Tag: Covenant School Killer

Newly Released Emails Reveal FBI Spent Weeks Ahead of Covenant School Shooting Discussing Catholic Extremism

Tom Pappert
Rosary

Internal government emails released by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) show individuals at multiple FBI field offices were assisting with the drafting a report identifying opportunities to mitigate the violent threats posted by “radical-traditionalist Catholics” during the weeks preceding the March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School in Nashville by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as a transgender man when she claimed the lives of six. 

Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday published internal FBI emails that show the agency in February 2023 was drafting a Strategic Perspective Executive Analytic Report (SPEAR), which was titled, “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.”

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Congressman John Rose Says ‘No Good Justification’ for FBI to Block Release of Covenant Killer Manifesto After Reviewing 2,000 Pages

Tom Pappert
Rep John Rose

U.S. Representative John Rose (R-TN-06) on Thursday said there is “no good justification” for the FBI to block the release of the writings left by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the biological woman who identified as a transgender man when she attacked the Covenant School and killed six on March 27, 2023. 

In a statement provided to The Tennessee Star, Rose announced that he was given access to “more than 2,000 pages” of documents from the FBI roughly two years after he contacted former FBI Director Christopher Wray to call for the documents to be released.

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FBI Hands Judicial Watch Small Portion of Covenant School Manifesto Pages as Tennessee Star Lawsuit Continues

Tom Pappert

The FBI on Friday gave Judicial Watch a small portion of the 1,299 pages left by transgender Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale, who killed six on March 27, 2023, with heavy redactions on portions of the killer’s full 2023 journal that was already published in full by The Tennessee Star last year. 

The Star last September published about 90 pages that were written by Hale in her 2023 journal, which was recovered by law enforcement in her vehicle after the attack, alongside a spiral notebook that reportedly contained an operational plan for the atatck. In 2023, conservative comedian and pundit Steven Crowder published two pages from the spiral notebook.

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House Intelligence Committee Silent After FBI Reportedly Gives Trans Covenant Killer Manifesto to Congress

Tom Pappert
Audrey Elizabeth Hale

The U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) did not respond to multiple press inquiries from The Tennessee Star after the committee reportedly received the 1,299 pages of journals written by transgender Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale from the FBI under Director Kash Patel. Shortly after the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) concluded its investigation into the attack at the Covenant School, where Hale killed six on March 27, 2023, independent journalist Megyn Kelly reported on April 7 that the FBI allowed her to analyze and report the contents of Hale’s writings, while restricting her from publishing the pages. The Star published Hale’s full 2023 journal last September, releasing about 90 pages of her writings from the months before her attack on her former Christian school. Kelly also stated that the FBI, in an effort to engage in transparency, provided the documents to HPSCI so that Congress might review their contents. The Star contacted HPSCI and its chairman, Representative Rick Crawford (R-AR-01), but did not receive a response from the chairman or his committee to its April 8 inquiry. Inquiries to the committee’s vice chairman, Representative Trent Kelly (R-MS-01), and to committee member Representative J. French Hill (R-AR-02), made by…

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Parents of Trans Covenant School Killer Audrey Hale Linked Anti-White Bias to Nashville Public School Years: Police Transcript

Tom Pappert
Audrey Hale

Reports surfaced on Monday claiming that Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as a transgender man during the March 27, 2023, attack where she killed six, harbored hatred toward white people, following news that the FBI conditionally released her writings to an independent journalist, barring publication of the actual pages.

This release came months after The Tennessee Star obtained Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) case files, which revealed that Hale’s parents attributed her feelings on race to her years in Metro Nashville Public Schools.

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Department of Justice, Nashville Police Left in Dark on Covenant Killer Manifesto Release to Third Party amid Lawsuit, FBI Silence

Tom Pappert
Audrey Hale

The Department of Justice and Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) both indicated to The Tennessee Star on Tuesday that they were unaware of the FBI’s apparent decision to conditionally release the 1,299 pages of writings left by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as a transgender man when she killed six at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023, to independent journalist Megyn Kelly last week.

