Yates Family in Shock Over Drownings

N E W  Y O R K,  July 2, 2001 -- Since learning that her daughter had been accused of drowning all five of her children in the bathtub, Andrea Yates' mother has felt anger, shock and despair, she said today.

"I couldn't believe it," Karin Kennedy told ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview. "I never thought it would come to this. Ever."

Although she sometimes worried that her daughter might hurt herself, Kennedy says she never thought that she would hurt the children, who ranged in age from 6 months to 7 years.

"Never, never … She thought the world of them," she said. "Herself, I figured she might try."

Two Suicide Attempts

Indeed, there were some signs of emotional distress prior to the June 20 incident, in which Andrea Yates called police and her husband and told them to come to their Clear Lake, Texas, home, where the five children lay dead.

Yates had reportedly tried to commit suicide twice. Both incidents happened at her parents' home in southeast Houston.

The first attempt was in June 1999, when she attempted to overdose on her late father's Alzheimer's medication. At the time, her mother was at the house along with the children — proof, Kennedy says that her daughter didn't want the children to be abandoned, even if she killed herself.

"She brought them over to me when she knew she was going to take the pills," Kennedy said.

After that incident, Yates was treated for depression.

A second suicide attempt occurred this past spring, while visiting her mother's house, when she put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill herself.

Her husband, Russell "Rusty" Yates, however, was able to "talk her out of it," Kennedy said.

Family Searches for Explanation

The 36-year-old mother has been unresponsive during short visits with her family since her arrest. Her mother said she was at a loss for words while visiting her daughter in jail.

"All I could tell her was that I loved her, and she does not respond," Kennedy said. Despite her quiet state, Andrea Yates agreed to see her brother and sister before they left, she said.

As Texas prosecutors try to decide whether to seek the death penalty against Yates, they are weighing the legal question of whether the mother of five knew what she was doing.

Yates' family is trying to figure out the same thing.

" I don't think she grasped what she did," Yates' brother, Andrew Kennedy, said today on Good Morning America.

Growing up in Houston, Andrea Yates had been both an athlete and a scholar. She was captain of the girls' swim team at Milby High School and graduated first in a class of 620. In 1989, she graduated from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston with a nursing degree.

In 1993, she married Rusty Yates, and they immediately began planning a family. Andrea stayed home and home-schooled the children. They were religious, though the family did not belong to a congregation.

"They chose to worship God at home," said Kennedy said. There have been news reports that Andrea Yates may have felt trapped by home-schooling the kids and never having a baby sitter, as the family did not want outside influences to impact the kids. And some have speculated that their religion was isolating her. The family did not attend a church, but were reportedly religious at home.

But Andrea Yates' brother said he did not believe religion was an issue in what happened, and he did not blame his brother-in-law for having his wife stay home with the children and home-school them. Andrew Kennedy said he is not angry at his brother-in-law, Rusty, who he says did the best he could.

But he said that his sister's anti-depressant medication, or lack thereof, might have contributed to what happened.

Andrea Yates' lawyer, George Parnham, told Good Morning America last week that the woman suffers from "deep psychosis" but said he had not decided yet whether to pursue an insanity defense.

'The Most Gentle Person'

"I can't go into a lot of details, but I feel like she was taken off medication she should have been on… and the doseage to some of the other medication was way too high," said Yates' brother, Andrew.

But Andrew Kennedy did say that his sister "had a lot of responsibility at home."

Her mother said she does not believe her daughter knew what she was doing.

"I don't think so… she was the most gentle person that there was, especially with her children, and with her father and with everybody," Karin Kennedy said. "She never told a lie in her life ever."

Both Karin and Andrew Kennedy said they do not believe that Andrea Yates is currently pregnant, contrary to some news reports.

On Sunday, something happened that brought the grief back to the grieving grandmother, full force. She went to the family home to retrieve the children's butterfly collection.

"A butterfly — a monarch, the kind that my grandson raised, landed on me and flew over my head," Karin Kennedy said. "I thought it was Noah [her 7-year-old grandson] and it broke me down."