Writings by the Covenant School killer, released this week by the FBI, confirms she resumed using federal student aid to purchase and hide firearms at her family residence immediately after agreeing to sell the guns following a confrontation by her parents.
The manifesto writings published on Monday contained dozens of pages devoted to financial transactions related to guns and accessories purchased or sold by Audrey Hale, the 28-year-old who identified as a transgender man until her death on March 27, 2023, when she killed six at the Covenant School.
Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) wrote in its final report on the Covenant case, published in April, that Hale’s firearm purchases were first discovered in December 2020, but that she excused them as interest in the military.
The parents’ interview with MNPD detectives, which was legally obtained by The Tennessee Star in 2024, first revealed that Hale’s parents, along with her therapist, convinced her to consent to their removing the weapons from the family home, before Hale eventually agreed to sell the weapons. MNPD reported that only two of the guns were sold, and that she purchased and concealed another weapon during this period.
That purchase is reflected in the latest writings, where the killer appeared to track what guns, ammunition, or accessories were purchased on specific dates, including the purchase of a Smith & Wesson Shield-series pistol chambered in .380 ACP.
Next to the $256.74 recorded for the purchase, the killer wrote, “Nossi Grant/credit card).”
Hale proceeded to note what appear to be two purchases of accessories for the pistol, or other firearms, in the month of July, even as she wrote drafts of the listings she planned to post online in order to sell the weapons as promised to her parents.
She also indicated she would continue to train with firearms, and could “still go to the range” to rent a weapon or train with her pistol, “if it is not discovered.” She similarly wrote that she could train with her Kel-Tec SUB-2000, a compact 9mm rifle that her parents did not know about, “if it is not discovered.”
MNPD stated in its final report that the rifle was the first weapon the killer purchased using, “money she obtained from her federal student grants which was left over after paying her education costs.”
While the weapons purchased by the killer using Pell Grant money were never discovered by her parents, she also retained a Mossberg shotgun after having it returned following her promise to sell it, as detectives located the gun in her closet after the attack.
The Star published photos last year showing the killer wrote on the weapon, including the name Aiden, which she chose for herself after identifying as a transgender man. It also contained the words “Dark Abyss,” which she referenced throughout her later journals, and a label suggesting she named the weapon “Slugger.”
According to the journal, Hale’s online listing for the shotgun was deactivated by September, but it was listed for sale at a local gun company.
She wrote in what appears to be a sticky note attached to the page, “Next Grant check payments: Sep. 15th, 2021.”
Elsewhere in the newly released journal, the killer explicitly referenced the grant money, returned to her by the Nossi College of Art and Design in Nashville, in a series of ledger entries.
“FASFA [sic] grant checks started at $2,050.86,” she wrote at the top of the page. She listed among the ledger entries, “$2,656.87 (x3 checks from Nossi),” and “+$530.00 (x1 check Nossi) ($3,186.87).”
Hale’s novel use of federal Pell Grants was first reported in June 2024, when The Star legally obtained the killer’s final journal, as well as a portion of files from the Covenant investigation. The killer’s unredacted final writings were published by The Star last year.
In that journal, which included the killer’s writings on the day of the attack, Hale described the 2021 confrontation by her parents as a close call.
“The day has finally come. I can’t believe it’s here. Don’t know how I was able to get this far, but here I am,” The killer reflected, “There were several times I could have been caught, especially back in the summer of 2021.”
These writings are the latest to be released by the FBI after the agency agreed to release redacted journals to end Biden-era litigation, including the lawsuit brought by Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates The Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, who sued to compel their release.
The Star was nominated last year for the Dao Prize in Best Local Journalism for its reporting on the Covenant case.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
The Pell Grant monies paid directly to students is the biggest ripoff among the many types of grants. You show up for a few classes; you get the grant money; and you stop going to classes and spend the money however you want. In this case, to buy weapons and ammo. Pell Grants should be stopped but this has been going on for decades.
Grant money should be restricted to those exiting high school and entering college only. And there should be required receipts to account for the spending of the money. What happened here was ridiculous, regardless of her pretension of being a male. At 28 years old, she/he should already have held employment, whether it full time or part time. This is no different than the garbage going on in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Money pouring out and no accountability.