Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale avoided commitment on three separate occasions, her parents told Metro Nashville Police Department investigators in a June 12, 2023 interview, according to a transcript obtained by The Tennessee Star from a source familiar with the investigation.
The transcript reveals Ronald and Norma Hale told investigators doctors wanted to commit her daughter for inpatient treatment over an eating disorder, and that Audrey Hale was twice considered for inpatient commitment after she expressed suicidal ideation to mental health professionals.
The Star previously reported Audrey Hale was a 22-year mental health patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).
Ronald Hale first divulged that his daughter suffered from an eating disorder and required medical intervention in 2017 after he explained their relationship was lukewarm but not hostile. Specifically, the eating disorder was discussed after Ronald Hale explained his daughter once “cussed” him out because he made pizza after returning home late from work.
“I never cussed her out but she did cuss me out on occasion,” explained Ronald Hale, moments after investigators revealed Audrey Hale planned to kill him.
He continued, “the one memorable occasion was when I had worked late and was hungry, and around 7:30, 8 o’clock at night I baked a pizza to eat for supper. She was in her room and she smelled it. And she got upset and dropped some F bombs on me for making a pizza.”
According to Ronald Hale, his daughter was “sensitive to smell” and “loud voices” due to “autism.” The Star reported on Sunday that Ronald and Norma Hale first learned of Audrey Hale’s purported autism diagnosis in 2001, when she was evaluated by a speech pathologist prior to beginning kindergarten at the Covenant School.
When MNPD investigators asked about the eating disorder, Norma Hale divulged that Audrey Hale was in such poor medical condition that doctors “wanted to send her inpatient.”
“I cannot tell you what caused her to start to regulate her food, not eat, but she had to seek treatment for an eating disorder in 2017.” Norma Hale explained that her daughter “saw a special physician.”
Norma Hale told investigators Audrey Hale “was so critical they wanted to send her inpatient, but they didn’t. They treated her outpatient” at a facility near Nashville.
According to her parents, Audrey Hale did not receive treatment for her eating disorder at VUMC, but instead received treatment at a facility listed on the VUMC website as a resource for individuals suffering from eating disorders.
Ronald and Norma Hale explained that Audrey Hale was also twice considered for commitment after she expressed suicidal ideation to her therapists.
The Star reported last month that Audrey Hale was referred to VUMC by her first psychologist for commitment after she expressed suicidal ideation in 2019. The killer’s parents told MNPD investigators this happened a second time.
When Audrey Hale was first referred for commitment, both parents confirmed it resulted in the killer’s participation in an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) at VUMC.
“At first, they didn’t think she would do because of her autism, they didn’t think she would do well in a locked ward.” Norma Hale explained, “so they referred to the intensive outpatient program, which is a program you go like 9:00 to 3:00.”
The mother noted, “she had to take a leave of absence from college – to attend that program.”
When Audrey Hale was next considered for commitment, Ronald and Norma Hale told MNPD investigators she was evaluated and deemed fit to return home.
“Evaluated two or three, two or three hours,” said Ronald Hale. His wife elaborated, “They evaluated and thought she was okay to go home.”
Police documents reveal Audrey Hale continued to receive mental health treatment until her March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School, where she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members before she was heroically shot by responding MNPD officers.
Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates The Star, and editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy are plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuits which seek to compel both MNPD and the FBI to release Hale’s full writings, including those some call a manifesto.
Last month, The Star published an FBI memo sent to MNPD Chief John Drake in May 2023 which “strongly” advised against releasing “legacy tokens” from killers like Audrey Hale. A definition from the federal agency suggests both the approximately 80 pages of Audrey Hale’s writings obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuits are considered unfit for public release by the FBI.
Though the FBI declined to confirm it sent the memo in a statement to The Star, the federal agency confirms it sends such “products” to local law enforcement.
Since it obtained Audrey Hale’s writings and a tranche of police documents, The Star has published more than 60 articles that include the killer’s own words and new details about the Covenant investigation.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
