Mother drowns her five children

A woman called police to her home and showed a stunned officer the bodies of her five young children aged from six months to seven years - all apparently drowned in the bathtub.

‘‘I killed my children,’’ she told authorities in Houston, Texas, before she was arrested.

Andrea Pia Yates, 36, was charged with multiple counts of capital murder, said police spokesman John Cannon.

Yates was said to be on medication for depression following the birth of her fourth child two years ago. Social services also said she had attempted suicide two years ago.

The officer who responded to the call was not prepared for the grisly scene inside the home in a middle-class neighbourhood of south eastern Houston, near Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre.

‘‘It is just rather unimaginable,’’ police spokesman John Cannon said. ‘‘It’s difficult to deal with when you are talking about five little kids who were killed, probably systematically.’’

Police said they believe the children were drowned. Their mother was wet when she answered the door.

‘‘When our responding officer arrived, he was met at the door by the woman, who was breathing heavily, and you could tell she was disturbed,’’ Cannon said. ‘‘At that time she said to the officer, ‘I killed my children’.’’

Cannon said the officer asked where the children were and was led to a bedroom. Found under a sheet on a bed were Mary, six months, and three of her brothers - Luke, two, Paul, three, and John, five. The fifth child, Noah, seven, was in the bathtub.

Police gave no motive for the killings, but the woman’s husband told police she had been on medication for a form of post-natal depression since Luke’s birth.

Judy Hay, a spokeswoman for Children’s Protective Services, said records indicated the woman attempted suicide on June 18, 1999. Five days later the CPS was called because mental health officials were worried the children were not being cared for properly.

‘‘We found them at their grandparents’ with their father,’’ Hay said. ‘‘It was never assigned because there was no abuse or neglect.’’