When Depressed People Kill Their Children

In 2000 in Texas, Andrea Yates methodically killed her five children, drowning each of them in the bathtub. She had a troubled past with a history of hospitalizations for depression with psychotic features. In 2005 in Pennsylvania, a man poured gasoline on himself and around his house, setting a fire that killed him and his three-year-old daughter. Friends approached the house to check on their depressed friend just as the second floor exploded. The police ruled it a murder-suicide. People described the man as a devoted father. In November 2006, a woman from North Carolina killed herself and her two children.

Danielle Wails of Newcastle upon Tyne, England called police one night to report that her house was burning down with her baby trapped inside. When detectives arrived, she said she had been tied up by intruders and forced to dial 999 (British 911) with her tongue. Two experts testified that Danielle was suffering from postnatal (postpartum) depression, and therefore wasn’t legally accountable for her actions. She pleaded guilty to infanticide, which got her three months probation. A Melbourne woman suffering severe postnatal depression, who drowned her five-week-old baby in a bathtub in 2004, also pleaded guilty to a charge of infanticide.

When a mother kills her children, the immediate thought is that she must suffer from some form of depression. When a man kills his children, people think he is a monster. They look to build a picture of the "family annihilator;” the white, middle-aged man, who kills as a gesture of self-assertion, having felt a lack of control, usually after divorce or bankruptcy. But, the truth is that parents, both mothers and fathers, who kill their children, are most likely suffering from depression or other mental illness at the time of the unfortunate act.

In television and movies, someone with bipolar disorder may be portrayed as a serial killer lurking in the shadows. The more likely scenario involves manic depressive parents in a depressive episode killing their own children. But, how does depression cause parents to kill their children? There are two ways that depression affects a parent, which could lead to their children’s demise. One such way is by psychosis. If a depressed parent experiences psychotic episodes, their thoughts are so severely warped that they are not held legally responsible for their actions. For example, they may have delusions of some spiritual war that can only be resolved by the deaths of their “demonic” children. Someone with bipolar disorder who is severely depressed may also hear voices encouraging them to commit homicide, suicide, or a murder-suicide.

Another way depression can cause an otherwise loving parent to kill their children is through unrelenting guilt and hopelessness that can be so severe during a depression that it can become almost obsessive. The guilt and hopelessness dominate the depressed person’s thinking. When they kill their children, their thoughts may be that they are saving their children from the hell that they are feeling.

In many of these cases, the homicidal parent is often described as a loving and devoted parent. Friends and family are often in shock that this seemingly loving parent would kill their own children. Ironically, it is this love and desire for their children that becomes the misguided motivation behind the murders. The depressed parent may feel that they are rescuing their loved ones from the hellish existence in which the depressed person feels trapped.

Next article: Parenting A Child With Manic Depressive Disorder