Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the full release of the Covenant school shooter manifesto would allow a glimpse into how treatments for mental health diagnoses, specifically when it comes to transgender individuals, have dramatically changed over the last decade.

The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) may not meet its “goal” of completing the Covenant School shooting investigation by January 1, 2025, according to spokesman Don Aaron, who told The Tennessee Star on Tuesday he was unable to offer a firm date or time for the lead detective to finish documenting the case. Aaron previously told The Star in November that “some work” was necessary to complete the documentation phase of the investigation early last month, then on November 12 confirmed it was “the goal” of the department to finish the investigation before the end of this year.

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, said in a recently resurfaced interview that the FBI Director has the power to release major classified documents, including the manifesto left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale and the client list once kept by disgraced financier-turned-sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and urged Trump to promise full declassification upon entering office. Patel made the remarks in a December 2023 appearance on “Glenn TV,” when he told host Glenn Beck that the FBI Director has the authority to declassify both the “black book” used by Epstein and the ten or more notebooks full of writings left by Hale, the biological female who identified as a transgender man when she killed six at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023.

The Tennessee Star on Friday extended a settlement offer to the Biden-Harris FBI through attorneys at the Department of Justice (DOJ) representing the FBI that would see the federal government drop its opposition to the release of the writings obtained by the FBI that were left by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the 28-year-old woman who self-identified as a man, and killed six at the Covenant School in Nashville on March 27, 2023. Through their attorneys at the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty, Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy and Star News Digital Media Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, offered the FBI, through its DOJ attorney, the opportunity to withdraw their objection to the release of Hale’s writings before President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential transition is complete.

Tennessee Star editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy announced on Wednesday he and Star News Digital Media Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, will ask the Department of Justice (DOJ) to drop its opposition to the release of the written documents left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale prior to her March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of six. Leahy announced the decision during the Wednesday broadcast of the Michael Patrick Leahy Show, when he explained The Star has “decided to turn our attention back to freedom of information act, transparency requests that we’ve had going some time related to the Covenant killer manifesto,” in the wake of the 2024 elections.

The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) told The Tennessee Star earlier this month that its investigation of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale remains ongoing, with “some work” still needed to document the March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three school staff members. MNPD Public Affairs director Don Aaron told The Star the investigation is still underway and remains in a documentation phase in a November 1 email. The MNPD official wrote, “Considerable progress has been made, though there is still some work to complete,” and said there is not a specific date for completion.

Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who killed three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members at the Covenant School in March 2023, referenced “bi-polar” in the journal from her “manifesto” released by The Tennessee Star on September 3. Hale wrote in an entry dated January 16, 2023, “I’ve been anxious all last week, all day today [stressed] then I’m told I’m bi-polar by some prideful b****.”

Roger Simon, the co-founder of PJ Media and author of the newly-launched Substack “American Refugees,” said the noticeable common factor among a majority of mass shooters is that the perpetrators are simply “crazy.” “In every case of these kinds of shootings, one of the things that is always amusing to me is that you get a report that police are looking for the motivation. The motivation is they’re crazy,” Simon said on Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

Deborah Fisher, the executive director of Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, described the continued withholding of documents by the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) relating to the case of the Covenant School killer as simply “disturbing.” On Tuesday, The Tennessee Star published all 90 pages of the journal written between January and March of 2023 by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the 28-year-old biological woman who self-identified as a transgender man and who, on March 27, 2023, murdered three 9-year-old students and three staff members at the Covenant School in Nashville before being subsequently killed by MNPD officers.

Sheila Matthews, co-founder of the national non-profit parent organization AbleChild, is raising concerns about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) omission of the use of psychiatric drugs when examining the common denominators among mass shooters across the nation.

Aaron Gulbransen, executive director of the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, and Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, discussed The Star releasing  90 pages of writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale on Tuesday, both agreeing that the case is an example of how the mental health system is “destroying children.” On Tuesday morning, The Star published all 90 pages of the journal written between January and March of 2023 by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the 28-year-old biological woman who self-identified as a transgender man and who, on March 27, 2023, murdered three 9-year-old students and three staff members at the Covenant School in Nashville before being subsequently killed by officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD).

At 9:30 am CT today, September 3, 2024, The Tennessee Star published all 90 pages of the journal written between January and March of 2023 by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the 28-year-old biological woman who self identified as a transgender man and who, on March 27, 2023 murdered three 9-year-old students and three staff members at the Covenant School and was subsequently killed by Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officers. Later that same day MNPD obtained this journal and a spiral notebook from the vehicle Hale used to drive to the school. MNPD Chief John Drake initially described this journal and the spiral notebook as the “manifesto” of Hale.

The Tennessee Star and editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy released the full “manifesto” left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale on Tuesday, making the killer’s journal entries available to the public for the first time. This release contains the pages of Hale’s journal that were obtained by The Star from a source familiar with the investigation in June. The journal containing the pages was recovered from Hale’s vehicle by police after her March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School, where she claimed the lives  of three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members.

An FBI agent is identified as the officer who found Covenant Killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s suicide note on the afternoon of March 27, 2023 at the residence of the house in Nashville where she resided with her parents, according to an inventory list of items seized from the house that day compiled by the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and legally obtained from a source familiar with the investigation by The Tennessee Star in June 2024.

The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Friday was unable to provide The Tennessee Star with an estimated time of completion for its investigation into the Covenant School attack, but spokesman Don Aaron stated the case “remains open and is largely in a documentation phase where the lead detective is writing his and the department’s actions, findings, etc.” Police began investigating the attack on March 27, 2023, when Audrey Elizabeth Hale claimed the lives three 6-year-old students and three adult staff members at the Covenant School in Nashville.

