Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) did not respond to a Monday inquiry from The Tennessee Star that sought to establish whether VUMC took any actions to mitigate any possible financial liabilities that may have resulted from its 22-year treatment of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
The Star contacted VUMC about what actions it may have taken to address possible legal liability after publishing the MNPD document, “Vandy Psych,” which contains notes written by an MNPD investigator who secured at least 75 pages of documents about Hale’s treatment at VUMC after obtaining a search warrant.
According to the document, Hale expressed suicidal and homicidal ideation while at VUMC, and specifically revealed her thoughts about killing her father and “going into a school and shooting a bunch of people.”
The investigator additionally wrote that Hale expressed “Homicidal thoughts with a plan,” and that she expressed feeling “[m]isunderstood and felt like she needed to prove a point.”
He additionally wrote, apparently paraphrasing Hale’s words to someone at VUMC, “I have violent fantasies but wouldn’t do anything.”
In the “Vandy Psych” document, the investigator additionally wrote that Hale later told someone at VUMC she “[h]as fantasies of being a school shooter,” thought “about jumping off a bridge,” and “[w]rapped a cord around her neck.”
Former MNPD Lieutenant Garet Davidson previously told The Star that no one warned Hale’s victims about her fantasies. A source familiar with the investigation later told The Star that MNPD Chief John Drake privately acknowledged VUMC failed its duty to warn Hale’s victims, though MNPD disputed this claim.
VUMC also did not respond after The Star asked whether it or any of its subsidiaries or agents made any financial payments, settlements, or arrangements with the families of the six people murdered at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023.
Additionally, VUMC did not state whether it made any financial payments, settlements, or arrangements with the Covenant School, Covenant Presbyterian Church, or the Covenant Parents Trust, which claims to own the copyright of the killer’s writings.
That claim was cited by Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles in her decision that not one page of Hale’s writings should be released to the public and other investigative files should remain sealed until the conclusion of the Covenant investigation.
Both Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, and editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy were plaintiffs in that Tennessee lawsuit. Leahy immediately vowed he would “absolutely appeal” Judge Myles’ decision, which he stated “is clearly not in the public interest and is a subversion of the intent of the Tennessee Public Records Act.”
Leahy and SNDM remain plaintiffs in the active federal lawsuit which seeks to compel the FBI to release Hale’s full writings, including those sometimes called a manifesto.
Last month, The Star published an FBI memo which “strongly” advised MNPD Chief John Drake against releasing “legacy tokens” from killers like Hale. An FBI definition suggests both the approximately 80 pages of Hale’s writings obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuits are considered unfit for release by the federal agency.
The FBI declined to confirm it sent the memo in a statement to The Star, but acknowledged it sends such “products” to local law enforcement.
Since it obtained a portion of Hale’s writings and a tranche of police documents, The Star has published more than 60 articles that include the killer’s own words or 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].
Photo “Vanderbilt University Medical Center” by Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
VUMC is creating monsters.