Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the Covenant School killer, wrote in a journal recovered from her vehicle that she “could have been caught” planning her attack in 2021.
The Tennessee Star on Wednesday confirmed it obtained dozens of pages from the notebook recovered from Hale’s vehicle at the Covenant School from a source familiar with the case.
Hale’s remark about nearly being discovered in the “summer of 2021” was written in her final entry in that notebook.
Dated March 27, 2023, Hale claimed to have written the journal entry just hours before she committed the devastating attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults who were working at the Covenant School.
Hale’s journal entry is titled “Death Day” and includes the symbol Hale regularly drew when referencing her plans to commit an attack at the school.
“The day has finally come,” wrote Hale. “I can’t believe it’s here. Don’t know how I was able to get this far, but here I am,” she added before revealing that she was both nervous and excited.
Hale then admitted, “There were several times I could have been caught, especially back in the summer of 2021.”
While the page was among the three that were leaked and subsequently published by conservative comedian and commentator Steven Crowder in 2023, new information about the mental health professionals who treated Hale may provide new context for her admission.
In 2021, Hale was a student at the Nossi College of Art. Hale appears to have required longer than four years to complete her degree, graduating in 2022, but on Tuesday, retired MNPD Lieutenant Garet Davidson additionally told The Star that Hale’s therapist at one point sought immediate intervention for Hale at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Davidson also stated that Hale was not involuntarily committed. To the best of his knowledge, he told The Star that no VUMC medical or mental health professional reported concerns about Hale to law enforcement.
In addition to a therapist, police documents reviewed by The Star indicate Hale was under the care of a psychiatrist who was associated with VUMC at the time of her attack.
Confirmation of Hale’s mental health care team comes after the identity of a psychologist who treated Hale for years was previously given to The Star. That psychologist appears to have treated Hale for more than a decade before referring her to VUMC on an emergency basis when Hale was a student at Nossi.
In addition to these medical and mental health professionals, The Star has learned a speech therapist treated Hale.
The Star on Wednesday also published an MNPD subpoena sent to VUMC that requested all information related to Hale and her treatment.
The subpoena, which was dated May 13, 2023, sought to establish whether VUMC had information about Hale and her attack on the Covenant School, according to the MNPD detective who signed the subpoena.
Police also sought to establish “Hale’s mental state before the incident and at the time of the incident” and told VUMC the information would be used to assist with the “identification, apprehension and prosecution” of potential suspects.
These claims follow the report by 99.7 WTN radio host Brian Wilson that Hale expressed fantasies to her therapist about murdering her father and committing a school shooting. On Wednesday, Wilson additionally reported that Hale fantasized about committing a school shooting since she was a middle school student.
Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Star and Star News Digital Media, Inc., are plaintiffs in lawsuits that seek to compel both MNPD and the FBI to release Hale’s writings, including those that have been called a manifesto.
The Star published an FBI memo on Tuesday which “strongly” suggested to MNPD Chief John Drake that he should not release “legacy tokens” left by Hale. According to an FBI definition, these “legacy tokens” likely include both the pages obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuits.
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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].
Background Photo “Covenant School” by Metro Nashville PD.
