A gripping new documentary seeks to uncover the hidden layers behind the tragic case of a Texas mother, Andrea Yates, who was convicted for the harrowing murder of her five children. Decades after the shocking event, rumors persist that Yates might have been under the influence of a religious cult during the killings.

On a grim day, June 20, 2001, Andrea Yates committed an unthinkable act, drowning her children—John, Paul, Noah, Luke, and Mary—in the bathtub of their home nestled in the Houston suburb of Clear Lake. The children, whose ages spanned from just six months to seven years, were then placed on a bed as Yates called 911 to admit to the crime, as reported by People.

Upon the officers’ arrival at the scene, Yates greeted them with wet hair and soaked clothing, eerily composed as she confessed, “I killed my kids.”

The upcoming 2026 Investigation Discovery docuseries, “The Cult Behind the Killer: The Andrea Yates Story,” promises to delve into this tragic episode and explore theories suggesting Yates’ potential radicalization by a religious cult prior to the murders.

In a poignant moment from her retrial on July 26, 2006, Andrea Yates is pictured with her attorney, George Parnham, following a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. This image captures a significant turning point in the narrative of a case that continues to haunt and intrigue, as seen in the accompanying photo by Brett Coomer-Pool/Getty Images.

Following the horrific deaths, Yates made national headlines as investigators pored over claims of cult indoctrination and postpartum depression. 

“Something had to have snapped,” Cheryl Johnson, Yates’ neighbor at the time, told People immediately after the killings. “She was no monster.”

In the years following the murders, details surrounding Yates’ struggles with mental health began to surface. Her husband, Rusty Yates, reportedly wanted a big family and later told authorities she suffered from severe depression after the birth of her fourth child.

This undated family photo shows four of the five children of Andrea Yates, who confessed on June 20, 2001, to killing her children by drowning them in their home in Clear Lake, a suburb of south Houston, Texas. The children shown are, from left, John, Luke, Paul and Noah.  (Yates Family/Getty Images)

“He was adamant that they were going to have six kids,” another neighbor, Sylvia Cole, previously told People. “She was really meek and easygoing, so I’m not sure if it was a joint decision.” 

In the months after her fourth child, Luke, was born, Yates reportedly attempted to take her own life by overdosing on medication prescribed to her sick father, causing her to be hospitalized. 

Following her release from treatment, a spokesperson for Harris County Children’s Protective Services told People that “there was no concern on the hospital’s part that she was a risk to her children, so it was never assigned to a caseworker.”

This undated family photo shows Mary, the youngest of the five children of Andrea Yates, then 36, who confessed on June 20, 2001, to killing her children by drowning them in their home in Clear Lake, a suburb of south Houston, TX.  (Photo by Phillippe Dieder/Getty Images)

Yates was subsequently prescribed antipsychotic medication and antidepressants, but two weeks after she stopped taking the drugs, her mental condition worsened. 

During her trial, her attorney, George Parnham, argued the mother of five drowned her children because she believed it “was the right thing to do.” 

Both the prosecution and defense also looked to prove Yates was acting under the influential teachings of Michael Woroniecki, a controversial traveling preacher who reportedly preached that “unrighteous mothers” would go on to give birth to “unrighteous children.”

In “The Cult Behind the Killer: The Andrea Yates Story,” Woroniecki’s teachings are often characterized as a “cult,” though no charges were ever filed against the preacher in connection with the Yates children’s deaths. 

In a 2022 interview with “Good Morning America,” Woroniecki called the claims “ridiculous” and denied allegations that his teachings had any influence over Yates at the time of her children’s killings.

“It came up that maybe the pastor that was at their church had somehow, through his preachings, put some idea in her head about good and evil,” Nicole DeBorde, a Harris County defense attorney and president of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, told Fox News Digital. 

“And that her ultimate decision to do the horrible thing that she did was because she believed that her children’s souls were going to be lost, and so she needed to kill them before they became evil to preserve their innocence so that they could go to Heaven, which is again pretty awful.”

In 2002, Yates was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years behind bars, according to People. However, her conviction was reversed and Yates was retried in 2006, when she was found not guilty by reason of insanity. 

“It couldn’t get more emotional,” DeBorde said. “I mean, you have these beautiful children who are deceased. People just like you and me had to hear this case and had to see the absolute devastation and destruction of this family, including these awful pictures of these children. And that’s enough to make most people so upset that they would render an incredibly punitive sentence as quickly as possible, just because it’s so emotional.”

In light of the verdict, Yates’ defense team looked to blame systemic failures for not only the deaths of her five children, but the fate of Yates herself. 

“On June 20, 2001, there were six victims at the home of Andrea and Rusty Yates,” Parnham wrote in an essay for the Houston Chronicle in 2013. “Her five children, certainly, but also Andrea herself – all victims of the real culprit, in this case a severe mental illness known as postpartum psychosis.”

One year later, Yates was sent to Kerrville State Hospital, a Texas-based mental facility, where she has since opted to remain to continue treatment, according to People. In 2022, Yates reportedly waived her annual review to consider her release and “grieves for her children” every day, Parnham reportedly said. 

“She’s where she wants to be. Where she needs to be,” Parnham said in an interview with ABC News in 2021. “And I mean, hypothetically, where would she go? What would she do?”

“The Cult Behind the Killer: The Andrea Yates Story” is available to stream on Investigation Discovery.