Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the full release of the Covenant school shooter manifesto would allow a glimpse into how treatments for mental health diagnoses, specifically when it comes to transgender individuals, have dramatically changed over the last decade.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) may not meet its “goal” of completing the Covenant School shooting investigation by January 1, 2025, according to spokesman Don Aaron, who told The Tennessee Star on Tuesday he was unable to offer a firm date or time for the lead detective to finish documenting the case.
Aaron previously told The Star in November that “some work” was necessary to complete the documentation phase of the investigation early last month, then on November 12 confirmed it was “the goal” of the department to finish the investigation before the end of this year.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said Democratic lawmakers and members of the FBI “deep state” are in a panic mode over President-elect Donald Trump nominating Kash Patel to serve as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) due to Patel’s past callings for the full release of major classified documents.
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President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, said in a recently resurfaced interview that the FBI Director has the power to release major classified documents, including the manifesto left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale and the client list once kept by disgraced financier-turned-sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and urged Trump to promise full declassification upon entering office.
Patel made the remarks in a December 2023 appearance on “Glenn TV,” when he told host Glenn Beck that the FBI Director has the authority to declassify both the “black book” used by Epstein and the ten or more notebooks full of writings left by Hale, the biological female who identified as a transgender man when she killed six at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023.
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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) this week acknowledged a “division-wide system outage” impacted the DOJ’s Civil Division last weekend through a Monday court filing.
Both Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Tennessee Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy are currently waiting for a response from the DOJ after inviting the FBI to drop its opposition to the release of the complete written works left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale before the transition of government to President-elect Donald Trump.
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The Tennessee Star on Friday extended a settlement offer to the Biden-Harris FBI through attorneys at the Department of Justice (DOJ) representing the FBI that would see the federal government drop its opposition to the release of the writings obtained by the FBI that were left by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the 28-year-old woman who self-identified as a man, and killed six at the Covenant School in Nashville on March 27, 2023.
Through their attorneys at the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty, Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy and Star News Digital Media Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, offered the FBI, through its DOJ attorney, the opportunity to withdraw their objection to the release of Hale’s writings before President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential transition is complete.
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Tennessee Star editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy announced on Wednesday he and Star News Digital Media Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, will ask the Department of Justice (DOJ) to drop its opposition to the release of the written documents left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale prior to her March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of six.
Leahy announced the decision during the Wednesday broadcast of the Michael Patrick Leahy Show, when he explained The Star has “decided to turn our attention back to freedom of information act, transparency requests that we’ve had going some time related to the Covenant killer manifesto,” in the wake of the 2024 elections.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) told The Tennessee Star earlier this month that its investigation of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale remains ongoing, with “some work” still needed to document the March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three school staff members.
MNPD Public Affairs director Don Aaron told The Star the investigation is still underway and remains in a documentation phase in a November 1 email. The MNPD official wrote, “Considerable progress has been made, though there is still some work to complete,” and said there is not a specific date for completion.
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The Covenant School and Covenant Presbyterian Church announced in a joint statement Thursday that they will begin a capital campaign to move the school to a new campus years after the March 27, 2023, attack on the Nashville school.
A new web page for the capital campaign suggested the decision was prompted by the continued growth of the Covenant School. This growth prompted school and church officials to determine that students would return to the church campus for “a three-year rent-free lease agreement with continued financial support from the church.”
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Tennessee political commentator and documentary filmmaker Robby Starbuck said Attorney General Merrick Garland should be “removed immediately” following the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) release of a hand-written letter by Ryan Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Trump on September 15.
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A note purportedly written by Ryan Wesley Routh, who is accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump on September 15, was released on Monday by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in a public court filing.
According to the court filing, Routh asked an associate to keep a box of his belongings. After the attack, the associate opened the box and discovered the letter, wherein prosecutors claim Routh confirmed his intent to assassinate Trump and offered a $150,000 bounty should someone prove successful.
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Deborah Fisher, the executive director of Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, described the continued withholding of documents by the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) relating to the case of the Covenant School killer as simply “disturbing.”
On Tuesday, The Tennessee Star published all 90 pages of the journal written between January and March of 2023 by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the 28-year-old biological woman who self-identified as a transgender man and who, on March 27, 2023, murdered three 9-year-old students and three staff members at the Covenant School in Nashville before being subsequently killed by MNPD officers.
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The Tennessee Star and editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy released the full “manifesto” left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale on Tuesday, making the killer’s journal entries available to the public for the first time.
