The journal recovered from the vehicle driven by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale includes at least five entries expressing animosity toward her father, including one page where Hale wrote of her desire to kill him.
The Tennessee Star confirmed last Wednesday it obtained dozens of pages written by Audrey Hale from a source close to the Covenant investigation.
Among the roughly 80 pages are five entries in which Audrey Hale mentioned her father, Ronald Hale, including an undated entry in which she expressed a desire to kill him and other “cranky” and “mentally ill” men.
Titled “Dad problems,” Audrey Hale complained in the journal entry, “I hate when my dad loves on the cats; not me. F*****! He never once loved on me for years, maybe like ever (as a child; maybe).”
She wrote, “I hate his old cranky-man existance [sic], all cranky good-for-nothing mentally ill men should die.”
Audrey Hale additionally complained her father had a “negative” outlook, then in capital letters wrote, “Well guess what? Your [sic] a loser. I hate your (life, you). I don’t care if you die. I want to kill you.”
She ended the entry, “Dad is not real. Everything hurts,” and drew a frowning face.
The Star previously reported that Audrey Hale wrote a January 19, 2023 in which she called Ronald Hale “delusional” after he appeared to encourage her to accept the death of Sydney Sims, a former classmate and childhood friend.
In an undated journal entry titled “A Bad Equation of Life,” which appears to have been written in February, Hale wrote, “Dad [equals f**].”
She then drew a series of arrows connecting the word “Dad” to the words “mentally ill,” “abnormal,” Crohn’s Disease, and “health problems.”
Audrey Hale then wrote that Ronald Hale “should be put out of his [misery].”
The killer also wrote extensively about her father on February 28, 2023, when she claimed to be upset by his physical appearance.
“This f***** is so g******* ugly,” wrote Hale. “Disgusted with that like disgusted being in a female body. Makes me think about dying…”
Born a biological female, Audrey Hale identified as a transgender man at the time of her attack.
The final entry in which Audrey Hale referenced her father appears to have been written some time after she selected March 27, 2023 as the date to enact her devastating attack the claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults working at the Covenant School.
“A day [without] father will be a better day,” wrote Hale. Next to the remark, Hale drew an image that appeared to depict a man wearing glasses.
This reporting comes after 99.7 WTN radio host Brian Wilson on Friday played audio from the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) interview with Ronald Hale and Norma Hale.
In that interview, one investigator told Ronald Hale that Audrey Hale “had a schedule” for the attack which included slashing his tires. According to the investigator, Hale apparently planned to return to the family home after attacking the Covenant School in order to kill him.
The investigator told Ronald Hale, “she wrote about it on more than one occasion.”
In addition to the writings, the investigator told Ronald Hale that his daughter recorded videos of herself speaking into a camera. In some of these videos, Audrey Hale would take the camera and “walk out of the room and record herself.”
He told Ronald Hale, “You would be in a chair, and she will come up behind you in like, act like she was going to harm you and then go back to her room.”
At least once in the years preceding her attack, Audrey Hale was referred by a psychologist to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) for immediate mental health intervention after she expressed violent fantasies.
The Star obtained an MNPD affidavit and search warrant for VUMC, which obtained information confirming Audrey Hale told mental health professionals she thought about killing her father and committing a school shooting.
Retired MNPD Lieutenant Garet Davidson previously told The Star that no VUMC staff reported the fantasies.
Both Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates The Star, and editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy are plaintiffs in lawsuits which seek to compel the full release of Audrey Hale’s writings by the MNPD and the FBI.
The Star published an FBI memo last week, sent by the federal agency to MNPD Chief John Drake in May 2023, which “strongly” advised against releasing “legacy tokens” left by individuals like Audrey Hale.
An FBI definition suggests all of Audrey Hale’s writings, including those obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuits, are considered “legacy tokens” by the agency.
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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.
Vanderbilt( the institution) as well as the individual professionals who had contact in a professional way with Audry Hale, are all liable & should lose there licenses to practice in any psychiatric or educational setting. They should be sued by the victims families, staff & children who were traumatized that fateful day. They should also be indicted by our Justice System, which unfortunately with Glenn Funk as our DA, probably won’t happen. And if public pressure forces him to indict, he will give one of those sweetheart pleas like he did in the prosecution of former Megan Barry & her paramour. She basically got three years probation & then expunged record, so she can run for public office now against Rep Mark Green, TN D-7 in November. WHAT A JOKE; WHAT a PRANK ON NASHVILLE! SO SICK OF THESE LEFT WING PHONIES.
Vanderbilt has gone so WOKE, DEI & ESG CRAZY, they’ve lost their right to exist.
ALL of this goes right back to Vandy!! She should have been committed years ago!