Kelly on Monday stated that the FBI provided the killer’s writings to her with permission to analyze and report their contents over the weekend, but that her team was restricted from publishing the materials in their entirety. Excerpts shared by Kelly appear to match the killer’s 2023 manifesto, which The Star legally obtained last June and published in September 2024. 

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Tennessee Star Seeks FBI Explanation for ‘Significant Abuse of Process’ After Covenant Manifesto Released to Third Party amid Lawsuit

Tom Pappert
Kash Patel

The law firm representing The Tennessee Star in its federal lawsuit demanding the FBI release the complete materials left by transgender Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale on Monday contacted the FBI to request an immediate explanation for the agency’s reported decision to release the killer’s writings to independent journalist Megyn Kelly.

Kelly has reported that the FBI gave Hale’s written materials to her organization over the weekend, and in a Monday podcast shared details purportedly from the manifesto left by the killer, who killed six at a Christian school in Nashville on March 27, 2023, that match Hale’s 2023 manifesto. 

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FBI Provides Covenant Killer Manifesto to Megyn Kelly amid Silence on Tennessee Star Lawsuit Demanding Full Release

Tom Pappert

The FBI reportedly provided last week the 1,299 pages written by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as a transgender man when she killed six at the Nashville school she once attended, to independent media personality Megyn Kelly.

Kelly’s release of the materials, which began on Monday, appears to contain some of the same writings The Tennessee Star legally obtained last June and subsequently published in their entirety in September 2024, suggesting the materials obtained by Kelly are authentic.

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Final Report on Covenant School Killer Contradicts Parents’ Claim They Didn’t Know Audrey Hale ‘Felt Close’ to Columbine Attackers

Tom Pappert
Columbine shooters

The final report on the Covenant School shooting, released by the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Wednesday, seems to contradict a key claim made by the parents of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the biological woman who identified as a transgender man when she killed six on March 27, 2023.

According to the report, Ronald and Norma Hale became aware their daughter legally purchased her first firearm in December 2020, and her father was aware of she subsequently purchased a shotgun the following year. MNPD claimed that Norma Hale objected to her daughter’s ownership of the weapons, but that Ronald Hale supported responsible gun ownership.

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Metro Nashville Police Say Mysterious Seventh Gun Owned by Audrey Hill Actually Belonged to Covenant Killer’s Father

Tom Pappert
Audrey Hale

Just days after the attack committed by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the biological woman who identified as a transgender man when she killed six at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023, the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) stated publicly that the killer legally purchased seven weapons over the course of her life.

However, the final report MNPD released on Wednesday only accounted for six firearm purchases made by the killer, and MNPD Public Affairs Director Don Aaron on Friday told The Tennessee Star that the seventh weapon actually belonged to the killer’s father, and was apparently mistakenly included in the total count of firearms owned by Hale.

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FBI Documents Suggest BAU-1 Group Behind ‘Legacy Tokens’ Memo Enlisted in Covenant Killer Investigation Days After Shooting

Tom Pappert
FBI Behavioral Analysis

Internal FBI documents obtained by independent journalist Breanna Morello via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, suggest the agency’s Behavioral Analysis Unit-1 (BAU-1) was enlisted by the FBI’s Memphis Field Office to assist with its investigation into Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale on March 30, 2023, just three days after Hale, who identified as a transgender man at the time of her death, claimed the lives of six at the Nashville school she once attended on March 27. 

The documents, which are heavily redacted and pertain to evidence gathered by the FBI’s field office in Memphis and BAU-1 pursuant to the Covenant investigation, were provided to The Tennessee Star on Friday. 

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Detectives ‘Abandoned’ Effort to Get Mental Health Records of Trans Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Months After Attack

Tom Pappert
File room

Homicide detectives with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) “abandoned” efforts to obtain the complete mental health records for Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the biological female who identified as a transgender man when she killed six at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023, after internal case files were obtained by The Tennessee Star and “Louder with Crowder” months after the attack. 

MNPD closed its investigation and released its final case file on Wednesday, more than two years after the attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three staff members at the Covenant School, which revealed that law enforcement “abandoned” efforts to obtain medical records from Hale’s final therapist, as well as those from an eating disorder clinic where the killer attended an intensive outpatient program in 2017, over unspecified leaks to the media.

