Arrest of Transgender Former Student Who Allegedly Threatened Nashville’s Christ Presbyterian Academy Raises Troubling Parallels to Covenant Killer

The recent arrest of McKenzie McClure, the biological female and former Christ Presbyterian Academy (CPA) student federal authorities accused of cyberstalking following alleged threats to CPA in Nashville, shares concerning similarities with the circumstances which preceded the tragic Covenant School shootings by former Covenant School student Audrey Elizabeth Hale last year.

Hale killed three students and three staff members on March 27, 2023 before she, in turn, was killed by Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officers.

McClure was arrested on April 29 by federal agents on cyberstalking charges after making a public threat against Governor Bill Lee and leaving a concerning voicemail to CPA in March. She remains in federal custody.

There are at least seven troubling parallels in the life stories of Hale and McClure:

1. They are one year apart in age. McClure was born in 1994. Hale was born in 1995.

2. They attended elementary schools operated by two Nashville churches affiliated with the Presbyterian Churches in America (PCA) at about the same time. McClure attended CPA from 1999 to 2004, and Hale attended Covenant School from about 2001 to 2006.

3. As adults they both expressed extreme anger at their elementary school experiences at Covenant School and CPA respectively.

4. They both failed to thrive as adults.

5. They both transitioned, or stated their intent to transition, from biological female to transgender male.

6. They both appear to share a left wing progressive political ideology.

7. They both visited their former schools shortly prior to an incident of violence or an incident of the threat of violence

There appear to be at least three differences in their life stories:

1. One apparent difference between Hale and McClure is that Hale possessed firearms and was trained in the use of firearms. She used those firearms and that training to deadly effect at Covenant School on March 27, 2023. In contrast, there is no evidence currently that indicated McClure possessed firearms or was trained in the use of firearms.

2. McClure, born McKenzie Ann Stephens, married a man in 2017, prior to her transitioning to a transgender male, a process that apparently began in May 2019. Though McClure appears to retain the legal last name of the man she married in 2017, that marriage appears to have ended by April 2020. In contrast, Hale never married a man. There are indications that as an adult Hale may have had romantic interest in at least one female.

3. Hale had no prior police record. In contrast, McClure was previously charged with domestic assault in 2022, though the charges were dismissed on August 16, 2023.

The Covenant School and CPA are both in Nashville, where they are located about five miles apart. The two schools are additionally both affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), where they are two of the 30 PCA churches that comprise the Nashville Presbytery.

Extreme anger directed at their former elementary schools

While the twin lawsuits against Metro Nashville and the FBI which seek to compel the full release of Hale’s manifesto remain ongoing, three pages of her writings were leaked to conservative comedian and commentator Steven Crowder and subsequently published last November.

In the hand-written documents by Hale, she complained of Covenant students “going to fancy private schools with those fancy khakis,” and expressed her desire to “kill all you little crackers,” then appeared to refer to the students as “little f****** [with] your white privileges.”

It has also been alleged in court filings that Hale was motivated to attack Covenant School over traumatic childhood experiences as a student.

In her March 24 phone call to CPA that resulted in the closure of the school the following day, McClure expressed extreme anger at her former elementary school:

“[T]rust me when I say unless you want another Deadpool 2, you killed by my hand type of stuff.  You know exactly what I am talking about,” McClure said in the voice message she left for CPA that is referenced in the April 27 criminal complaint against her.

“You know what I think about every time I drive by? Not even get out. Every time I look. Every time I think about my childhood. You know what I think about every single time I put my head to sleep at night? You know what I think about every morning? First of all, you don’t want to know. Second of all, I thought we already proved that the Stanford Prison Experiment doesn’t work,” she added.

Failure to thrive as adults

A 28-year-old adult at the time, Hale was living at home with her parents in Nashville in the months before she murdered six people at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023. Though she was a 2022 graduate of Nashville’s Nossi of Art and Design, Hale apparently did not make much money in the occasional freelance illustration and graphic design projects she undertook.

She reportedly described herself as “child-like” and a person who “loves to go on the run to the playground” who preferred creating “whimsical and light-hearted” artwork for clients.

A 30-year-old adult today, McClure was living at home with her parents in Williamson County by 2021 after her marriage failed and two years after she began to transition from biological female to transgender male. Property records reviewed by The Star indicate McClure’s parents own a home in Franklin, Tennessee, approximately 10 miles away from CPA. It is unclear if she still resides with her parents or resides at another location in Williamson County.

By 2021, a post to the Facebook profile reveals McClure was apparently living with her parents, unemployed, and receiving education “to become a coding/software engineer.”

McClure appears to have obtained a music education degree from Lee University, located in Cleveland, Tennessee, in 2017. After her marriage in late 2017, McClure worked regularly in a photography business until at least February 2019. She continued to participate in Lee University campus life after she graduated, and appeared in a university opera production as late as 2019.

In 2019 she posted a video to her Facebook account in which she stated she had finally put her college degree to good use, as the video showed her folding her college diploma and using it as a mousepad.

They both transitioned from biological female to transgender male

While Hale clearly identified as a transgender male, it remains unclear exactly when she began identifying as a transgender male or what level of transition had been completed by the time she committed the March 27, 2023 murders. There is currently no hard evidence that Hale was taking testosterone, though there has been widespread speculation to that effect.

McClure indicated in an April 22 post on the Facebook profile associated with her that she began using testosterone to assist with her gender transition on May 4, 2019.

With regards to any genital transformation surgery, there is no evidence currently that Hale had gone through that procedure. There is, however, some indirect evidence via a Facebook post by McClure that she had recently exchanged “dick pics” with a drag queen.

A shared Left wing progressive political ideology

Though police have maintained Hale’s attack on the Covenant School was not politically motivated, her reference of “white privileges” in the three pages leaked to Steven Crowder could indicate she shares McClure’s interest in Democratic politics.

A Facebook profile which appears to be associated with McClure, and regularly references the X account tied to McClure, contains a post in which McClure appears to have written about “the terrorists and white supremacists in Charlottesville” in August 2017, referencing the controversial 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The same month, McClure posted a photograph that appears to depict her wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt alongside protesters.

Days later, McClure live streamed as she walked through a conservative demonstration and interviewed supporters of former President Donald Trump for more than an hour.

In July 2018, nearly a year after her Charlottesville activism, a post to the Facebook profile associated with McClure claimed conservatives were shouting “Hail Trump” on a public street corner.

In a series of tweets sent from her X account, McClure expressed her animus towards elected Republican political leaders, including Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.

“Bill Lee knows if he makes one wrong move it’s Joever [sic] for him and my 4th grade teacher,” McClure wrote on April 25 to an account on the social media platform X  which has been connected to her by court documents.

McClure seemed to reference First Lady Maria Lee, who taught third and fourth grade at CPA for 14 years. Publicly available information about McClure suggests she attended CPA from approximately 1999 until 2004.

They both visited their former schools

As The Star reported earlier, McClure visited the campus of CPA, her former school, in February, 2024, one month before she left a voice mail threat in the offices of CPA and two months before she was arrested on cyberstalking charges.

Numerous press reports indicate that Hale visited the campus of Covenant School, her former school, in the months before the March 27, 2023 murders there, and that she drew out schematics of the school in preparation for her March 27 attack.

Star News Digital Media, Inc., the parent company of The Tennessee Star, and Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO & Editor-in-Chief of Star News Digital Media, Inc., are plaintiffs in the state case against the Metro Nashville Government to release the Covenant Killer Manifesto, as well as the federal case against the FBI to release the same documents.

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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 Audrey Elizabeth Hale and “McKenzie McClure” by McKenzie McClure.