The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) report published following the conclusion of its investigation into the Covenant School killings by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as a transgender man prior to the March 27, 2023 attack, revealed the killer left behind 1,299 pages of written materials spread across more than a dozen notebooks, in addition to videos and drawings.
When The Tennessee Star obtained the killer’s 2023 journal from a source familiar with the investigation last June and published it in its entirety four months later, it learned that Hale produced as many as 1,000 pages in other journals over the course of years.
The MNPD report published Wednesday confirmed that police recovered 16 notebooks from Hale’s vehicle and bedroom, containing 1,299 handwritten pages.
Hale’s 2023 journal, containing about 90 pages and published by The Star last September, was one of the two notebooks law enforcement recovered from the killer’s vehicle.
According to the 48-page police report, Hale began writing after a therapist recommended journaling her thoughts in 2017. They were consequently dated between August 30, 2017, and March 27, 2023, the date she claimed the lives of six at the Christian school she once attended.
The report stated that three notebooks contained “stories created by Hale, documenting her childhood,” though MNPD offered sparse details about these stories or the contents of the other notebooks.
While MNPD Chief John Drake initially described the journals recovered from the killer’s vehicle as a manifesto, the report released this week states Hale left no single document that could be considered a manifesto but instead left behind “a series of notebooks, art composition books, and media files” that documented her planning, preparation, and motivations for the attack.
“No single document, notebook, or digital device contains the answer to those questions,” wrote the MNPD detectives behind the report. “The answer is scattered throughout all the assembled material, which required a careful review of the material to understand Hale’s motive.”
In addition to the notebook, the MNPD report stated that law enforcement “located numerous notebooks, folders, sketchbooks, and loose documents that contained personal writings, artwork, sales receipts, and lists made by Hale.” It did not explain or characterize these writings.
Detectives also reportedly recovered eight digital storage devices used by Hale, containing 379.6 GB of data, enough to hold more than 100 hours of digital video.
Among the digital files created by Hale, according to the report, were a series of 12 “Bedroom Tapes” the killer created as an apparent homage to the Columbine High School killers, who infamously recorded themselves discussing plans for their attack in a series of videos.
Both Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy are suing to compel both MNPD and the FBI to release Hale’s full writings, and other associated materials in lawsuits that were originally filed in May 2023.
In the Tennessee lawsuit, MNPD previously cited the ongoing status of the investigation when objecting to the release. A third party, the Covenant Children’s Trust, claims to own the intellectual property rights to Hale’s works and was allowed to intervene in the lawsuit by Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles.
Myles ruled on July 4, 2024, that not one page of Hale’s writings should be release, citing both the then-ongoing investigation and the claims to Hale’s intellectual property advanced by the Covenant Children’s Trust. Leahy and SNDMÂ appealed Myles’ ruling and expect the decision to be reversed.
Leahy and SNDM recently offered to drop its lawsuit against the FBI if the agency, now led by FBI Director Kash Patel, agrees to drop its objection to the release of Hale’s writings. Patel has yet to respond.
– – –
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].