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Covenant School Killer Shared ‘Homicidal Fantasies’ During 2019 Psychological Assessment, Police Report Reveals

Tom Pappert
therapy

Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the biological female who identified as a transgender man when she killed six on March 27, 2023, shared that experienced both “suicidal ideation and homicidal fantasies,” which involved thoughts of killing her own father, when speaking with a therapist in 2019. According to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) report released on Wednesday, following the department’s conclusion of its Covenant investigation, Hale expressed suicidal and homicidal thoughts in journal entries beginning in 2018, and ultimately divulged this information to a therapist in 2019. “During therapy sessions in the spring and summer of 2019, Hale’s therapist noticed this anger with greater frequency,” MNPD homicide detectives wrote in the report. “Eventually, Hale let slip she had suicidal ideations and homicidal fantasies, though she was quick to explain she didn’t have a plan for either.” This apparently prompted the therapist to urge Hale to undergo a psychological assessment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in June 2019, where The Tennessee Star previously learned that Hale was twice evaluated for commitment. During this assessment, MNPD noted VUMC mental health professionals “made no mention of psychosis and noted Hale denied having any plans to harm herself or others, nor…

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Continued Withholding of Materials Relating to Covenant School Killer Two Years After Attack Is ‘Insulting,’ Reporter Says

Kaitlin Housler

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the continued withholding of materials relating to the Covenant School killer is “insulting” to the public as it nears two years since the shooting took place.

On Monday, The Star reported that the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) said it expects to make an announcement regarding the conclusion of its investigation into the Covenant School shooting sometime in the next two weeks.

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FBI Needs a ‘Big House Cleaning,’ Reporter Suggests Amid Stalled Release of Anticipated Documents

Kaitlin Housler
FBI Agent, FBI HQ

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said a “big house cleaning” appears to be needed at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as the bureau continues to stall on the release of much-anticipated documents relating to the Covenant School shooting and the late billionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

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Reporter Tom Pappert: FBI’s Denial of Freedom of Information Act Request on Legacy Tokens ‘Concerning’

Kaitlin Housler
Tom Pappert, Kash Patel

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said there is “concern” behind the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) denial of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by The Star that sought disclosure from the agency about its “legacy tokens” concept, especially since the bureau is now officially headed by Director Kash Patel.

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Tennessee Star Presses FBI for Answers on Agency’s ‘Legacy Tokens’ Memo Suppressing Trans Covenant Killer’s Manifesto

Tom Pappert
FBI Files with "Legacy Token" memo

The Tennessee Star on Thursday filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requesting the FBI provide all of its internal records regarding “legacy tokens,” including those related to the May 2023 memo that “strongly” advised the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) not to release documents like the manifesto left by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the biological woman who identified as a transgender man when she killed six at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023.

Obtained by The Star last June, the May 11, 2023 memo was addressed to MNPD Chief John Drake and sent from the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, part of the agency’s Critical Incident Response Group, from an address in Quantico, Virginia.

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Lead Detective on Covenant Killer Case Among 76 Officers Who Left MNPD in 2024 as Police Remain 100 Short of Staffing Goal

Tom Pappert
Metro Nashville Police Department

The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) is reportedly more than 100 officers short of its staffing goal, and while the department has increased its numbers in recent years, its efforts were hampered by 76 individuals who either resigned or retired from the police force over the course of 2024.

According to a Thursday report by Nashville Banner, the city’s budget for MNPD authorizes 1,658 officers, but the department is still 104 members short of its maximum police force. It additionally reported that while the department has 52 prospective officers completing the MNPD training academy.

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Nashville Police Say ‘We Know Nothing of’ Bombshell Claim Some Evidence from Covenant Killer Residence Was Excluded from Official Documentation, Secretly Turned Over to FBI

Tom Pappert
Audrey Hale

A source familiar with the investigation into the March 27, 2023 attack by Audrey Elizabeth Hale on the Covenant School told The Tennessee Star on Thursday that a Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) captain, who led the department’s search of the killer’s residence, ordered police officers not to complete form 110 documents for items obtained during the search conducted on the day of the attack.

