A handful of entries in the journal recovered from the vehicle of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale appear to suggest she might have assigned a numerological meaning to the date of her devastating attack which claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults. Numerology is defined as the “study of occult significance of numbers.”
The Tennessee Star confirmed last week it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation. Among these entries are multiple pages that suggest Hale assigned special significance to the numbers 2 and 7.
Hale first wrote the number 27 as the date of the month when a person important to her was born. She repeated this birth date in another entry while specifically referencing this individual.
Just six pages later, in an undated entry that appears to have been written in January 2023, Hale seemed to indicate for the first time in her journal that she chose March 27, 2023 as the date for her attack. Hale appeared to make the decision after previously failing to enact her plan on January 17, 2023.
Later in the journal, Hale wrote in an undated entry, “I want to do it in February.” On the next line, Hale wrote the date February 17, 2023. She noted, “No birthdays on that day.”
In the margin of this page in her journal, Hale wrote, “As long as it’s these [numbers],” then added the dates “1/27/23” and “2/17/23” before circling the numbers “27” and “17.”
An entry much later in the journal could suggest Hale also considered April dates for her attack before determining to claim the lives of six on March 27.
In an entry referencing a person’s initials, Hale wrote, “April of ’99” and wrote the date “4/20/1999,” which is the date of the Columbine High School attack in Colorado that claimed the lives of 26.
Hale then wrote the date “4/17/23” and drew a dashed circle around it. Near the bottom of the entry, Hale wrote, “the year Aiden was born… 3/27/23!”
Born a biological female, Hale identified as a transgender male prior to her attack, and used the name Aiden in some settings.
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 the full release of Hale’s writings from the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the FBI, including those sometimes called a manifesto.
The Star recently published an FBI memo from the Covenant investigation that “strongly” advised the MNPD against releasing “legacy documents” from individuals like Hale. An FBI definition suggests all of Hale’s writings, including those obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuit, are “legacy tokens” that should be kept from public consumption.
In response to The Star, the FBI did not confirm that it sent the memo but acknowledged that it sends “products” containing information and advice to local law enforcement agencies in furtherance of mutual goals.
Since obtaining photographs depicting Hale’s journal, The Star has published dozens of articles about its contents.
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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].