Tennessee State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) confirmed on Tuesday he plans to appeal the July 4 decision by Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles that blocked the release the journals and other written materials left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Tennessee Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy launched an appeal on Wednesday to reverse Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles’s ruling blocking the release of even one page of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale. Lawyers for SNDM, including America First Legal Foundation attorney Nicholas Barry and attorney Paul Krog, officially filed notice with the Court of Appeals of Tennessee at Nashville that it intends to appeal, making SNDM and Leahy the first plaintiffs to appeal Myles’ July 4 ruling.

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said he believes attorneys for Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) may have reached a financial arrangement with multiple entities involved in the Covenant School killer case in order to “protect” the medical institution’s reputation amid shocking revelations connecting VUMC to the killer, Audrey Elizabeth Hale. 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.

Ronald Hale, the father of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, confirmed to investigators that Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) did not inform his daughter developed an interest in the April 20, 1999 shooting at the Columbine High School in Colorado, according to a transcript of a July 12, 2023 police interview obtained by The Tennessee Star.  Police documents obtained by The Star previously established that Audrey Hale was a 22-year mental health patient at VUMC, and Ronald and Norma Hale confirmed their daughter was evaluated for commitment for mental health reasons during three separate incidents, including two at VUMC for suicidal ideation.

Attorneys who represent Ronald Hale and Norma Hale, the parents of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, did not respond to The Tennessee Star when asked about the killer’s suicide note and a probate court filing, which both appear to suggest the killer left a last will and testament prior to her devastating attack on March 27, 2023. Neither attorney David Raybin, who represented Ronald Hale and Norma Hale in matters related to the Covenant investigation, nor attorney Jeff Mobley, who represents the killer’s parents in the intestate probate case for Audrey Hale’s estate, replied to a press inquiry from The Star which sought to establish whether the killer left behind a document called a will.

The parents of Audrey Elizabeth Hale told Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigators during a July 12, 2023 interview that two of their daughter’s childhood friends changed their phone numbers to cut contact with the killer in the years prior to her attack on the Covenant School, where she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three staff members, according to a transcript of the interview obtained by The Tennessee Star.  Last month, The Star confirmed it obtained approximately 80 pages of writings left in a journal by Audrey Hale from a source familiar with the investigation, and reported the killer wrote extensively about the death of her middle school basketball teammate Sydney Sims.

An attorney who represents The Covenant Children’s Trust, which claims it owns the copyright to the works of Covenant School attacker Audrey Elizabeth Hale, told The Tennessee Star on Wednesday he could not comment on whether his client received any type of financial compensation from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), which treated the killer over 22 years. The Star contacted attorney Ed Yarbrough, who works at the Spencer Fane firm and represented the Covenant Children’s Trust in the Tennessee lawsuit which sought to compel Metro Nashville to release Hale’s documents, to ask whether his client, the Covenant School, or Covenant Presbyterian Church were approached by VUMC to discuss its potential civil liability over its treatment of Hale.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) did not respond to a Monday inquiry from The Tennessee Star that sought to establish whether VUMC took any actions to mitigate any possible financial liabilities that may have resulted from its 22-year treatment of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale. The Star contacted VUMC about what actions it may have taken to address possible legal liability after publishing the MNPD document, “Vandy Psych,” which contains notes written by an MNPD investigator who secured at least 75 pages of documents about Hale’s treatment at VUMC after obtaining a search warrant.

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said there are “layers of reversal error” in Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles’ ruling last Thursday that not one page of the materials written by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale will be released to the public.

Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale created duplicates of materials she wanted to be discovered by Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD), a detective told the killer’s parents in a June 12, 2023 interview, according to a transcript obtained by The Tennessee Star. The interview was conducted by three MNPD detectives, who were investigating the Covenant case, and included both Ronald and Norma Hale, the parents of Audrey Hale, and their attorney David Raybin.

The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) referred The Tennessee Star to the court of Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles when asked if the department provided specific documents to Judge Myles before she declared in her decision that not one page of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale will be released, citing the copyright allegedly held by the parents of Covenant School children. The Star asked MNPD Public Affairs director Don Aaron whether investigators provided Judge Myles with the document titled “Vandy Psych.” The document contains notes written by an MNPD investigator who received at least 75 pages of documents from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), where Hale was a 22-year mental health patient, after obtaining a search warrant in the wake of her March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of six.

Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles last Thursday ruled that not one page of the materials written by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale will be released to the public, citing the copyright claims raised by parents of minor students who claim to own the copyright to the killer’s works. The parents of Covenant School students successfully claimed before Myles that they were assigned the intellectual property rights of the materials left by Audrey Hale before to her attack, and a probate court filing reveals Ronald and Norma Hale appear to have transferred the copyright to the parents of in June 2023.

The Thursday ruling by Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles, when she decided not one single page of the writings of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale would be released, will “absolutely” be appealed, stated Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star and the CEO of Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), on Friday. Leahy declared in his Friday statement, “The judge has erroneously accepted a dubious copyright claim made by intervenors who should not have been allowed to intervene in this case in the first place.”

Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles ruled in a decision released at 11:58 pm on Thursday that none of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale shall be released to the multiple parties who sued Metro Nashville to secure their release, citing the copyright claims of the parents she earlier allowed to intervene in the lawsuit.

Police investigators told the parents of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale their daughter “felt close” to those who perpetrated the Columbine High School attack in 1999 and created her own version of the Columbine Tapes. The investigators told the killer’s parents, Ronald Hale and Norma Hale, that their daughter divulged the information to an unknown physician, according to the transcript of a July 12, 2023, interview The Tennessee Star obtained last month.