6 Bombshells from ‘The Cult Behind the Killer: The Andrea Yates Story’

According to the documentary, Woroniecki allegedly preached to Andrea and led her to believe that Satan was inside of her

Rusty initially met Woroniecki while he was preaching at his college campus. According to Rusty, his teachings, which primarily focused on instilling fear over an impending judgment day, initially appealed to him because they were “a little bit edgier.”

“I felt like he was genuinely trying to follow what he read and saw in scripture and try his best to not be hypocritical,” Rusty said in the docuseries. “I’d never seen that kind of message where you don’t have to belong to a church, you don’t have to belong to an organization to find God. I admired that.”

After Rusty married Andrea in 1993, he introduced her to Woroniecki. However, after their fourth child, Luke, was born in 1999, Rusty lost touch with Woroniecki, he said, but Andrea’s connection with the preacher strengthened.

At the same time that Andrea was listening to teachings from Woroniecki, she was also suffering from postpartum depression and psychosis. She was initially diagnosed with postpartum depression after Luke’s birth in 1999, and her condition worsened after the birth of her final child, Mary, in 2000.

Andrea’s attorneys later alleged that Woroniecki’s influence, in combination with her mental illnesses, played a significant role in her decision to drown her children. They claimed that Andrea believed she needed to kill her children to save them from going to hell, just as Woroniecki preached.

Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist who testified during Andrea’s trials, adamantly believed that Andrea was “strongly influenced” by Woroniecki.

“Mrs. Yates believed that she was marked as evil,” Resnick said in the doc. “She believed that Satan was literally within her and surrounding her and influencing her during her psychotic period before the killing. Michael Woroniecki lectured about Satan being a very powerful force.”

He added, “Michael Woroniecki is emphasizing how real Satan is and how these demons and Satan will take over your mind, so she clearly was strongly influenced by Michael Woroniecki.”

A juror from Andrea’s second trial, Todd Frank, also participated in the doc and explained that a major reason they found her not guilty by reason of insanity was because “everything in her psychosis tied back to her religious beliefs.”

“She believed she was this unrighteous mother, and this unrighteous mother had produced unrighteous children, and those unrighteous children were going to burn in hell unless they died before the age of accountability,” Frank said. “That was everything we needed to hear to basically understand why she did what she did.”

Woroniecki didn’t participate in the docuseries, but he previously denied having anything to do with Andrea’s actions.

“I shared Jesus with them,” Woroniecki told Good Morning America in March 2002. “I hold [Rusty] responsible [for the drownings] but I also hold Andrea responsible. God knows what we shared with those people.”

Andrea and Rusty lived in Woroniecki’s old preaching bus

In 1998, Andrea and Rusty met with Woroniecki and his family in Miami after learning that they bought a new “Jesus” school bus to preach across the country and were selling their old one.

Rusty recalled that Woroniecki made the bus “sound fantastic” and like a “great deal.” The couple and their children were already living in a trailer at the time, so they voted to move to the bus.

However, now looking back on how it brought them closer to the Woronieckis and the effect it had on Andrea, Rusty regrets purchasing the vehicle.

“I think I would’ve overruled my family if given the chance again,” Rusty shared. “I don’t think I would’ve bought it.”

Woroniecki, his wife, and their six children lived in a bus and traveled across the country spreading his message. At least one other of Woroniecki’s members also bought a bus to follow his example, former member Moses Storm said in the doc.

Both Woroniecki and his wife sent several letters to Andrea during her postpartum depression

Even though Rusty stopped speaking with Woroniecki, he was somewhat aware that Andrea had been writing and receiving letters to and from Woroniecki and his wife, Rachel.

“I didn’t discourage Andrea from writing,” Rusty explained. “If she wanted to write, I’m like whatever, that’s her business that’s her choice.”

Suzy Spencer, who researched the case and wrote the 2002 book Breaking Point, received several of those letters from an anonymous source and began to hypothesize how they might have influenced her.

