A mother gave a chilling reason for drowning her five children in a bathtub in a murder case that shocked the country.Andrea Yates in 2006. Credit: Brett Coomer-Pool/GettyAndrea Yates shocked the world when she drowned her five young children in a bathtub, and is now 17 years into a court-mandated stay at a mental health facility, where she is expected to remain indefinitely, per the Mirror.Yates, now in her late 50s, carried out the horrific killings in June 2001, inside the family’s suburban Houston home in Clear Lake City. Her victims were her own children: Noah (7), John (5), Paul (3), Luke (2), and Mary (6 months).According to court records and media reports, Yates waited until her husband Rusty Yates, a NASA engineer, had left for work at the Johnson Space Center.Then, she methodically drowned each of her children, one by one, in the bathtub. Her oldest son, Noah, reportedly tried to escape, but she caught him.She then placed the bodies of her younger children on a bed and covered them with a sheet, per the Express.After completing the act, Yates called 911 repeatedly, calmly reporting what she had done. She then called her husband at work and told him to come home.Andrea Yates in 2001. Credit: Getty ImagesWhen police arrived, she confessed without hesitation: "I just killed my children."The case immediately ignited a national firestorm. Prosecutors described the murders as “heinous” and pushed for the death penalty.Yates was charged with five counts of capital murder, and in her first trial in 2002, she was convicted and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years.But Yates’ defense attorneys argued that she was not a monster—she was severely mentally ill.They said she had been suffering from postpartum psychosis and schizophrenia, exacerbated by the recent birth of baby Mary. They pleaded for treatment rather than prison.Their arguments gained traction on appeal. In 2006, Yates was retried and found not guilty by reason of insanity. The court ruled that she would be committed to a mental health facility—Kerrville State Hospital, where she has now lived for the past 17 years.Four of the five murdered children. Credit: Yates Family/GettyEven while institutionalized, Yates has continued to express delusional thoughts. In court documents, a jail psychiatrist recorded her saying: “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.”She also reportedly told authorities that she had considered killing her children for two years before actually doing it - believing she was saving them from “eternal damnation.”Despite the horror of what she did, her longtime attorney George Parnham says she’s now found a kind of peace.“She’s where she wants to be, where she needs to be,” Parnham told ABC News in 2021. “And I mean, hypothetically, where would she go? What would she do?”Yates will probably never be allowed to walk free. Credit: Phillippe Diederich / GettyYates is not in prison, but her life is anything but free. As per legal judgment, she resides full-time at Kerrville State Hospital and could remain there for the rest of her life.According to reports, she still speaks monthly with her ex-husband Rusty, despite their divorce and his remarriage.Parnham continues to advocate for mental health awareness, often citing Yates’ case as a tragic example of what can happen when postpartum psychosis goes untreated.Featured image credit: Brett Coomer-Pool/Getty 

Last week, a mother-of-seven received a sentence of 28 years behind bars for inflicting extreme torture on her five-year-old stepson.

Tammi Bleimeyer, a 37-year-old woman from Texas, was trialled last Friday more than four years since the abuse was discovered. Her stepson, Jordan Bleimeyer (now nine years of age), was reportedly close to death at the time he was rescued, and doctors reported that he weighed just 29 lbs, which is barely more than the average two-year-old.

As well as starving the boy, Bleimeyer forced him to wear a diaper and made him sleep in a tiny closet under the stairs. The "room" was not even fit for an animal, and had exposed nails and wiring in the walls and around the mattress that Jordan was made to sleep on.

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The horrific crime was first brought to light when one of Bleimeyer's own children, just 16 at the time, reported her to authorities. The teen reported that his stepbrother was being abused by his mother and 24-year-old stepfather (Jordan's father), Bradley Bleimeyer.

When Tammi Bleimeyer learned that her son had gone to the police, she took Jordan out of the house and refused to return when contacted by police. Fortunately, law enforcement were able to track her down using cell phone records, and found her at a nearby motel. She was six months pregnant at the time.

Jordan was rushed to hospital as soon as he was discovered, and was found to be severely malnourished and covered in cuts and bruises from his parents' abuse.

Both Tammi and Bradley Bleimeyer were arrested, with Bradley receiving a 15-year sentence in 2016.

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In court, it was revealed that Jordan had not even been allowed to eat dinner with his siblings. Instead, he was given just one slice of bread to eat per day, and it was taken away from him if he didn't eat it quickly enough. This left him so severely starved that he was compared to a holocaust victim.

It was also alleged that Jordan's father would drug him when other people would come round to visit, and Bleimeyer's 16-year-old son said that Jordan had been tasered and had his head slammed against the wall on at least one occasion.

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It came as a bittersweet relief, then, when Bleimeyer was finally sent down last week following testimonies against her from her own children.

