Audrey Elizabeth Hale sought forgiveness from God in a journal entry dated March 27, 2023, the date she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adults during her devastating attack on the Covenant School.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings, recovered from her vehicle by police at the Covenant School, from a source familiar with the investigation.
Hale referenced religion or God in at least a dozen entries, including in writings that directly preceded the “Death Day” entry which was first published in 2023.
“Forgive me God, this act will be inglorious,” Hale wrote in the March 27 entry. The killer wrote two additional words, but made them illegible with her pen.
In the final entry Hale wrote prior to her attack, she also wrote, “God let my wrath take over my anxiety.”
The first mention of religion by Hale in her journal occurred on the first page, underscoring Hale’s repeated mentions throughout the journal.
On the first lined page of the journal, Hale wrote in an undated entry, “Nothing on earth can save me… never ending pain. Religion won’t save.”
Hale next mentioned religion in an undated entry professing her love to an unnamed recipient.
“Your body glows soft as an angel down here. You look perfect,” Hale added. “I imagine you in heaven.”
It is unclear whether Hale wrote about Sydney Sims, a former middle school classmate and basketball teammate who died after a car accident in 2022. Hale also wrote more than a dozen entries professing her love for Paige Averianna Patton, another former schoolmate who is now a Nashville radio personality.
Hale directly referenced God in an entry written on January 16, 2023, the date Hale’s journal suggests was previously selected for her attack.
“I’m scared how it will all turn out,” wrote Hale. “When it’s over, I’ll be gone and in a better place – I can’t wait.”
Hale then wrote, “My faith is weak,” and on the next line concluded, “God, forgive me.”
Born a biological female, Hale identified as a transgender man at the time of her attack. She signed this entry Aiden, the name she began using in some settings after she started to identify as a transgender man.
In an entry addressed to “Paige,” likely referring to Patton, the killer wrote about her thoughts on the afterlife.
“I think God will enter me in heaven,” Hale added. “If I do get there, I’ll be waiting for you.”
The next mention of religion occurs in an undated entry that appears to have been written in February 2023.
The entry consists of two lists, one labeled “Nature” and the other labeled “(a) god.” In the second column, Hale included the words open-mind, isolation, neurotypical, asexual, and fantasies. She concluded this list by writing, “Death. Will. Save. Me.”
In an undated entry addressed to Patton, which appears to have been written in early March 2023, Hale wrote that she no longer practiced religion.
“Parents actually believe religion can change nature,” Hale wrote. “That could explain why I don’t practice religion anymore.”
Hale also referenced religion in her three-page entry titled “My Imaginary Penis,” in which she wrote extensively about her gender identity and graphically about sexual fantasies she expressed using stuffed animals.
After claiming that her parents did not adequately support her desire to transition to the male gender, Hale wrote, “F****** parents like them who think of themselves first and their preferences of conservative religion – say s*** makes them believe that the child they are given should stay that way.”
Hale wrote in another entry, which is undated but next to another entry dated about one month before her attack, “maybe, just maybe you’ll give a kiss to me in heaven.”
She continued, “God knows I can’t get it down here…”
Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates The Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy are plaintiffs in lawsuits that seek to compel both the Metro Nashville Police Department and the FBI to release the full writings left by Hale, including those sometimes called a manifesto.
Earlier this month, The Star published an FBI memo sent to MNPD Chief John Drake in May 2023. The memo “strongly” advised MNPD against releasing “legacy tokens” from individuals like Hale, and an FBI definition suggests both the writings obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuits are materials the agency wants to be kept from the public.
The FBI did not confirm that it had sent the memo in a statement to The Star, but it acknowledged that it had sent such “products” to local law enforcement.
The Star has published dozens of articles since obtaining Hale’s writings and a portion of documents related to the Covenant case.
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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].
I’m thinking that she’d have had a better chance of going to heaven if she hadn’t murdered three innocents and three adults.
Sick puppy