On June 20, 2001, Russell “Rusty” Yates received a phone call from his wife Andrea Yates asking him to return to his Clear Lake, Texas, home. What he didn’t know was that Andrea had drowned their five children—ages 6 months through 7 years old—in a bathtub.
The grisly scene sparked one of the most infamous criminal cases of the early 200os, in which Andrea Yates, then 37, was initially convicted of capital murder for three of her children’s deaths. However, the verdict was overturned in 2005, and a year later she was found not guilty by reason of insanity at a retrial and moved to a psychiatric care facility.
Despite his ex-wife’s horrific act, Rusty Yates, 61, has insisted he never held malice toward Andrea—instead blaming her diagnosed postpartum psychosis for the killings. Yates is speaking about the case again in the new docuseries The Cult Behind a Killer: The Andrea Yates Story, which debuted on Investigation Discovery on January 6 and is now streaming on HBO Max.
Here’s everything we know about Rusty Yates today, and what the three-part project revealed about his life over the past 25 years.
Why Did Rusty Yates Support Andrea Yates During Her Murder Trials?
Rusty has said publicly he was never angry at Andrea—only her doctor—and doesn’t blame her for killing their children because of her diagnosed mental illness.
Yates called her first trial for capital murder in 2002 “the single cruelest thing I’ve ever personally witnessed” in a 2015 interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“They spent a week showing pictures of our children’s dead bodies in front of a jury, in front of her,” he explained. “From my perspective, that’s the cruelest thing I’ve ever—I mean, she’s somebody that needs, like, love, compassion, support. Instead, they just take her and put her, you know, on public display with the bodies of my children. It’s so wrong.”
Yates, who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, was ultimately convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole after 40 years. However, her conviction was overthrown in 2005 because of false testimony.
Following the ruling, Yates publicly advocated for prosecutors to drop the murder charges against Andrea instead of seeking a retrial. “They’ve treated her like a serial killer, and my feeling all along has been it’s a waste of the taxpayers’ money to prosecute her,” he told TV host Larry King.
The case did go to retrial, where Andrea was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 2006. She continues to receive treatment at the Kerrville State Hospital today.
Who Did Rusty Yates Marry After He and Andrea Divorced?
Rusty filed for divorce from Andrea during her incarceration in July 2004, and the pair reached a finalized agreement in March 2005.
As part of the settlement, Andrea received $7,000 from Rusty and a portion of his retirement benefits from his time at NASA, according to the Midland Reporter-Telegram. She was also granted the right to be buried near her five children.
Only months later in March 2006—and less than two days before Andrea’s retrial began—Russell married Laura Arnold at Clear Lake Church of Christ. “It is easy to judge the actions of another, as though we know all the intricate details of their life story. Jesus has warned us against such judgments,” the church’s minister, Byron Fike, said in a statement.
In March 2008, Arnold gave birth to the couple’s son, Mark. Yates revealed later that year he spoke to Andrea on the phone around once a month and even shared photos of his new child with her via email. “She’s like, ‘He’s so cute.’ She was pretty excited,” he told Good Morning America.
Yates confirmed to Chris Cuomo of NewsNation in 2023 he and Arnold also divorced at an undisclosed time.
Where Is Rusty Yates Now, and What Does He Say in The Cult Behind the Killer?
According to the New York Post, Yates has continued to work as an engineer for NASA as of July 2024.
Investigation Discovery confirmed on January 3 that Yates participated in The Cult Behind a Killer with a new interview. According to Time, Yates confirmed that he and Andrea were in regular contact with Michael Woroniecki, a controversial preacher who mailed cassette tapes to the couple as their religious adviser.
Yates offered new details of Andrea’s declining mental health prior to the drownings, including a disturbing 1999 incident following the birth of their fourth child, Luke. “We were still at Andrea’s mother’s house and Andrea walked off. I open the bathroom door and she is standing, looking at herself in the mirror, with a knife up to her neck. She just stood there, catatonic,” he said.
Yates has maintained he forgives Andrea for the deaths of their children and has tried to offer support for families of other individuals experiencing mental illness.
“At the time, I did not know that she’d been psychotic, I did not know what psychosis even was or what the symptoms were. The next step of forgiveness (for other people), I’d say, is understanding it’s a sickness, that but for her sickness, she would never, ever, ever would have harmed our children,” Yates told Cuomo in 2023.
Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.
