UPDATE:
Metro Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron contacted The Tennessee Star on June 26, six days after this article was published, to state, “Chief Drake confirms that he DID NOT acknowledge what is being specified” in this article.
Prior to publication of this article, The Star contacted Aaron to confirm the information provided by its source, and received a response.
Aaron stated on June 26, “This is an investigation being conducted by the Homicide Unit that is still open and being worked, although that work is winding down.”
He acknowledged to The Star that MNPD has “been reticent to discuss the investigative work prior to the conclusion,” but stated, “we do believe it important to correct a third-party statement attributed to the Chief.”
* * *
The Tennessee Star has obtained a Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) internal document labeled “Vandy Psych” which appears to be notes taken by an MNPD officer tasked with reviewing documents obtained via a search warrant granted for Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, part of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), on June 1, 2023.
The notes indicate that on page 38 of the documents retrieved from VUMC, the MNPD officer saw that Covenant killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who killed six people at Covenant School in Nashville on March 27, 2023, had “Thoughts of killing Dad in and struggles with mental health. Recent thoughts of going into a school and shooting a bunch of people.”
According to the document obtained by The Star, the officer reviewed at least 75 pages of VUMC materials about Hale.
The document obtained by The Star does not indicate the period of treatment for Hale covered in the VUMC notes, but The Star has learned Hale left the care of her first psychologist in 2019 and began receiving care from other VUMC mental health professionals.
The complete contents of the document labeled “Vandy Psych” can be seen below:
Drugs on page 4
- Buspirone – Anxiety
- Escitalopram (Lexapro) – Depression
- Hydroxyzine – Anxiety
- Sodium Chloride – Nasal Spray
Page 36
- Parents concerned with her anger, sleep deprivation and increased depression. Several triggers. States she is angry with people. Denies SI, HI, and AVH.
Page 38
- Thoughts of killing Dad in and struggles with mental health. Recent thoughts of going into a school and shooting a bunch of people.
Page 48
- Homicidal thoughts with a plan. Misunderstood and felt like she needed to prove a point.
Page 58
- I have violent fantasies but wouldn’t do anything
Page 62
- SI and HI.
- “Thinking a lot about death, both Suicidal and homicidal
- Thinks about jumping off a bridge
- Has fantasies of being a school shooter
- Wrapped a cord around her neck
Page 72
- Worsening Depression, SI, HI
Page 73
- Has homicidal thoughts, such as shooting at a school
- Thoughts of jumping off a bridge or wrapping a cord around her neck
- Homicidal thoughts of killing her father. “Sometimes I get frustrated with him and have homicidal thoughts
Page 75
- Homicidal thoughts “That I would not act on”
- Worsening depression with intrusive ego-dystonic SI and HI
While the document suggests Hale was prescribed only four medications, The Star has additionally located a fifth medication prescribed to Hale. This drug is from the Benzodiazepine family of anti-anxiety medications the FDA warns is “associated with amnesia, hostility, irritability, and vivid or disturbing dreams.”
Based on VUMC materials retrieved by police, the notes appear to complement and corroborate additional details obtained by The Star.
This includes information provided by a source familiar with the MNPD investigation, who told The Star that MNPD Chief John Drake acknowledged to them that VUMC had knowledge that Hale expressed to mental health professionals there she had thoughts of killing her father and fantasized about committing a mass murder at a school, but failed its duty to warn potential victims.
The Star has learned that Drake acknowledged VUMC staff failed to adhere to Tennessee Code 33-3-206, which at the time of Hale’s March 27, 2023 attack mandated mental health professionals and behavioral analysts “shall take reasonable care to predict, warn of, or take precautions to protect the identified victim from the service recipient’s violent behavior.”
Upon learning of a mental health patient’s threat, Tennessee Code 33-3-207 explains they are meant to inform identified victims, take steps to voluntarily or involuntarily commit the patient, and continue mental health treatment.
While there is no criminal penalty for mental health professionals who neglect their duty to warn, Tennessee Code 33-3-209 suggests mental health professionals who fail to warn could face monetary liability in court.
However, Tennessee Code Title 28 appears to limit civil actions in personal injury to just one year.
A scholarly journal article presented by the National Library of Medicine explains that psychiatrists could face professional and civil consequences for failing to warn intended victims or targets of an individual, and specifically that a psychiatrist who releases a patient without gathering pertinent information about their capability to commit a violent attack could face civil liability.
Additional analysis by the McCain Institute explains, “Importantly, even if a threat doesn’t constitute a duty to warn, it should be taken seriously and handled appropriately internally,” because a [f]ailure to act or provide appropriate support in light of a threat may lead to harm or to an unintentional breach of duty of care obligations, providing grounds for a civil action lawsuit.”
The Star previously reported it has learned the identity of the original psychologist who treated Hale. More recently, The Star has learned the identities of a psychiatric nurse practitioner and psychiatrist who both treated Hale and prescribed at least five medications prior to her death.
In an affidavit submitted by an MNPD detective in order to obtain the search warrant for VUMC, published by The Star, it was additionally revealed that Hale received treatment at VUMC or from mental health professionals affiliated with VUMC from April 2001 until her death.
Upon searching the Hale family home, detectives discovered a VUMC folder “with a portion of Audrey Hale’s medical history from Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital.”
The Star additionally obtained photographs which depict both the front of this folder as police found it as well as some of its contents.
Titled Vanderbilt University Medical Center Partial Hospitalization Program, the label and handwriting on the front of the folder’s label indicate it contained “Discharge Information” and other data related to a VUMC Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) in which Hale participated in 2019.
