Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale began receiving treatment from a speech pathologist in September 2001, which is when a mental health professional first indicated to the killer’s parents that Audrey Hale suffered from autism, according to a transcript of the July 12, 2023 police interview with Ronald and Norma Hale obtained by The Tennessee Star from a source close to the investigation.
The Star previously published police documents which established Hale was a 22-year mental health patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) prior to her March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School, when she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members before she was heroically shot by two responding police officers.
Among the police documents obtained by The Star from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation is a transcript of the interview between Ronald and Norma Hale and Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigators on June 12, 2023.
When asked about the facts surrounding Hale’s purported autism diagnosis, Norma Hale told investigators her daughter first underwent a series of testing in the summer of 2001.
She told the investigator, “we had the meeting about the results two days after 9/11 in a conference room. Because of my background — we were meeting with a speech pathologist and she is not allowed to give diagnosis but because of my background that was really the day that I knew.”
Norma Hale later told the investigators that the speech pathologist, whose identity is being withheld by The Star, provided the information necessary to ascertain Audrey Hale could be diagnosed with autism.
“She was the only one in the room and she — the second time she asked me to remember Audrey’s developmental history. From my background I was like oh, my God,” Norma Hale recollected.
She related telling the speech pathologist, “What you’re saying is that Audrey’s on the spectrum.” Norma Hale explained, “she got very nervous and she said, ‘I’m not saying that.’ She said, ‘You will have to talk to'” Audrey Hale’s first psychologist “‘about that.'”
Norma Hale explained, “Because she’s a speech and language therapist, she cannot diagnose.”
Prior to enrolling Audrey Hale at the Covenant School, the parents confirmed they informed the school administration about their daughter’s mental challenges.
“I was very open with the head mistress –and they agreed. You know, we disclosed all that and they agreed to work with her. And she had a speech and language therapist to help her with a learning disability that she had, auditory processing disorder,” Norma Hale told MNPD investigators.
Norma Hale said the mental health professionals were ultimately able to equip Audrey Hale with the resources necessary to complete her college education at Nossi College of Art and Design in 2022.
“But because of the — because of therapy that she got with a very talented speech and language therapist, she was able to do things beyond what we thought she could be able to do,” Norma Hale told investigators. “So she could read and do a lot of things that maybe she wouldn’t have been able to do.”
Segments of the audio recording of Norma and Ronald Hale’s interview with MNPD investigators were previously broadcast by WTN 99.7 radio host Brian Wilson, including a portion of the interview where investigators revealed to Ronald Hale that his daughter fantasized about killing him.
Documents obtained by The Star additionally reveal MNPD served both a subpoena and a search warrant on VUMC in order to obtain documents related to Hale’s treatments.
One document obtained by The Star includes notes, taken by an MNPD investigator, about 75 pages of documents about Audrey Hale’s treatment that police obtained following the search warrant.
In these notes, the investigator reveals Audrey Hale told mental health professionals at VUMC she engaged in both suicidal and homicidal ideation, fantasized about killing her father and fantasized about committing a school shooting.
Both Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates The Star, and editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy are plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuits to compel the MNPD and the FBI to release Hale’s full writings, including those sometimes called a manifesto.
The Star published in early June a memo sent by the FBI to MNPD Chief John Drake in May 2023 which “strongly” advised against releasing “legacy tokens” from killers like Hale. An FBI definition seems to consider both the writings obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuits unfit for public consumption.
While the FBI declined to confirm it sent the memo in a statement to The Star, it confirmed it sends such “products” to local law enforcement.
Since obtaining approximately 80 pages of Hale’s writings and a tranche of police documents, The Star has published more than 60 articles that include the killer’s words or provide new updates 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].
Photo “Audrey Elizabeth Hale” by Nossi School of Fine Art. Background Photo “Evaluation” by RDNE Stock project.