“Andrea was searching, Andrea was lonely and through their letters back and forth, Andrea could pour out her heart, her loneliness,” Spencer shared in the docuseries.

The docuseries included one letter that Rachel wrote to Andrea in 1999, where she urged Andrea to “know Jesus and be able to give him to your children.”

“I know things are not the way you would like them to be,” Rachel wrote. “I’ve seen many women just continually put off their salvation in Jesus. Jesus knows how wicked you are, how weak and vulnerable. I know you’re frustrated Andrea.”

Rachel reminded Andrea that she was “accountable for these children,” and she can still “change them.”

“There will be a day when it is too late,” Rachel warned. “Don’t look to Rusty. Look to Jesus. If you allow Satan to come in and still be understanding, the consequences will be tragic.”

In another letter, Rachel urged Andrea to “get right with God before it’s too late.”

“The window of opportunity is closing,” Rachel wrote. “You only have a limited time to affect those little lives. Teach and discipline the boys. Parents today do not know how to teach their children, and thus they raise rebels without discipline.”

Rusty Yates didn’t think there was “any possibility” that Andrea would harm their children

Andrea — who had struggled with depression for most of her life — was diagnosed with postpartum depression and psychosis after attempting suicide following the birth of their fourth child. After meeting with psychiatrists and being prescribed a combination of medications, Andrea temporarily became better.

Although doctors warned Rusty and Andrea that Andrea could relapse if she got pregnant again, the couple welcomed their fifth child in November 2000. Rusty explained in the doc that they thought they could treat her like the first time.

“If the risk of having another child was the flu that was a risk worth taking,” he said. “I just thought, ‘Okay, she’ll get sick. Worst case, it’ll be like a flu. She’ll get treated with the same medicines that worked for her before and we’ll be done.’ ”

However, Andrea’s conditions worsened, and she “went from being what seemed like normal to in a worse state.”

“She was completely out of it,” he said. “I didn’t know it at the time, but Andrea was having visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, and it led to the delusions she had of having the devil in her.”

Just like the first time, Andrea sought treatment and was prescribed various medications but didn’t seem to be getting better. Despite her condition, Rusty still never thought Andrea would hurt their kids.

“At the time, Andrea didn’t tell me what was going on in her head and none of us, nobody, thought the kids were at any risk at all. Nowhere, on anyone’s radar, was any possibility of harm to our children,” he said.

Andrea said one of Woroniecki’s preaching lines word-for-word in a police interrogation

The docuseries includes a recorded interview that Andrea participated in after her arrest with Dr. Resnick. In the conversation, Andrea talked candidly about her belief in Satan and saving her children before they reached the “age of accountability,” which, according to her, Woroniecki said was 12 years old.

When asked what would have happened if she didn’t drown her children, Andrea replied, “I guess they would have continued stumbling.” She further declared that they would have ended up in “hell” if she hadn’t saved them in their “innocent years.”

“It’s better to tie a stone around your neck and throw yourself in the sea than cause a little one to stumble,” she professed, while adding, “After I killed them, they went up to heaven to be with God and be safe.”

In addition to the explanation she gave for killing her children, Andrea also chillingly read a Bible verse that Woroniecki frequently preached and said in videos.

“Jesus does single out one group: children,” they both said in interlapped soundbites in the docuseries. “He says, ‘It’s better to tie a heavy millstone around your neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea than cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble.’ “

Rusty never knew the effect Woroniecki may have had on his wife and regretted introducing them

While Rusty steered away from describing Woroniecki and his following as a “cult,” he took moments to admit that he regretted bringing Woroniecki into their lives.

“I think looking back, I miscalculated the effect on Andrea,” Rusty said. “Now, I believe her delusions could well have been influenced by her exposure to the Woronieckis. If I had to do it all over, I would not have introduced her to them.”

He later added that he “never really realized” that his ex-wife’s mental health struggles “coupled with exposure to the Woronieckis could be troubling.”