A source provided The Tennessee Star with the name of the psychologist who was reportedly part of the care team for Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale. That psychologist allegedly failed in her professional and legal duty to warn law enforcement after Hale purportedly expressed fantasies about murdering her family members and carrying out a school shooting while under treatment.
The psychologist’s alleged failure in her duty to warn was first reported on 99.7 WTN’s Brian Wilson radio show on Friday.
“The ongoing [MNPD] investigation [into the Covenant killings] apparently focuses on the shooter’s therapist,” Wilson said.
“Metro Nashville Police Department is remaining silent on this, but sources familiar with the investigation confirm that search warrants were run on the home and office of the therapist in an effort to obtain notes of the therapy sessions with the Covenant School shooter. One source says detectives have evidence that the shooter told the therapist about fantasies that involved, among other things, killing her parents and carrying out a school shooting of some kind,” Wilson added. (emphasis added)
Hale attacked the Covenant School on March 27, 2023 and murdered three young students and three staff members before she was killed at the school by Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officers that same morning.
After learning the identity of the psychologist late Friday, The Star confirmed the psychologist was previously licensed in the state of Tennessee and endorsed as a health services provider. The professional record for the psychologist, who has a PhD from George Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University), additionally showed no history of disciplinary action or professional complaints over the course of her nearly 40 years in the field.
The psychologist, whose identity The Star is withholding to preserve her privacy, was licensed with the Tennessee Board of Examiners of Psychology from August 1986 until December 1, 2022. The Star learned the psychologist claims to have closed her practice on December 31, 2022, just 86 days prior to Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s murderous attack at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023.
It is unclear when the psychologist began treating Hale, or when that treatment ended.
When The Star called the psychologist’s Nashville office, a recording left by the psychologist explained the practice was closed on December 31, 2022.
“I know there has been a search warrant served. One of the practitioner’s offices, I think home as well, regarding some documentation,” retired MNPD officer Garet Davidson told WTN’s Wilson on Thursday.”
“I’m a little skeptical that it’s [the MNPD investigation into the Covenant killing] active, open, and actually being worked. And I don’t know, if it was, why it hasn’t already been presented to DA Funk to go ahead and see about an indictment on that individual in question,” Davidson added.
Sources tell The Star that a search warrant was served and executed on the psychologist’s Nashville office in July 2023 and that documents obtained during that search are the basis for the claim that Hale told the psychologist during her treatment sessions that she fantasized about killing her parents and further fantasized about a school shooting.
If the psychologist is the therapist identified by Wilson as the individual who failed to report remarks by Hale indicating she planned to hurt her family or students and staff at the Covenant School, the psychologist may possibly be subject to criminal proceedings or vulnerable to civil claims for violating Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) 33-3-206, which declares any individual working as a “mental health professional or behavior analyst” is a mandatory reporter.
On Friday, The Star reported, “Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) 33-3-206 mandates that if a ‘service recipient has communicated to a mental health professional or behavior analyst an actual threat of bodily harm against a clearly identified victim’ and ‘has determined or reasonably should have determined that the service recipient has the apparent ability to commit such an act and is likely to carry out the threat unless prevented from doing so,’ the mental health professional ‘shall take reasonable care to predict, warn of, or take precautions to protect the identified victim from the service recipient’s violent behavior.’”
Tennessee statutes at the time of the March 27, 2023 Covenant killings are unclear on what criminal, civil, or regulatory penalties might be imposed on a psychologist who failed to comply with the duty to warn specified in 33-3-206. However, under 33-3-209, which states, “If a professional or an employee has satisfied the person’s duty under § 33-3-206, § 33-3-208, or § 33-3-210, no monetary liability and no cause of action may arise against the professional, an employee, or any service provider in whose service the duty arose for the professional or employee not predicting, warning of, or taking precautions to provide protection from violent behavior by the person with mental illness, serious emotional disturbance, or developmental disability,” failure to comply with the duty to warn could leave a medical professional vulnerable to civil damage claims.
The Tennessee General Assembly subsequently passed legislation that was signed into law by Governor Lee in April 2024 which suggests such failure to comply with the duty to warn might result in criminal, civil, or regulatory penalties under 33-3-206 (b), which states “A qualified mental health professional or behavior analyst who acts or makes a reasonable attempt to act in accordance with subsection (a) is not liable for damages in a civil action, subject to prosecution in a criminal proceeding, or subject to disciplinary action by a regulatory board for such act or reasonable attempt to act.”
The Star, in addition to calling the psychologist’s office number, attempted to contact the psychologist using several different publicly listed numbers but did not receive a response.
The psychologist’s practice was located in Nashville, and The Star identified a Nashville residential address that appears to be owned by a revocable living trust bearing the names of the psychologist and her spouse. An attempt to reach the psychologist at this address was unsuccessful. The psychologist and her spouse additionally appear to own a residential property outside of Davidson County but still within Middle Tennessee.
Hale was a biological female who identified as a transgender male at the time of her attack on the Covenant School in Nashville, during which she claimed the lives of three nine-year-old students and three faculty members.
Many transgender people, according to the Cleveland Clinic, experience gender dysphoria, which the clinic’s website explains can lead to anxiety, depression, negative self image, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), shame and social isolation. Should transgender people then experience “social stigma,” the website explains, transgender individuals could seek to cope with self-injury or suicidal behavior.
The website also explains that 39 percent of transgender people “report experiencing severe psychological distress,” while just 5 percent those who do not identify as transgender report the same.
An individual with gender dysphoria is likely to accrue a multidisciplinary healthcare team that News Medical explains may include psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, and counselors of varying specialties.
The psychologist identified to The Star as the practitioner who was treating Hale whose offices were searched in July 2023 after a search warrant was obtained was almost certainly not the only mental health practitioner who was treating Hale prior to her death. In the state of Tennessee, psychologists are not allowed to prescribe pharmaceuticals that may have been used to assist in Hale’s gender transition. If their patients seek medications, psychologists operating in the state of Tennessee will often provide referrals to either psychiatrists or psychiatric nurse practitioners.
In Tennessee, nurse practitioners are allowed to prescribe medications with physician supervision.
Due to obvious changes in the physical appearance and mannerisms of Audrey Elizabeth Hale in the years and months preceding her violent and murderous attack on the Covenant School, it is reasonable to assume that she was prescribed any number of medications, including potentially testosterone and perhaps certain psychotropic pharmaceuticals. If she was prescribed such drugs, either a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner licensed in the state of Tennessee, would have issued those prescriptions. To date, the identity of the unnamed psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner who may have been treating Hale has not been disclosed by MNPD.
The autopsy for Audrey Elizabeth Hale apparently did not test for testosterone.
Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns The Tennessee Star, and its editor-in-chief, Michael Patrick Leahy, are plaintiffs in the lawsuit seeking to compel the full release of documents written by Hale, including those that have been called her manifesto. Star News Digital Media, Inc. and Leahy are simultaneously plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit seeking to force the FBI to release Hale’s writings.
Wilson reported that sources close to the investigation confirmed to him that MNPD investigators continue to investigate Hale’s therapists, and the FBI has maintained that releasing even one page of Hale’s writings could jeopardize ongoing investigations.
It is unclear whether the psychologist, or another mental health professional who may have been part of Hale’s multidisciplinary care team, could be an investigative target for the FBI or MNPD.
Three pages of Hale’s writings that were published last year did not appear to include names or identifying information about individuals.
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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].
Photo “Audrey Elizabeth hale” by Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
