COVERAGE OF COVENANT SHOOTING INVESTIGATION – The Tennessee Star has obtained a large number of case documents regarding the investigation of Audrey Elizabeth Hale and the mass shooting she perpetrated at Covenant Presbyterian School on March 27, 2023.
The journal police recovered from the vehicle Audrey Elizabeth Hale drove to the Covenant School, where she claimed the lives of six on March 27, 2023, does not contain evidence Hale harbored “resentment” the five years she spent as a student at the school.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained approximately 80 pages of Hale’s writings, in the form of Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) photos, from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
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The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Wednesday denied Chief John Drake privately acknowledged staff at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) knew Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale told mental health professionals she fantasized about killing her father and committing a mass shooting at a school, but failed to warn potential victims in violation of Tennessee Code 33-3-206, as was alleged by a source familiar with the investigation to The Tennessee Star on June 19.
MNPD Public Affairs director Don Aaron contacted The Star on Wednesday via email to state, “Chief Drake confirms that he DID NOT acknowledge what” The Star first reported in its June 19 article.
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The outgoing president of Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital (VPH), part of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), combined the hospital’s services to patients in psychiatric crisis in 2016, three years before the Covenant School killer was referred to VPH for commitment and instead enrolled in an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP).
The Tennessee Star reported on June 7 that Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigators learned within hours of Hale’s March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School, which claimed the lives of six, that the killer was a 22-year mental health patient of VUMC.
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The editor-in-chief and publisher of The Tennessee Star was ordered to appear in court last week and threatened with charges of contempt after his newspaper reported on an anonymously leaked collection of documents authored by Nashville mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale. Michael Patrick Leahy was joined by his attorneys in court on Monday for a “show-cause hearing,” where the journalist was asked by Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles to demonstrate why his outlet’s reporting does not subject him to contempt proceedings and sanctions.
On March 27, 2023, Hale (born Audrey Elizabeth Hale) entered the Covenant School armed with three semiautomatic guns and murdered six people, including three 9-year-old children. Hale, who was eventually shot and killed by police in the school, was a transgender man and former student at Covenant who harbored extremist sentiments on race, gender, and politics. The massacre remains the deadliest mass shooting in Tennessee history.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote in the journal police recovered from her vehicle an entry that appears to include instructions for the media about how to refer to the killer.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote in the journal police recovered from her vehicle about training at a Nashville gun range with one of the weapons she purchased using federal Pell Grant funds and concealed in her family home.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained Hale’s journal and a tranche of police documents from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation, and on June 6, including a journal entry in which Hale claimed to witness an accidental firearm injury while training at a Nashville gun range just two days prior to her devastating March 27, 2023 attack.
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Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital announced the creation of its Behavioral Health Clinical Services Center (CSC) on March 28, 2023, just one day after Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale committed her attack that claimed the lives of six, including three children.
The Tennessee Star confirmed it obtained a portion of police documents from the Covenant case earlier this month, including documents that show Hale was a 22-year mental health patient at VUMC who began receiving treatment in 2001 when she was just six years old.
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The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained the journal recovered by the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) from the vehicle of Audrey Elizabeth Hale after her devastating attack on the Covenant School claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adults.
Apparently started by Hale in January 2023, the journal reveals how the killer spent her final months before she was slain by heroic police officers responding to the Covenant School on March 27, 2023.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale purchased a pair of “boots” for her one of her stuffed animals after she used them to simulate heterosexual intercourse, according to an entry titled “My Imaginary Penis” from the journal police recovered from the vehicle she drove to the Covenant School, where she committed her devastating March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation, and on June 6, published details about one entry Hale titled “My Imaginary Penis.”
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote in the journal police recovered from her vehicle about her purported autism diagnosis, but also wrote that she was accused of being “bi-polar,” and divulged she struggled with eating and sleeping regularly.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation, and has now published more than 40 articles that provide new details regarding the case and insight into Hale’s writings.
