Yates: Wife did the 'unthinkable'

Russell Yates visits the grave of his five children Thursday on the one year anniversary of their deaths.

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Standing outside the home where his wife drowned their five children one year ago, Russell Yates said Thursday his entire "family died that day," but he expressed no bitterness toward his wife Andrea even though she "really did the unthinkable."

Tears welled up in his eyes and sweat beaded on his forehead as he described the anguish he has been through over the past year.

Yates recalled a neighbor who recently celebrated a birthday -- a party he and his family attended last year.

"It doesn't seem that long ago that we were all together," he said. "Andrea and I've always had a great relationship, and we had beautiful children and just a nice family."

EXTRA INFORMATION In-Depth: The case of Andrea Yates

Earlier in the day, Russell Yates visited the graves of his four sons and one daughter. "Our family died that day, you know, with the children," he said after returning home.

Andrea Yates was convicted in March on two counts of murder for the June 2001 drownings of her 6-month-old daughter Mary, and her sons Noah, 7, and John, 5. The charges did not cover the deaths of her two other sons, Paul, 3, and Luke, 2, who were also drowned.

He said he had last spoken with his wife, who was sentenced earlier this year to life in prison after being convicted of killing three of the children, about two weeks ago.

Andrea Yates listened to the guilty verdict being announced.

"I said, 'I wish we could go back and have what we had before.' And I was crying at the time and I said, 'But we can't. What we had is gone.' And she said, 'I wish we could go back, too,'" he recalled.

Yates family attorney George Parnham was to visit Andrea Yates in prison Thursday and "I told him to give her a hug for me," he said. Andrea Yates is not allowed visitors during the week except for her attorney. She is allowed one visit on weekends.

Andrea Yates suffered from post-partum depression and psychosis at the time she drowned her five children, one by one, in a bathtub in the family home, a defense psychiatrist said at the trial. She still is "in a confused, hurt, fragile state" and in need of serious medical attention, Russell Yates said.

"I do know that she knows the children are gone and that it was by her hands," he said. "And I know that she has some memory of that day. It's very, very hurtful to her. I just can't imagine, you know, the pain that she has on a daily basis."

He also lashed out at the state for its prosecution of the case.

The Yates family

"Every step of the way, they've treated her like a serial killer for no reason -- a hardened serial killer. And she's not. She's a loving mother who became desperately ill and really did the unthinkable," Russell Yates said.

"I haven't been able to as much as hold her hand or give her a hug or anything since this happened," he said. "And that's just, to me, extremely cruel. It's a woman who has lost her entire family. She needs comfort. She needs to be held and loved."

Russell Yates said he believes the trial may help people understand that "severe mental illness like psychosis can lead to a tragedy like this -- that people can see things that aren't real and hear things that aren't real and believe things that aren't real, and act in that distorted reality."