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.
Legally obtained by The Star, metadata associated with the document names a MNPD investigator as the author and June 2023 as the period when the document was written.
The investigator identified in the metadata is the same individual who made sworn statements in the affidavit used to secure the search warrant for VUMC.
MNPD confirmed the authenticity of the materials obtained by The Star, including a roughly 80-page journal written by Hale and a tranche of police documents related to the investigation, and MNPD Media Relations Office director Don Aaron additionally replied to an inquiry from The Star about the document and claim about Drake.
In its comment request, The Star asked Aaron whether its source’s claim that Drake “acknowledged to them that VUMC had knowledge that Hale expressed to mental health professionals there she had thoughts of killing her father and fantasized about committing a mass murder at a school, but failed its duty to warn potential victims,” is accurate.
The Star additionally asked Aaron whether MNPD could confirm the authenticity of the Microsoft Word document titled “Vandy Psych,” which were reported on Wednesday.
After stating that he was currently out of the office, Aaron emailed The Star from his mobile device on Thursday, “No, as we have said previously, the Covenant matter today remains an open investigation. Detectives are working to bring it to a conclusion.”
While The Star has learned that Hale was a 22-year mental health patient of VUMC, the notes do not appear to cover the entire period of Hale’s treatment. The Star previously reported Hale’s original psychologist referred her for commitment at VUMC in 2019, and The Star obtained photographs of a folder that offered insight into the Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) she joined in lieu of commitment.
In the notes, the MNPD investigator claims Hale expressed suicidal ideation and homicidal ideation to VUMC staff, including, “Thoughts of killing Dad in and struggles with mental health. Recent thoughts of going into a school and shooting a bunch of people.”
The notes also confirmed Hale was prescribed at least four medications from VUMC staff, including two anti-anxiety medications, a nasal spray, and an antidepressant.
The Star has additionally identified a fifth medication Hale was prescribed, this one from the Benzodiazepines family of drugs the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warns is “associated with amnesia, hostility, irritability, and vivid or disturbing dreams.”
Hale committed her attack on the Covenant School on March 27, 2023. She claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members before she was fatally shot by police.
Born a biological female, Hale identified as a transgender male prior to her attack. It is unknown whether Hale sought gender affirming care at VUMC.
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 MNPD and the FBI to release Hale’s full written materials, including those sometimes called a manifesto.
Earlier this month, The Star published an FBI memo sent to Drake in May 2023 which “strongly” advised against the release of “legacy tokens” from individuals like Hale. An FBI definition suggests the agency considers the documents obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuits to be “legacy tokens” that should be withheld from the public.
Though the FBI did not confirm it sent the memo in a statement to The Star, it confirmed it sends such “products” to local law enforcement.
Read the full MNPD notes, which The Star converted from a Microsoft Word document to a PDF file for display on this web page:
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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].
So she was in a therapy for 22 years since she was 6 years old, she repeatedly said she planned to be a school shooter, which is too specific to be just a random fleeting negative feeling, and the “professionals” were not disturbed by all of that enough to lock her up in an asylum?
Make it make sense.
Seems like Vanderbilt is on the wrong side of a lot when it comes to mutilating kids, failing to act, etc.
Boycott Divest Sanction Vanderbilt!