This release contains the pages of Hale’s journal that were obtained by The Star from a source familiar with the investigation in June. The journal containing the pages was recovered from Hale’s vehicle by police after her March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School, where she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Friday was unable to provide The Tennessee Star with an estimated time of completion for its investigation into the Covenant School attack, but spokesman Don Aaron stated the case “remains open and is largely in a documentation phase where the lead detective is writing his and the department’s actions, findings, etc.”
Police began investigating the attack on March 27, 2023, when Audrey Elizabeth Hale claimed the lives three 6-year-old students and three adult staff members at the Covenant School in Nashville.
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Tennessee State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) confirmed on Tuesday he plans to appeal the July 4 decision by Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles that blocked the release the journals and other written materials left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
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Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Tennessee Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy launched an appeal on Wednesday to reverse Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles’s ruling blocking the release of even one page of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
Lawyers for SNDM, including America First Legal Foundation attorney Nicholas Barry and attorney Paul Krog, officially filed notice with the Court of Appeals of Tennessee at Nashville that it intends to appeal, making SNDM and Leahy the first plaintiffs to appeal Myles’ July 4 ruling.
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Ronald Hale, the father of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, confirmed to investigators that Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) did not inform his daughter developed an interest in the April 20, 1999 shooting at the Columbine High School in Colorado, according to a transcript of a July 12, 2023 police interview obtained by The Tennessee Star.
Police documents obtained by The Star previously established that Audrey Hale was a 22-year mental health patient at VUMC, and Ronald and Norma Hale confirmed their daughter was evaluated for commitment for mental health reasons during three separate incidents, including two at VUMC for suicidal ideation.
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Attorneys who represent Ronald Hale and Norma Hale, the parents of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, did not respond to The Tennessee Star when asked about the killer’s suicide note and a probate court filing, which both appear to suggest the killer left a last will and testament prior to her devastating attack on March 27, 2023.
Neither attorney David Raybin, who represented Ronald Hale and Norma Hale in matters related to the Covenant investigation, nor attorney Jeff Mobley, who represents the killer’s parents in the intestate probate case for Audrey Hale’s estate, replied to a press inquiry from The Star which sought to establish whether the killer left behind a document called a will.
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An attorney who represents The Covenant Children’s Trust, which claims it owns the copyright to the works of Covenant School attacker Audrey Elizabeth Hale, told The Tennessee Star on Wednesday he could not comment on whether his client received any type of financial compensation from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), which treated the killer over 22 years.
The Star contacted attorney Ed Yarbrough, who works at the Spencer Fane firm and represented the Covenant Children’s Trust in the Tennessee lawsuit which sought to compel Metro Nashville to release Hale’s documents, to ask whether his client, the Covenant School, or Covenant Presbyterian Church were approached by VUMC to discuss its potential civil liability over its treatment of Hale.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale created duplicates of materials she wanted to be discovered by Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD), a detective told the killer’s parents in a June 12, 2023 interview, according to a transcript obtained by The Tennessee Star.
The interview was conducted by three MNPD detectives, who were investigating the Covenant case, and included both Ronald and Norma Hale, the parents of Audrey Hale, and their attorney David Raybin.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) referred The Tennessee Star to the court of Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles when asked if the department provided specific documents to Judge Myles before she declared in her decision that not one page of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale will be released, citing the copyright allegedly held by the parents of Covenant School children.
The Star asked MNPD Public Affairs director Don Aaron whether investigators provided Judge Myles with the document titled “Vandy Psych.” The document contains notes written by an MNPD investigator who received at least 75 pages of documents from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), where Hale was a 22-year mental health patient, after obtaining a search warrant in the wake of her March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of six.
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Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles last Thursday ruled that not one page of the materials written by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale will be released to the public, citing the copyright claims raised by parents of minor students who claim to own the copyright to the killer’s works.
The parents of Covenant School students successfully claimed before Myles that they were assigned the intellectual property rights of the materials left by Audrey Hale before to her attack, and a probate court filing reveals Ronald and Norma Hale appear to have transferred the copyright to the parents of in June 2023.
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The Thursday ruling by Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles, when she decided not one single page of the writings of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale would be released, will “absolutely” be appealed, stated Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star and the CEO of Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), on Friday.
Leahy declared in his Friday statement, “The judge has erroneously accepted a dubious copyright claim made by intervenors who should not have been allowed to intervene in this case in the first place.”