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Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) announced on Monday a new vice president to lead the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, where The Tennessee Star reported earlier this month that Covenant School shooter was a 22-year mental health patient, having begun receiving treatment as a six-year-old in 2001.
A March 14 news release by VUMC announced current Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital president Mary Pawlikowski planned to “retire at the end of the fiscal year,” placing her retirement date on September 30.
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More transgender patients have reportedly joined the class action suit against Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) after it alerted patients their medical records were given to Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti as part of an investigation into inflated billing practices.
According to attorney Tricia Herzfeld, who revealed new details about the legal action to WKRN on Thursday, there are now two class action lawsuits against VUMC.
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A medical doctor working for Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) published an article in September 2023 that claimed children who identify as transgender benefit when competing in sports with competitors of their preferred gender.
The September 18, 2023 article was published less than six months after Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a biological female who identified as a transgender male, committed her devastating March 27 attack on the Covenant School which claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said it “makes sense” how Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) appears to have some sort of role in introducing teenagers and children with mental health problems to transgenderism for further treatment.
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Born a biological female, Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale began identifying as a transgender man and using the name Aiden prior to her devastating attack which claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults on March 27, 2023.
Police documents published by The Tennessee Star determined Hale was a 22-year mental health patient of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), the home of a controversial transgender program that is reportedly considered “big money” for the hospital.
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The distraught father of a teenage daughter contacted The Tennessee Star on Thursday and expressed his concern about the treatment his daughter has been receiving at Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, part of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).
The Star received the email after it published the notes taken by a Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigator the department obtained at least 75 pages of documents from VUMC following a June 1, 2023 search warrant.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote repeatedly about experiencing pain, using the phrase “everything hurts” in at least 10 entries in the journal recovered from her vehicle after her devastating attack claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three staff members.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation, which reveal she repeatedly wrote about pain, and police photographs obtained by The Star reveal Hale was prescribed an anti-anxiety medication that can cause musculoskeletal pain.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said he believes Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s (VUMC) connection to Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the Covenant School killer, is the “biggest part” of the unraveling story.
On June 7, The Star was the first to report that Hale was a 22-year patient of VUMC from 2001 until the time of the horrific school shooting on March 27, 2023.
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The Tennessee Star received a response from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) regarding its apparent treatment of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, which was revealed in a number of Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) documents obtained by The Star.
After The Star obtained a police summary describing 75 pages of notes retrieved from VUMC following a June 1, 2023 search warrant for information related to Hale’s treatment, and asked VUMC president and CEO Jeff Balser for comment, a spokesman said he was unable to confirm Hale’s treatment due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Act of 1996.
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The Tennessee Star retrieved metadata from the Microsoft Word document titled “Vandy Psych,” which contains notes summarizing 75 pages of documents retrieved from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) following a June 1, 2023 search warrant for materials related to its treatment of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
The Star reported it obtained the document from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation on Wednesday, when its contents were published alongside the revelation a source claimed Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) Chief John Drake acknowledged VUMC failed its duty to warn Hale’s intended victims after she expressed fantasies of killing her father and enacting a school shooting.
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Multiple entries within the journal police recovered from the vehicle driven by Audrey Elizabeth Hale to the Covenant School on March 27, 2023, when she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members, appear to corroborate previous reporting that the killer became “obsessed” with her former middle school basketball teammates.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation, and has since reported extensively about entries which refer to two of Hale’s former teammates on the Isaiah T. Creswell Middle School basketball team.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote several entries in the journal police recovered from her vehicle that referenced her mental health, including an entry about her therapist, multiple references to autism, anxiety, and one entry that mentions bipolar disorder.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source familiar with the police investigation into her March 27, 2023 attack which claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members at the Covenant School.
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Tennessee Star editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy unveiled the Nashville Covenant School mass shooter’s personal writings earlier this month, but no mainstream news outlets appear to have reported about the revelations, and only one has reported on the subsequent legal battle that Leahy faces for uncovering the documents.
Additionally, while journalists’ rights organizations traditionally would have provided counsel to a reporter like Leahy in court, few are willing to comment on the case, and Leahy is being represented by America First Legal and Daniel Horwitz, a Nashville-based attorney who focuses on the First Amendment.
