From time to time, you will hear a story that is so unbelievably gruesome and impossible to fathom, it will send shivers down your spine. For tonight’s SAHM True Crime Tuesday, we’ll delve into the dark and murky minds of the women we fear and condemn the most; mothers who kill.

Andrea Yates

Texan born Andrea married Rusty Yates in 1993. Rusty was a disciple of the controversial preacher, Michael Woroniecki.

Andrea and Rusty had five children together. Andrea was treated for severe postpartum depression and psychosis in 1999, both of which ran in her family. After her father died, Andrea spiralled into a deep depression and she was forcefully admitted into an institution for treatment.

One morning in June 2001, her husband Rusty set off to work. His mother was due to arrive at the house shortly after he left but sometime during that next fateful hour, Andrea Yates proceeded to drown each of her five children in the bath tub.

Yates was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. This conviction was later over turned on the grounds of insanity.

Debra Milke

Born in 1964, Debra married Mark Milke in 1984. The following year she gave birth to their only child, a son they named Christopher.

Mark’s drug addiction led to their divorce in 1988. Soon after, Debra moved into an apartment with Jim Styers, a man she met through her sister. A few months after the move, Styers called Debra at home to tell her that four year old Christopher had wandered away from him at the mall. A missing person investigation was immediately launched.

Styers’ long time friend Roger Scott, was arrested by police the following day. Scott was interrogated for more than 14 hours before he admitted to knowing the whereabouts of Christopher. Scott led police to an isolated area in the desert where Christopher’s body was found. He had been shot. Scott told police that Styers shot Christopher because his mother Debra had ‘wanted it done’. It was later discovered Styers believed he would receive a portion of Christopher’s $5,000 life insurance payout.

Debra Milke, convicted of first degree murder, was the first female to be handed the death sentence in Arizona since 1932. After serving nearly twenty years on death row, Milke’s conviction was overturned by an Appeals Court and she was set free in September 2013.

Dianne Downs

In 1983, the mother of three young children, Dianne Downs, was driving along an isolated road in Oregon where she claimed she and her sleeping children were attacked and shot at point blank range after being flagged down by an unknown stranger

Dianne alleged that after being shot in her forearm, she managed to escape the attacker before speeding to the nearest hospital. This was later disputed by a witness who testified Downs was travelling no faster than 10 miles per hour.

By the time Downs arrived at the hospital, one of her daughters had died. The other children, a boy and a girl, survived but both suffered from life threatening injuries.

As Dianne’s story didn’t add up, it wasn’t long before police charged her with the shooting of her children. Her surviving daughter later testified that her mother was the shooter.

Convicted of her crimes, Downs was sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years.

Frances Newton

Frances Newton was only 21 when she shot dead her estranged husband and two sleeping children in the apartment they shared with her husband’s brother.

Only weeks earlier, life insurance policies had been taken out for her husband and her younger child. The older child already had a life insurance policy in place.

After the shootings, Newton was seen dumping a blue bag which was later confirmed to contain the murder weapon.

Although Newton pleaded innocent, 18 months after the crime was committed, she was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death. Numerous appeals were squashed and Newton maintained her innocence right up until she was executed in 2005.

Feature Photo Credit: www.cnn.com