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Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles ruled in a decision released at 11:58 pm on Thursday that none of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale shall be released to the multiple parties who sued Metro Nashville to secure their release, citing the copyright claims of the parents she earlier allowed to intervene in the lawsuit.
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Police investigators told the parents of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale their daughter “felt close” to those who perpetrated the Columbine High School attack in 1999 and created her own version of the Columbine Tapes.
The investigators told the killer’s parents, Ronald Hale and Norma Hale, that their daughter divulged the information to an unknown physician, according to the transcript of a July 12, 2023, interview The Tennessee Star obtained last month.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale received medical diagnoses for five mental disorders, her parents Ronald and Norma Hale told Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigators on July 12, 2023, according to a transcript of the interview obtained by The Tennessee Star from a source familiar with the investigation.
Ronald and Norma Hale, with the assistance of their attorney, provided the list of mental disorders after MNPD investigators questioned whether Audrey Hale was formally diagnosed with autism.
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The mother of Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale told police investigators her daughter first experienced suicidal thoughts when prescribed the antidepressant Prozac as a high school student, according to a transcript of the interview obtained by The Tennessee Star from a source familiar with the investigation.
Last month, The Star reported that police documents confirmed Audrey Hale was a 22-year mental health patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). Another portion of the transcript of the police interview with Ronald and Norma Hale revealed their daughter avoided inpatient commitment during three separate mental crises.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale avoided commitment on three separate occasions, her parents told Metro Nashville Police Department investigators in a June 12, 2023 interview, according to a transcript obtained by The Tennessee Star from a source familiar with the investigation.
The transcript reveals Ronald and Norma Hale told investigators doctors wanted to commit her daughter for inpatient treatment over an eating disorder, and that Audrey Hale was twice considered for inpatient commitment after she expressed suicidal ideation to mental health professionals.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder around 2011, her parents told Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigators in a June 12, 2023 interview, according to a transcript obtained by The Tennessee Star from a source familiar with the investigation.
The Star previously reported that police documents revealed Audrey Hale to be a 22-year mental health patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and The Star reported on Sunday that Hale’s parents, Ronald and Norma Hale, first learned of their daughter’s purported autism diagnosis from a speech pathologist in the summer of 2001.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale began receiving treatment from a speech pathologist in September 2001, which is when a mental health professional first indicated to the killer’s parents that Audrey Hale suffered from autism, according to a transcript of the July 12, 2023 police interview with Ronald and Norma Hale obtained by The Tennessee Star from a source close to the investigation.
The Star previously published police documents which established Hale was a 22-year mental health patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) prior to her March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School, when she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members before she was heroically shot by two responding police officers.
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The journal police recovered from the vehicle Audrey Elizabeth Hale drove to the Covenant School, where she claimed the lives of six on March 27, 2023, does not contain evidence Hale harbored “resentment” the five years she spent as a student at the school.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained approximately 80 pages of Hale’s writings, in the form of Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) photos, from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
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The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Wednesday denied Chief John Drake privately acknowledged staff at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) knew Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale told mental health professionals she fantasized about killing her father and committing a mass shooting at a school, but failed to warn potential victims in violation of Tennessee Code 33-3-206, as was alleged by a source familiar with the investigation to The Tennessee Star on June 19.
MNPD Public Affairs director Don Aaron contacted The Star on Wednesday via email to state, “Chief Drake confirms that he DID NOT acknowledge what” The Star first reported in its June 19 article.
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The outgoing president of Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital (VPH), part of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), combined the hospital’s services to patients in psychiatric crisis in 2016, three years before the Covenant School killer was referred to VPH for commitment and instead enrolled in an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP).
The Tennessee Star reported on June 7 that Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigators learned within hours of Hale’s March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School, which claimed the lives of six, that the killer was a 22-year mental health patient of VUMC.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote in the journal police recovered from her vehicle an entry that appears to include instructions for the media about how to refer to the killer.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote in the journal police recovered from her vehicle about training at a Nashville gun range with one of the weapons she purchased using federal Pell Grant funds and concealed in her family home.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained Hale’s journal and a tranche of police documents from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation, and on June 6, including a journal entry in which Hale claimed to witness an accidental firearm injury while training at a Nashville gun range just two days prior to her devastating March 27, 2023 attack.
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Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital announced the creation of its Behavioral Health Clinical Services Center (CSC) on March 28, 2023, just one day after Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale committed her attack that claimed the lives of six, including three children.
