Metro Nashville Police Department learned Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale was a 22-year patient of mental health professionals at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) on March 27, 2023, the same day she orchestrated her devastating attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults working at the school.
The Tennessee Star obtained the June 1, 2023 affidavit filed by an MNPD detective to obtain a search warrant for VUMC from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation. The Star also obtained the search warrant itself.
In the affidavit, the detective explained MNPD obtained a folder with Hale’s partial medical history while searching her parents’ home, then revealed that Hale’s mother “advised detectives that Audrey Hale was receiving psychological treatment at Vanderbilt Hospital and has been for some time.”
According to the affidavit, “When detectives processed the folder containing Audrey Hale’s medical records, it was clear that Audrey Hale has been receiving psychological treatment from Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital since 2001.”
Later in the affidavit, it is implied that Hale began receiving treatment at VUMC on April 23, 2001, when she was just six-years-old.
The detective also raised the possibility that Hale confided her violent fantasies or plans to a “therapist or psychologist.”
In the affidavit, the detective wrote he “believes there is a strong possibility that Audrey Hale confided to a Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital Staff member since she has been receiving care there since 2001.”
The affidavit reveals police were additionally seeking to establish whether “Hale informed anyone of her plans to attack the Covenant School,” and to establish her “mental state” both “before and at the time of the incident.”
The Star also obtained the search warrant for VUMC that MNPD was granted by a Davidson County judge, who granted police permission to immediately seize “any and all records of psychological treatment received by Audrey Hale,” including “psychological treatments, evaluations, tests, and medications” and “any out source facilities between the dates of April 23rd, 2001 to March 27, 2023.”
On Wednesday, The Star published the subpoena sent by MNPD detectives to VUMC requesting “any and all records of medical and psychological treatment received by Audrey Hale.”
While the affidavit and search warrant are dated June 1, 2023, the subpoena was sent more than two weeks prior, on May 13. VUMC has yet to respond to multiple comment requests by The Star.
Additional documents reviewed by The Star indicate Hale, a biological female who identified as transgender at the time of the attack, was under the care of both a psychiatrist and a therapist prior to her death.
Also on Wednesday, retired MNPD Lieutenant Garet Davidson told The Star that VUMC staff did not report Hale’s violent fantasies to law enforcement.
Star News Digital Media, Inc., which is the parent company of The Star, and its editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy are plaintiffs in lawsuits which seek to compel both MNPD and the FBI to release the full writings of Hale, including those that have been called a manifesto.
The Star previously confirmed it obtained dozens of pages of writings recovered from Hale’s vehicle. An FBI memo sent to MNPD Chief John Drake in May 2023 seemed to “strongly” suggest against releasing such materials, referring to them as “legacy tokens.”
Read the affidavit:
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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 “Covenant School Shooting” by Metro Nashville Police Department.
Vanderbilt Staff broke the Law resulting in the deaths of 6 innocent people.
They should be prosecuted. And lose their medical education status. They are not fit to be a teaching hospital. This is Strike 2. No more chances.
Fore the CEO & sell the hospital to reputable physicians, like Peter McCullough, Jay Bottacharia, & Harvey Rischner. These three brave physicians, one a cardiologist who exposed the Vax for causing blood clots & massive Vax injuries.
VANDERBILT IS A FAILED INSTITUTION. A STAIN ON WHATS LEFT OF A FORMER GREAT CITY. TGE ATHENS OF THE SOUTH NO MORE
From the time she was six? No wonder she was sad. Adding to that the woke medical culture. The Denver theatre shooter was all jacked up like this. She never had a chance.
always about the money. this goes for abortion too. shame shame on Vanderbilt.
The article states she had been receiving Psychiatric treatment since she was six-years old. I remember when my children were in elementary school and the horror of what I seen and doing investigations on my own in how the schools received money for every child that was fully vaccinated , labeled and put on a Psychiatric medication. Every school year, I let the school staff know. “Don’t you dare come to me trying to slap a false label on any of my children to put them on your Psychiatric medications and make money off any of my children because it isn’t going to happen. I’m on to your sick game what you are doing to these children and the parents should be ashamed for not protecting their children from this sick system. How many of these innocent children are going to be ruined for the rest of their lives with your false labels and the drugs?” I ended up removing all of my children out of the schools and home-schooled all four of them. What the hell is wrong with parents that allow their children to be abused and falsely labeled in the public schools and this system? So she was in Kindergarten at six-years old when she started getting Psychiatric treatment why? Was her mother or father getting Psychiatric treatment at the time or was she labeled by her elementary school? What was her diagnosis at such a young age?
Far too often when there is a mass shooting, the democrats/liberals/socialists, the MSM, and our current “administration” start going off about how guns are evil with the implication that they should be highly regulated and that we need to pass more laws that restrict the rights of sane, law abiding, gun owners.
There is a serious issue with the psychiatric care community that protects the rights of people under their care, with a disregard for the safety of the population at large. At no time in my lifetime has this been more evident than the current belief that people (who should be under psychiatric care) believe, and are encouraged to change their birth gender. Hey Vanderbilt, we all know that you are controlled by the evil forces of the left. I would suggest that you amend the Hippocratic Oath to include not letting your patients do harm to innocent people.
Well Vanderbilt’s 22 year involvement with her explains why this was hidden for so long. Vanderbilt is Nashville’s #1 economic engine. Vanderbilt not only has skin in this game (gender reassignment surgeries and hormones), but also responsible for so many shattered lives through their failures. Make them pay dearly.
Seems like a pretty good idea to stay away from Vanderbilt Psychiatric. That operation appears to have failed miserably in dealing with a mentally ill person. Will anyone or any organization be held accountable for their failing? Seems like a big attempted coverup to protect Vanderbilt. But that is no surprise.
Too bad that the medical health “professionals” at VANDERBILT MEDICAL center did not do their job reporting her threats to the authorities. Clearly she had serious mental health issues and Vanderbilt did not do their job.