"It's no mystery why we're all here," one of her sons said in a prepared statement. "You made a big mistake, and ultimately have to face the consequences. I'm up here to ask a rhetorical question of how, how could you put your children through all that? The people who should be your pride and joy. You caused me feelings of sadness, anger, confusion, and emptiness. I can't say that I'll ever be the same emotionally because of this."

Jordan has since been reunited with his biological mother, and Bleimeyer's other children were taken into CPS care.

In one of the most haunting cases in American history, Andrea Yates made a chilling 911 call on June 20, 2001, confessing to drowning her five young children in the bathtub of their suburban Houston home.

The mother of five - from the quiet Clear Lake neighborhood - instantly became the center of a media firestorm that shocked the nation.

The children - Noah, seven, John, five, Paul, three, Luke, two, and six-month-old Mary - were found dead, and Andrea was arrested the same day. Just under a year later, in March 2002, she was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison.

But the story didn’t end there.

Andrea Yates' Conviction Was Reversed in 2006

After her initial conviction, Andrea’s legal team successfully appealed the verdict.

Her defense argued that she had long suffered from severe postpartum depression and psychosis, and that her doctor had recently taken her off Haldol - a powerful antipsychotic medication - just weeks before the tragedy.

In July 2006, a new trial resulted in a dramatic shift: Andrea was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Since 2007, she’s been held in a mental health facility in Kerrville, Texas.

Why Her Ex-Husband Still Visits Her Every Year

Rusty Yates, now 61, still makes a point to visit Andrea once a year. Nearly two decades after divorcing her in 2005, he says there’s a bond only they can share.

“I try once a year to visit in person and we text back and forth some and talk on the phone some,” Rusty tells PEOPLE.

“Andrea and I always got along. 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.”

Despite their ongoing connection, Rusty admits it’s difficult.

“It’s bittersweet,” he says. “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. 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. And I think that for her, it loomed so large that it's really kept her from growing, from really living and trying to enjoy the balance of her years. It's just too big. She can't get past it.”

Yates Has Refused Yearly Competency Reviews

Since her admission to the Kerrville facility, Andrea has had the legal right to request annual reviews to determine whether she is competent to leave. But according to PEOPLE, she has chosen to waive that right every single year.

Rusty believes Andrea’s mental state remains frozen in the past. “Andrea spends a lot more time going over old videos of our family, looking through old pictures — that sort of thing — because her mind is still sort of stuck there,” he says.

He adds that while he has found a way to forgive her, she cannot forgive herself.

“I was raised in a tradition where intention matters as much as anything, right? And we're flawed humans. We can have good intentions and do the wrong thing," he explains.

"So, it's easier for me to forgive Andrea than it is for her to forgive herself because she was raised in a tradition of works. It's a strict Catholic upbringing.

"She's kind of stuck because she has this extremely hard time forgiving herself. It's like, how do you take something that significant and get past it in life? Or do you get stuck there? And that's where you're stuck and that's it.”

From Chance Meeting to Tragedy: How Rusty and Andrea Met

The couple’s love story began in the late 1980s, when both lived in the same Houston apartment complex. Andrea was a nurse at the time.

“One night someone had bumped her car in the parking lot, and I was sitting in my apartment,” Rusty recalls. “I was talking to somebody on the phone. I heard a knock at the door and opened the door, and it was Andrea.

"And I literally dropped the phone. She asked me; she said, 'Hey, do you know anything about that?' Because she knew that I parked out in the same area she did. And later she admitted that it was just an excuse to meet me.

"She'd been wanting to meet me," he continues. "And Andrea is a very shy, kind of reserved person. And if you know her at all, that was a big step for her because she's not a very forward person at all."

The couple married in 1993 and went on to build a family of five.

Featured image credit: Getty Images

A father jailed over the manslaughter of his daughter had texted her to stop screaming on the night she died alone in her bedroom.

Welsh teenager Kaylea Titford was 322lbs when she passed away in October 2020, just weeks after she turned 16. She had spina bifida, a spinal condition that meant she was not able to use her legs. She also had hydrocephalus, which results in a buildup of fluid in the brain.

Her father - 45-year-old Alun Titford from Newtown, Powys - was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison at Swansea Crown Court on Wednesday after a jury found him guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence

Kaylea's mother, 39-year-old Sarah Lloyd-Jones, had previously pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge and was jailed for six years.

Not long before Kaylea died, Alun heard her screaming but rather than check in on her, he sent her a message telling her to "stop".

Per The Mirror, Mr Justice Griffiths said Alun had "ignored the smell and the dirt and the flies and the chaos and the evidence of his own eyes and nose that she was not getting the care she needed."

