Preacher Michael Woroniecki blasted Investigation Discovery’s docuseries The Cult Behind the Killer: The Andrea Yates Story, insisting that he “had nothing to do” with the murders of Andrea Yates’ five children.
Before Andrea, 61, drowned her children in June 2001, she and her husband, Rusty “Russell” Yates, were said to be followers of Woroniecki. After Rusty, 61, opened up about their involvement with Woroniecki and his teachings in the docuseries, Woroniecki issued a lengthy statement on his website regarding the claims and assumptions he was involved in the decision to have Andrea drown her kids.
“The fact is, I had nothing to do with the tragic crime of Andrea Yates a quarter century ago, not in any way, shape, or form. I barely even ever talked to her, I met them 3 times and mostly spoke to her husband. I wrote him some letters back and forth at his request. Rusty himself is publicly quoted as saying, ‘Correspondence as Michael Woroniecki was like an open book; we were free to take or leave what we wanted,’” Woroniecki wrote. “If you get a letter you don’t want, you throw it out, so the idea of any kind of mail-in cult is absurd in its premise.”
Woroniecki went on to claim that his “correspondence” with the Yates’ “dropped off years before the tragedy” and he said he “knew very little of their lives or issues.”
According to Woroniecki, he has spent his career helping children in need. “If Rusty and Andrea had been influenced by me at all, those children would not only be alive but would be as happy and successful as my own,” he wrote.
While reflecting on why his name has been involved in the story, Woroniecki claimed that “the media is desperate for salacious and sensational content.”
As the post continued, Woroniecki explained that he met Rusty about 45 years ago on a university campus. He said that Rusty expressed interest in following Jesus, so they “exchanged a few letters back and forth over several years.” After Rusty and Andrea got married and had kids, Woroniecki said that he had “sparse contact” with the family over the span of a decade and a half. He added that he met them in person a few times over the years in public places.
Woroniecki claimed that Rusty told him he wanted to live a life similar to the preacher’s, though Woroniecki allegedly told him that he was not fit for the lifestyle.
Once Andrea’s trial began, Woroniecki claimed that an “emotionally unstable individual” that he had only met one time “created a massive smear campaign” against him to connect him to the scandal.
In addition to insisting he was not in any way involved in the deaths of the Yates children, Woroniecki also insisted that he is not a cult leader.
“I have encountered tens of thousands of people over the course of 50 years. I have no twisted version of the gospel or cult-like ideas, as some lie and say I do. I have never had any followers or cult-like meetings, even such an accusation is absurd on every level,” he wrote. “They pay people who met me once or twice to fabricate stories for a ‘documentary’ and make stuff up and I can’t help that.”
After Woroneicki uploaded the post, Talos Films told Luxury Handbag Shopping in a statement, “Talos Films contacted Michael Woroneicki and his wife and adult children by email multiple times over the course of nearly a year to inform them that Talos was producing a film about Michael’s connection to Andrea Yates, and to invite them to ask questions about the project and to share their perspective. Talos never received any response to that repeated outreach. We stand by the reporting in our documentary. ”
Following the deaths of her five kids, Andrea was initially convicted of capital murder in 2002 and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after forty years. After it was determined that forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz gave false testimony, the verdict was later overturned on appeal.
The case was retried in 2006 and a Texas jury found that Andrea was not guilty by reason of insanity.