This source additionally told The Star that these items were carted away by the FBI, and that no chain of custody exists for the digital evidence obtained during the search of Hale’s home. Further, the source told The Star that firearms were plainly visible in the killer’s bedroom when police conducted their search, but that this evidence has been suppressed from the public.

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Top 2024 Covenant School Shooting Revelations Include Killer’s Therapy, Use of Pell Grants to Buy Guns, and Release of 2023 Manifesto

Tom Pappert
Audrey Elizabeth Hale

In 2024, The Tennessee Star reported multiple revelations about Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the biological woman who identified as a transgender man when she killed six at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023, after obtaining the killer’s journal and a selection of documents related to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) case from a source familiar with the investigation in June 2024.

The Star first shared on June 4 that a retired MNPD lieutenant said police knew Hale was a patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center immediately after searching her family’s home in March 2023, and on June 19, confirmed it obtained an internal police document labeled “Vandy Psych” that appeared to include investigative notes about the killer’s time as a mental health patient.

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Woman Who Detransitioned Says Covenant School Killer’s Extensive Mental Health Treatment a ‘Risk Factor for Transition’

Tom Pappert
Elle Palmer

Elle Palmer, who identified as a transgender man through most of her teen years before detransitioning to her biological, female gender, that early experiences with mental health treatments are “absolutely” a “risk factor” for a desire to transition genders later in life.

In an interview conducted after Palmer traveled to Washington, D.C. to support Tennessee’s law banning transgender treatments for minors, she told The Star that she had a psychiatrist by time she was 11, and said, “I absolutely think it’s a risk factor for transition.”

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Reporter Tom Pappert: Release of Full Covenant Killer Manifesto Will Allow a Glimpse into ‘What Went Wrong’ with Mental Healthcare Over the Last Decade

Kaitlin Housler
Reporter Top Pappert

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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Police May Not Finish Covenant School Shooting Investigation by January 1 Goal as MNPD Spokesman Says ‘No Hard Date’

Tom Pappert
John Drake

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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Reporter Tom Pappert: DOJ in Panic Mode to Destroy Documents Before Trump Administration Is Sworn In

Kaitlin Housler
MPL and Pappert

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said employees at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) appear to be in a panic mode to destroy evidence that could become problematic under the incoming Trump administration in an effort to save themselves from being terminated or possibly from facing prosecution.

On Tuesday, the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project found a document and product destruction truck outside of the DOJ’s headquarters in Washington D.C. – just days after the Justice Department reported a “division-wide system outage” that prevented its access to certain network files.

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Tennessee Star Invites the FBI and DOJ to Release Covenant Manifesto, Settle Lawsuit Ahead of Trump Transition

Tom Pappert
Michael Patrick Leahy

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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Covenant School Announces Plan for New Campus Years After Attack

Tom Pappert
Covenant School Gym

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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Transgender Covenant Killer’s Journal Hints at Bipolar Disorder, but Prescription List Includes No Medications Associated with Illness

Tom Pappert
Audrey Hale

Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who killed three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members at the Covenant School in March 2023, referenced “bi-polar” in the journal from her “manifesto” released by The Tennessee Star on September 3.

Hale wrote in an entry dated January 16, 2023, “I’ve been anxious all last week, all day today [stressed] then I’m told I’m bi-polar by some prideful b****.”

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The Tennessee Star Releases ‘Manifesto’ Left by Transgender Covenant School Killer Audrey Hale

Tom Pappert
Covenant Killer Journal released

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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Judge Restores Freedoms to Alleged Cyberstalker McKenzie McClure, Who Visited Nashville School and Wrote About Gov. Bill Lee

Tom Pappert
McKenzie McClure

U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson ruled on July 29 that alleged cyberstalker McKenzie McClure, the transgender person who wrote publicly about Governor Bill Lee and left an unsettling voicemail before visiting the campus of the Christ Presbyterian Academy (CPA) elementary school in Nashville, will be allowed greater freedom at the East Tennessee psychiatric treatment center where she remains.