Inside the folder was a partially visible page titled “After Visit Summary” that contained Hale’s name. The document is dated August 26, 2019, and confirms Hale was seen by VUMC staff on that day.
Two handwritten notes on the page included the name of an individual and instructions to “follow up with primary care” after the VUMC visit.
On the other side of the folder was a second partially visible document which appears to contain advice about self-soothing techniques that can “help calm and relax our mind and body” when “feeling anxious or overwhelmed.”
While the exact title of the VUMC program Hale joined in 2019 is unclear from the photographs obtained by The Star, a VUMC web page explains, “Our Adult Partial Hospitalization program is designed to help adults struggling with mental health concerns whose symptoms are not responding to current outpatient therapy and/or medications.”
This program is “personalized to each client’s needs and symptoms, which may include anger or irritability, inability, inability to regulate emotions, interpersonal conflicts, isolation, mood-related sleep disturbances or recurring suicidal thoughts,” according to VUMC.
After Hale’s attack, Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) successfully passed legislation that additionally required mental health providers to report to law enforcement in addition to their patient’s the intended victim.
Both Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, and editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy are suing to compel the full release of Hale’s writings, including those some call a manifesto, from MNPD. Leahy and SNDM are similarly plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit to compel the FBI to release Hale’s writings.
The Star recently published an FBI memo, addressed to Drake and sent in May 2023, which “strongly” advised against the release of “legacy tokens” from individuals like Hale. Such “legacy tokens” appear to include all of Hale’s writings, including those obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuits.
Last week, the FBI declined to confirm it sent the memo in a statement to The Star, but confirmed it sends such “products” to local law enforcement partners.
Since obtaining a tranche of documents related to the Covenant case, as well as about 80 pages from the journal recovered from Hale’s vehicle, The Star has published dozens of articles reporting new information about the killer, including excerpts of her own words in the days before March 27, 2023.
MNPD submitted a Friday legal filing that confirmed the authenticity of the materials obtained by The Star.
– – –
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 “Vanderbilt Health Campus” by Vanderbilt Health.
The police and woke leftist Vanderbilt University Medical Center staff members were too afraid to report a psychopath simply because they were “trans” – so now numerous innocent children and dead and the left-wing media works overtime to celebrate trans shooters, despite being the highest increase in mass shooters. Sounds about right for America in 2024. Biden should invite some more of these mentally unstable people to the White House for dinner.
Was there any coordination between VUMC & FBI?
Something stinks!
“LEGACY TOKENS” is a new term, not an FBI policy. Or the memo would have been signed. They’re delaying until VUMC is in the clear from liability lawsuits.
You might check, but I believe there is a Federal Law requiring Psychological Treatment Providers, as well as Law Enforcement to report & detain a person who is admitting to planning a violent event.
Maybe one year is not a long enough time for a Statute of Limitations, when you have the FBI & Law Enforcement refusing to release the evidence.
I’m thinking this First Amendment Case should be heard by SCOTUS.
There seems to be a coordinated effort to conceal evidence to prevent VUMC from a massive Lawsuit & Exposure.
They withheld data to let the statute of limitations run out so they wouldn’t be sued. Sounds egregious.
That fact alone should extend the limitations of one year.
The providers that didn’t report this should lose their license and be sued. Lawyers start your briefcases.
Homicidal thoughts “That I would not act on”…well, that was a lie
Once again, all the gun laws are not enforced, so they want to make more gun laws that will penalize law-abiding gun owners rather than jailing these incompetent (or malicious- I think they did this on purpose) medical professionals who enabled this deluded child. that does not absolve her, even a “mad” dog is not absolved of its crimes.
What is very disturbing is that the Sandy Hook parents sued Alex Jones for suggesting that the Sandy Hook shootings were fake and they parents received BILLIONS. In this case, the establishment sat on these findings creating a situation where the statute of limitations has expired so they can’t get their pound of flesh. Unlike Jones callous assertion that the children did not die, it was a complicated hoax, he did not enable the killers. Here the health professionals enabled the killer and allowed the killer the opportunity to kill. Surely that would justify the seizure of the hospital and the dissolution of the assets to reimburse the parents who were hurt far more than the Sandy Hook parents. This negligence killed their children.
Gender dysphoria is mental illness. The term “transgender” refers to a person whose sex assigned at birth (i.e. the sex assigned at birth, usually based on external genitalia) does not align their gender identity (i.e., one’s psychological sense of their gender). Some people who are transgender will experience “gender dysphoria,” which refers to psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity. Though gender dysphoria often begins in childhood, some people may not experience it until after puberty or much later. Those determined mentally ill or SMI must never be allowed to buy a firearm.
So in other words, another mass murderer who was on the authorities radar and they did nothing. Severe mental illness masked as “trans” on who know what meds, confesses she wants to murder, and nothing happens to stop her. Sound familiar?
how well does that stuff listed on page4 up there mix with say automobiles, firearms, Deere 937 corn combines ?
really??
they also failed to notify FBI and ATF to put her on NICS as a forbidden person. Check the ATF form where she bought the rifle for check-off on the mental health question.
This was a preventable act of murder by a mentally unstable person. If the parents had firearms they should have been under court order to dispose of them or put them in an approved safe that only the parents could open.
This story is too iconic these days. Total failure on the part of many people.
Always the same person with the same vile idiations……….just a different name and face.
I still don’t see where she’s a threat to society.
HA! No longer