Darkness forged a bond between Andrea Yates and Dena Schlosser.
The two women who killed their children during psychotic religious delusions have wound up roommates and friends at North Texas State Hospital.
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In each other, they’ve found a support system outside their court-mandated care that, family members say, just might help them heal.
“She is almost my identical personality,” Schlosser said in her first public comments. “I think we’ll be friends forever. I’ve only known her a short period of time, but I believe the feeling is mutual. She probably thinks that same thing.”
In 2001, Yates, now 42, drowned her children–an infant girl and four boys, ages 2 to 7–believing she was protecting them from Satan. Schlosser, now 37, severed her daughter’s arms in 2004 at the shoulders to offer her baby to God. Both women made headlines worldwide and were acquitted by reason of insanity this year.
Schlosser was interviewed multiple times over the phone with the support of her family. When she told her doctors about the conversations, they told her to stop and said she had shown poor judgment.
“We talk about our past, we talk about our memories, our fun memories, the things that our kids did,” said Schlosser, who speaks quickly and softly, punctuated with nervous laughter.
The women will be confined in Vernon or at another Texas hospital until their doctors and judges agree they should be released. They’ll probably remain in the state’s care for years. Both must learn to understand their illnesses and cope with their horrific acts.
Yates did not want to come to the phone. But ex-husband Rusty Yates, who still regularly visits her, said Schlosser has become a friend.
“Hopefully, they can help each other through the long recovery process,” he said.
The two inmates’ conversations circle around their young daughters. Mary Yates was 6 months old and Maggie Schlosser was 10 months old when they died.
Yates had been a nurse. Schlosser once worked at a day-care center and has a degree in psychology. Both have disorders that can cause psychosis and the inability to distinguish reality from delusion.