Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote entries in the journal police recovered from her vehicle that seems to corroborate media reports suggesting Hale had childlike interests and wanted to be a child prior to her devastating attack on March 27, 2023.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation.
Four entries in Hale’s journal underscore previous remarks from a professor at the Nossi College of Art and Design, where Hale graduated in 2022, which described the killer’s creative work as “whimsical” and “childlike,” according to CNN.
The outlet also reported that one of Hale’s former classmates at Nossi said she “dressed like a little kid” and had “a child-like obsession with staying a child.”
Hale also reportedly publicly acknowledged her childlike interests. On a now-offline professional website, The Independent reported Hale wrote, “There is a child-like part about me that loves to go run to the playground.”
Entries referencing childhood begin near the start of Hale’s journal, which she seems to have begun in January 2023. In an undated journal entry, Hale professed her love to an unidentified recipient she claimed to know from childhood.
“Audrey is not my name, but when you say it I am just as the little 1 I was back then,” wrote Hale. “I can be a kid again with you, alongside you even if I can’t really be [with] you.
Born a biological female, Hale identified as a transgender man at the time of her attack on the Covenant School, where she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members. She began using the name Aiden at some point prior to starting the journal in January 2023.
Hale again referenced childhood in an undated note that references attending a public event.
“Seeing you dance, love on your friends, even as a stranger,” Hale wrote. “I saw the child I used to know again.”
She continued, “The child that knew how to smile, to be funny, to pour out your soul into what you love, who you love the most.”
Also, she later wrote, “It’s just how I remember you when you were a child. Your youth is still alive; and that’s what I can’t escape from.”
While Hale wrote extensively about attending a public event held by Paige Averianna Patton, a middle school classmate and basketball teammate of Hale’s who is now a Nashville radio personality, it is unclear if this entry references another event featuring Patton. Hale wrote more than a dozen journal entries professing her love for Patton.
Hale later referenced a desire to experience boyhood in an undated entry that appears to have been written in late February 2023, about one month prior to her attack.
“The caccoon [sic] of my old self will die when I leave my body behind and the boy in me will be free; in my butterfly transformation; the real me,” wrote Hale.
Hale also referenced childlike interests in two other pages of writings obtained by The Star, including a list of activities that Hale planned to complete before orchestrating the attack.
This list includes the name of a video game Hale wanted to play, the names of eight movies she planned to watch, and a desire to “listen to music (that I have not listened to yet).”
Another previously unreported page of Hale’s writings obtained by The Star contains the names of 51 characters from the Japanese media franchise Pokémon, including 17 labeled by Hale as “Pokémon to Draw” and 34, which Hale labeled “Cute Pokémon.” This page is dated February 4, 2023.
Both Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy are plaintiffs in the Tennessee lawsuit to compel Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) to release Hale’s complete writings, including those some have called a manifesto. SNDM and Leahy are also plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit, which seeks to compel the same release from the FBI.
The Star recently published an FBI memo sent to MNPD Chief John Drake in May 2023, which “strongly” advised against releasing “legacy tokens” from individuals like Hale. A “legacy token” definition the FBI provided in 2018 indicates the agency considers both the writings obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuits to be “legacy tokens” that should be kept from public release.
In a response to The Star, the FBI did not confirm that it sent the memo but did confirm that it sends such “products” to law enforcement.
Since obtaining Hale’s writings, The Star has published dozens of articles reporting her own words and new information 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].
