Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote in her journal, found in the killer’s vehicle by police after her March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School, that her “thoughts about death” changed “significantly” in the period after her middle school basketball teammate and classmate Sydney Sims died tragically following a 2022 car accident.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages from Hale’s journal from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
Previous reporting indicated Hale harbored an “infatuation” with Sims prior to her passing, and The Star previously reported that Hale referenced Sims in multiple journal entries, including entries that express a desire to reunite with her former friend after death.
One entry about Sims is dated March 16, 2023, and appears to be written from the perspective of Hale as a middle school student writing to Sims as a basketball teammate.
“How was I playing Syd? Am I better than I was?” Hale wrote, “It’s weird feeling knowing I never thought about things like this until you passed away.”
She wrote of her mental state, “My thoughts about death have altered significantly. I think about death every day [and] fascinated/curious with the idea of dying too much.”
Hale seemed to divulge in the entry that her thoughts of death were tied to feelings of ennui with her life.
“I know it’s unhealthy, but I just don’t care if it is anymore. All is unknown about work,” Hale wrote in the entry. “I know how unhappy I am with all the things I wish I could do. It’s too late now. I’m ready to die.”
While Hale claimed in this journal entry that her thoughts changed following Sims’ death, it has also been reported that Hale began considering an attack on a school when she was a middle school student.
In another entry, Hale wrote, “F*** getting old; all that BS… it’s infamous to die young! Dying young is my destiny,” but later added, “my death will mean nothing.”
Hale also suggested her attack on the Covenant School, which claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three staff members, was partially motivated by a desire to gain infamy comparable to the celebrity attained by another middle school classmate, Paige Averianna Patton, who is now a Nashville radio personality.
“Little does she know now we will soon share the same fate,” Hale wrote. “She will live a legend and I will die a shooter – hopefully to become infamous. No one will forget neither of us.”
Elsewhere in the journal, Hale also wrote that she planned her attack for five years.
Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates The Star, and editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy are plaintiffs in the lawsuits to compel the Metro Nashville Police Department and the FBI to release Hale’s full writings, including those sometimes called a manifesto.
The Star published an FBI memo sent to MNPD John Drake in 2023 which “strongly” urged the department against releasing “legacy tokens” from individuals like Hale. An FBI definition suggests the agency considers all written materials left by Hale, including those obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuits, to be “legacy tokens” that should be withheld from the public.
While the FBI declined to confirm it sent the memo in a statement to The Star, it confirmed it sends such “products” to local law enforcement partners.
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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].
Image “Audrey Elizabeth Hale” by Nossi School of Fine Art and “Girls’ Basketball” is by Mark Coplan /Berkeley Public Schools CCNC2.0.
