it is amazing to me how much has changed in 18 years in the psychology/psychiatry field. 

So here's the jist of the book.

Andrea Yates suffered from some unknown disorder for many, many years. She had an education, a career, and a life before she married Rusty and began barring his children. Soon after their son Noah was born, she began having delusions of hurting him. None of the other children, just Noah. When these delusions began coming more frequently, she started spiraling down an unknown road of mental illness. After their 4th child was born, they were advised to stop having children based on her unstable mental state. The baby blues are normal, but what she had was much stronger. Instead, they persisted that another baby was what they needed. So baby number 5 comes along, their first baby girl. Since Andrea was so unstable, she actually tried to commit suicide twice, in the hopes that she could save her children from Satan. In the end, she argued that killing her children was the only way she could save them from Satan and guarantee each of them a spot in Heaven.

 

Now, there is a large portion of this book that is 100% from the trial. Which is quite dry to read, but it definitely added to the story. Not to mention there are many interviews with Andrea trying to explain her reasoning through yes/no questions because of the catatonic state she was in through the extremely hard diagnosis. 

 

If you like true crime, get this book.