A student of CPA from 1999 until 2003, McClure was arrested in May on charges of cyberstalking after she wrote posts claiming Lee would not take action to undermine pro-Palestine protests because the governor “knows if he makes one wrong move it’s Joever for him and my 4th grade teacher… i.e., his WIFE.”

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Star News Network, Michael Patrick Leahy Launch Appeal After Nashville Judge Blocks Covenant School Killer’s Journal from Public

Tom Pappert
Audrey Hale and I'Ashea Myles

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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Reporter Tom Pappert: Vanderbilt University Medical Center May Have Made Financial Arrangements to Avoid Revelations About Its Connection to Audrey Hale

Kaitlin Housler
Tom Pappert

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said he believes attorneys for Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) may have reached a financial arrangement with multiple entities involved in the Covenant School killer case in order to “protect” the medical institution’s reputation amid shocking revelations connecting VUMC to the killer, Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

On June 7, The Star was the first to report that Hale was a 22-year patient of VUMC from 2001 until the time of the horrific school shooting on March 27, 2023.

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Covenant Killer’s Father Confirmed Vanderbilt University Medical Center ‘Didn’t Tell Us’ About Daughter’s Interest in Columbine

Tom Pappert
Audrey Hale

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 for Parents of Covenant Killer Silent on Possible Will with Potential Instructions for Release of Documents

Tom Pappert
Jeff Mobley and David Raybin

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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Vanderbilt University Medical Center Silent on Possible Liability, Settlements After Treating Covenant School Killer Audrey Hale Prior to Attack

Tom Pappert

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) did not respond to a Monday inquiry from The Tennessee Star that sought to establish whether VUMC took any actions to mitigate any possible financial liabilities that may have resulted from its 22-year treatment of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

The Star contacted VUMC about what actions it may have taken to address possible legal liability after publishing the MNPD document, “Vandy Psych,” which contains notes written by an MNPD investigator who secured at least 75 pages of documents about Hale’s treatment at VUMC after obtaining a search warrant.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Created Duplicate Materials Because ‘She Wanted Us to Have Those,’ Nashville Police Told Her Parents

Tom Pappert

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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Nashville Police Point to Judge I’Ashea Myles When Questioned over Will Mentioned by Covenant Killer Audrey Hale in Suicide Note

Tom Pappert

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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Covenant Killer’s Parents Claimed She Left No Will, but Suicide Note Audrey Hale Wrote Demands ‘PLEASE READ MY WILL’

Tom Pappert

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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Tennessee Star to ‘Absolutely Appeal’ Judge’s Decision Not to Release One Single Page of Covenant School Killer Writings

Tom Pappert
Judge I'Ashea Myles, Michael Patrick Leahy

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 Judge Rules Not One Page of Covenant Killer Writings Shall be Released, Cites Dubious Copyright Claims of Intervenors

Tom Pappert

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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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Told Unknown Physician She ‘Felt Close’ to Columbine Massacre, Nashville Police Revealed in 2023 Recording

Tom Pappert
Columbine Shooters

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 Hale Avoided Commitment Three Times During Mental Health Crises

Tom Pappert
Audrey Elizabeth Hale

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 Hale Began ‘Going Through Testing’ for Mental Health in Summer of 2001, Parents Told Police

Tom Pappert
Audrey Elizabeth Hale

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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Journal Lacks Evidence for Early Police Claim Audrey Hale Targeted Covenant over ‘Resentment’ for Time at School

Tom Pappert
Audrey Elizabeth Hale

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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Nashville Police Deny Chief Acknowledged Vanderbilt University Medical Center Staff Failed Duty to Warn Potential Victims of Covenant Killer Audrey Hale

Tom Pappert

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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Outgoing Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital President Created Psychiatric Crisis Evaluation Process Before Covenant Killer Audrey Hale was Referred for Commitment

Tom Pappert
Mary Pawlikowski

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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Audrey Hale Wrote Entry Titled ‘For Media’ in Journal Recovered by Police After Covenant School Attack

Tom Pappert
Audrey Hale

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 Killer Audrey Hale Wrote in Journal About Training with Firearm She Purchased with Pell Grant, Concealed in Family Home

Tom Pappert
Gun Range

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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