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The Tennessee Star has obtained a Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) internal document labeled “Vandy Psych” which appears to be notes taken by an MNPD officer tasked with reviewing documents obtained via a search warrant granted for Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, part of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), on June 1, 2023.
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Audrey Elizabeth Hale sought forgiveness from God in a journal entry dated March 27, 2023, the date she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adults during her devastating attack on the Covenant School.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings, recovered from her vehicle by police at the Covenant School, from a source familiar with the investigation.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote entries in the journal police recovered from her vehicle that seems to corroborate media reports suggesting Hale had childlike interests and wanted to be a child prior to her devastating attack on March 27, 2023.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale mentioned consuming pornography in the journal police recovered from her vehicle, and in one entry wrote she must “resort to cartoon porn” due to her inability to find a romantic partner.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained the journal police obtained from Hale’s vehicle after her devastating attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023 from a source familiar with the investigation.
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Audrey Elizabeth Hale referred to individuals or groups who she disliked as “robots,” “clones,” or “not real” in various entries found in the journal police recovered from her vehicle after she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained approximately 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
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The Show Cause Hearing scheduled Monday by Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles concluded after the judge repeatedly referenced her prior order in which she explained the possibility of appointing an outside attorney to investigate and prosecute possible contempt charges against Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star and the CEO of Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM).
Myles ordered on June 10 for Leahy to appear in court for the Show Cause Hearing after a source familiar with the Covenant investigation provided The Star with a journal written by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, as well as police documents related to the Covenant investigation, and The Star began reporting Hale’s own words and the contents of investigative documents.
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On the day when The Star News Network’s Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy is scheduled to appear before a judge for publishing information from the journal of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, news networks across America and the world have picked up the story.
Leahy was ordered to appear Tennessee Chancery Court Judge l’Ashea Myles for a show cause hearing on Monday, to determine whether publishing the information interfered with Tennessee lawsuit in which Leahy and Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM) are seeking to compel the full release of Hale’s writings, including those that have been called a manifesto, by the Metro Nashville Police Department.
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Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote in her journal, found in the killer’s vehicle by police after her March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School, that her “thoughts about death” changed “significantly” in the period after her middle school basketball teammate and classmate Sydney Sims died tragically following a 2022 car accident.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages from Hale’s journal from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
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Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote a Valentine’s Day entry to the journal police recovered from her vehicle after she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained approximately 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote at least 17 times about her gender, struggle with her gender identity, or transgenderism either directly or indirectly in the journal police recovered from her vehicle.
The Tennessee Star confirmed last week it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from the journal, as well as documents related to the police investigation, from a source familiar with the Covenant case.
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Former acting Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark raised three concerns on Thursday in response to news that Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star and CEO of its publisher Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), was compelled to appear in court on Monday.
Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles first ordered Leahy to appear in court on June 10 after The Star published dozens of articles reporting the journal entries of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale. The Star confirmed last week it obtained Hale’s journal and a portion of police documents from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote in the journal police recovered from her vehicle about her social isolation and inability to live independently.
The Tennessee Star confirmed last week it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation, including the lengthy entry titled “My Brain… This Life.”
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Members of the Tennessee General Assembly took to X Friday to defend Tennessee Star Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, who was ordered to appear before Tennessee Chancery Court Judge l’Ashea Myles for a show cause hearing on Monday.
Myles issued the order after The Star published dozens of articles reporting on writings from a journal recovered from Covenant School mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a biological female who identified as a transgender male, wrote in her journal about consuming Bud Light just over one month after the Anheuser-Busch InBev brewing company paid Dylan Mulvaney, a biological male who identifies as a transgender woman, to promote its product.
The Tennessee Star confirmed last week it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings, recovered from her vehicle by police, from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Friday confirmed the authenticity of the 80 pages of writings from the journal of Covenant School killer Audrey Hale, which were obtained by The Tennessee Star last week.