The Tennessee Star confirmed it obtained a portion of police documents from the Covenant case earlier this month, including documents that show Hale was a 22-year mental health patient at VUMC who began receiving treatment in 2001 when she was just six years old.
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The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained the journal recovered by the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) from the vehicle of Audrey Elizabeth Hale after her devastating attack on the Covenant School claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adults.
Apparently started by Hale in January 2023, the journal reveals how the killer spent her final months before she was slain by heroic police officers responding to the Covenant School on March 27, 2023.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale purchased a pair of “boots” for her one of her stuffed animals after she used them to simulate heterosexual intercourse, according to an entry titled “My Imaginary Penis” from the journal police recovered from the vehicle she drove to the Covenant School, where she committed her devastating March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation, and on June 6, published details about one entry Hale titled “My Imaginary Penis.”
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote in the journal police recovered from her vehicle about her purported autism diagnosis, but also wrote that she was accused of being “bi-polar,” and divulged she struggled with eating and sleeping regularly.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation, and has now published more than 40 articles that provide new details regarding the case and insight into Hale’s writings.
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Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) announced on Monday a new vice president to lead the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, where The Tennessee Star reported earlier this month that Covenant School shooter was a 22-year mental health patient, having begun receiving treatment as a six-year-old in 2001.
A March 14 news release by VUMC announced current Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital president Mary Pawlikowski planned to “retire at the end of the fiscal year,” placing her retirement date on September 30.
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A medical doctor working for Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) published an article in September 2023 that claimed children who identify as transgender benefit when competing in sports with competitors of their preferred gender.
The September 18, 2023 article was published less than six months after Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a biological female who identified as a transgender male, committed her devastating March 27 attack on the Covenant School which claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members.
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Born a biological female, Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale began identifying as a transgender man and using the name Aiden prior to her devastating attack which claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults on March 27, 2023.
Police documents published by The Tennessee Star determined Hale was a 22-year mental health patient of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), the home of a controversial transgender program that is reportedly considered “big money” for the hospital.
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The distraught father of a teenage daughter contacted The Tennessee Star on Thursday and expressed his concern about the treatment his daughter has been receiving at Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, part of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).
The Star received the email after it published the notes taken by a Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigator the department obtained at least 75 pages of documents from VUMC following a June 1, 2023 search warrant.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote repeatedly about experiencing pain, using the phrase “everything hurts” in at least 10 entries in the journal recovered from her vehicle after her devastating attack claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three staff members.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation, which reveal she repeatedly wrote about pain, and police photographs obtained by The Star reveal Hale was prescribed an anti-anxiety medication that can cause musculoskeletal pain.
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The Tennessee Star received a response from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) regarding its apparent treatment of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, which was revealed in a number of Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) documents obtained by The Star.
After The Star obtained a police summary describing 75 pages of notes retrieved from VUMC following a June 1, 2023 search warrant for information related to Hale’s treatment, and asked VUMC president and CEO Jeff Balser for comment, a spokesman said he was unable to confirm Hale’s treatment due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Act of 1996.
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Multiple entries within the journal police recovered from the vehicle driven by Audrey Elizabeth Hale to the Covenant School on March 27, 2023, when she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members, appear to corroborate previous reporting that the killer became “obsessed” with her former middle school basketball teammates.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation, and has since reported extensively about entries which refer to two of Hale’s former teammates on the Isaiah T. Creswell Middle School basketball team.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote several entries in the journal police recovered from her vehicle that referenced her mental health, including an entry about her therapist, multiple references to autism, anxiety, and one entry that mentions bipolar disorder.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source familiar with the police investigation into her March 27, 2023 attack which claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members at the Covenant School.
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Audrey Elizabeth Hale sought forgiveness from God in a journal entry dated March 27, 2023, the date she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adults during her devastating attack on the Covenant School.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings, recovered from her vehicle by police at the Covenant School, from a source familiar with the investigation.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote entries in the journal police recovered from her vehicle that seems to corroborate media reports suggesting Hale had childlike interests and wanted to be a child prior to her devastating attack on March 27, 2023.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale mentioned consuming pornography in the journal police recovered from her vehicle, and in one entry wrote she must “resort to cartoon porn” due to her inability to find a romantic partner.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained the journal police obtained from Hale’s vehicle after her devastating attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023 from a source familiar with the investigation.
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