He added: "I find it impossible to say that one parent is more to blame than the other. They were both equally responsible and they were both equally culpable."

The judge went on to say Kaylea could "see and smell her own filth" and the ordeal was "obvious to anyone who went into the room."

He added: "For a girl of her age and independent spirit this was a part terrible state to find herself in. In her last hours, the night before Kaylea's body was found cold and dead, her father heard her screaming.

"She had already turned her mobile phone off for the last time. Her father's reaction to the screaming was to text her telling her to stop twice.

Swansea Crown Court. Credit: Robert Evans / Alamy

"He did not go and see what the matter was or get whatever help she needed. She was left to die alone."

The teen was found lying in a filthy bed, surrounded by rubbish, with maggots "feeding on her body" and flies over her head, the court heard.

During sentencing on Wednesday, Mr Justice Griffiths referred to the couple's actions as "horrifying" and referred to it as a "case of sustained neglect, leading to the death of a completely dependent, bed-ridden, vulnerable, disabled child at the hands of her own parents," per The Guardian.

Sarah ignored a number of offers of assistance from health experts in the months before Kaylea died. When the new school year started in September 2020, she repeatedly made excuses as to why her daughter was absent from class.

Sarah and Alun's lack of care for their daughter's basic needs where nutrition and hygiene were concerned was such that it was deemed criminal behavior. "This was not a lapse on the part of the defendants. It was a long and sustained period of criminal negligence," the judge added.

Featured image credit: Richard Iestyn Hughes / Alamy

The case of Amanda Lewis - a Florida mother sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her daughter - has resurfaced after her son, who was the key witness in her 2008 trial, spoke publicly for the first time in nearly two decades.

AJ Hutto, now 24, has shared his thoughts about testifying against his mother when he was just seven years old, telling the Daily Mail he stands by everything he said in court.

"I just told them exactly what I saw word for word. It was heartbreaking. You know, she's my mother," AJ recalled. "But there was also some relief that what we were going through at the time was finally coming to an end."

What happened to Adrianna Hutto?

The tragic events unfolded on August 8, 2007, in the small rural town of Esto, Florida, just near the Alabama state line. That day, seven-year-old Adrianna Elaine Hutto was found unresponsive in the family's backyard pool, per CourtTV.

Amanda Lewis, who had reportedly just returned home after a night shift, told authorities that Adrianna had accidentally fallen into the water while trying to clean bugs from the pool’s surface.

At first, her explanation was accepted, and investigators treated the incident as a tragic accident.

But the case took a shocking turn when her son AJ came forward with a very different version of events.

Adrianna Elaine Hutto. Credit: Florida Department of Corrections

“She throwed her in the pool”

In a video-recorded interview, AJ told investigators: “She done some stuff that she ain't supposed to, so my mama got mad, so she throwed her in the pool.”

His chilling account suggested that his mother, angry over Adrianna’s behavior, had intentionally drowned her. AJ even submitted drawings to the court showing what he said he had witnessed—his mother holding his sister underwater as punishment.

At trial in February 2008, AJ, then just seven, wore a collared shirt and vest as he took the stand. His testimony became the cornerstone of the prosecution’s case.

AJ Hutto is now 24. Credit: ITV

Amanda Lewis found guilty despite her denials

After four days of testimony, the jury convicted Amanda Lewis of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In a 2016 prison interview with Piers Morgan on Killer Women, Lewis continued to deny responsibility for her daughter’s death and shared her version of what happened.

"We had went outside. The kids were playing. [I] had to step back inside. Somewhere along the point she had pulled the wagon by the pool. Somewhere along the line she fell in," she said.

"Adrianna was playing in the pool. I looked out the back door and that's when I can barely see her floating in the pool."

Despite the differences in their stories, Lewis made it clear she still cared deeply for her son.

"I love him no matter what, I will always love him. He is in no way blame him for what happened."

“I don’t believe I was coached”: AJ maintains his version of events

Now an adult, AJ has reaffirmed the testimony he gave as a child, insisting he was never manipulated by prosecutors.

“I don't believe I was, what they've called, coached or anything like that,” he said. “I just told them exactly what I saw, word for word.”

AJ also reflected on the emotional difficulty of seeing his mother in court.

"It was heartbreaking. She's my mother. But there was also some relief that what we were going through at the time was finally coming to an end."

“I’ve wanted to keep it that way”: No contact since the trial

Since Amanda Lewis's conviction, AJ has had no contact with her. Adopted by another family, he now lives under a different name and identity for his own safety and peace of mind.

“It’s court-appointed that we cannot see each other,” AJ said. “And I've wanted to keep it that way, just so nothing's getting brought back up… all the feelings, emotions, and traumas coming back into light."

Featured image credit: ITV