A Friday morning legal filing by the police department involves a declaration by MNPD Lieutenant Alfredo Arevalo, who claimed to have information about the possible identity of the individual or group of people who provided the Covenant materials to The Star.
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A handful of entries in the journal recovered from the vehicle of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale appear to suggest she might have assigned a numerological meaning to the date of her devastating attack which claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults.
The Tennessee Star confirmed last week it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation. Among these entries are multiple pages that suggest Hale assigned special significance to the numbers 2 and 7.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote about drinking Bud Light around the time she published a now-deleted “suicide note” on social media, according to a journal police recovered from her vehicle.
The Tennessee Star confirmed last week it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation, including an entry that mentioned consuming alcohol less than two weeks before her devastating attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members on March 27, 2023.
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Michael Patrick Leahy, who is the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star and the CEO of Star News Digital Media, Inc., on Thursday filed an emergency appeal with the Middle Tennessee Court of Appeals.
Leahy seeks to obtain a stay to would stop the Show Cause Hearing set in the June 10 order by Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles for Monday in the Tennessee case to unseal the writings of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
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An emergency motion filed on Wednesday requests Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles set aside her June 10 court order which established a show cause hearing on Monday after dozens of articles including writings from a journal recovered from Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale were published by The Tennessee Star.
Michael Patrick Leahy, who is the CEO of Star News Digital Media, Inc. and the editor-in-chief of The Star, was ordered by Myles to appear in court on Monday after WSMV 4 reporter Stacey Cameron claimed he called the court to ask Myles “if she was considering holding the Star or anyone else in contempt” due to its reporting.
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A photograph of medication bottles prescribed to Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale reveals she was given a fifth, previously unknown prescription. This is in addition to the four medications previously reported by The Tennessee Star.
The image of the prescription bottles, obtained by The Star from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation, depicts four orange, semi-transparent prescription bottles with blue lids and white labels. All of the bottles are prescribed to Audrey E. Hale and bear the name of a psychiatric nurse practitioner who runs a practice based in Nashville.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote entries in her journal about her social isolation about one month before her devastating attack on March 27, 2023.
The Star confirmed last week it obtained 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a journal police recovered from her vehicle at the Covenant School from a source familiar with the investigation.
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The FBI declined on Monday to confirm to The Tennessee Star the authenticity of a memo it sent to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) that “strongly discourages” the release of “legacy tokens” left by those who commit devastating attacks like the Covenant School attack orchestrated by Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
The Star published the memo last week, revealing it was addressed to MNPD Chief John Drake and sent on May 11, 2023.
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Before Audrey Elizabeth Hale claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adults in her devastating March 27, 2023 attack at the Covenant School, she wrote in a journal recovered by police of her desire to “inflict pain” and share the “same fate” with a former friend and middle school classmate who is now a Nashville radio personality.
The Tennessee Star confirmed last Wednesday it obtained photographic images showing 80 pages written by Hale in a journal recovered from her vehicle from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale expressed frustrations in her journal with her brain in entries that appeared to reference her purported autism diagnosis and struggles with gender identity.
The Tennessee Star reported last Wednesday it obtained 80 pages of Hale’s writings, in the form of 40 photographic images of her journal captured by law enforcement.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star who has reported extensively on The Star’s obtaining of more than 80 documents related to the case of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the Covenant School killer, said Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has refused to respond to any of his press inquiries surrounding its involvement in the case of Hale, who reportedly had been receiving treatment from the hospital since 2001.
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Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, could face contempt charges or other punitive action on June 17 over his publication’s reporting of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Hale after her devastating attack on the Covenant School on March 27, 2023 that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adults.
The court date was set following an unsubstantiated allegation from WSMV 4 reporter Stacey Cameron to Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote about having “too much estrogen” and described herself as “a sad, lonely boy,” in the journal police recovered from her vehicle after her attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults on March 27, 2023.
The Tennessee Star confirmed last Wednesday it obtained dozens of pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation, including several several entries where Hale wrote about her struggles with gender identity.
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