Houston - A 36-year-old woman suffering a long bout of postpartum depression confessed to killing her five children in their Houston home yesterday, a crime police said could have her facing the death penalty.
The four boys and a girl, 6 months to 7 years old, appeared to have been drowned in the bathtub, they said. The woman, Ms Andrea Yates, has taken medication for depression since the birth of her youngest boy two years ago, but Mr John Cannon, a spokesman for the Houston Police Department, said the role her illness might have played in the crime would not be clear until she gave a formal statement.
A television report showed the long haired, bespectacled Yates, her shirt torn in many places, being led away in handcuffs by police. She was not charged for the crimes, but Mr Cannon said: "Rest assured, it is going to be carried as a capital murder case." In Texas, capital murder carries a maximum penalty of death by injection.