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.
However, in the wake of reporting by The Star about Hale and her connections to VUMC and Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, a June 24 press release announced Tanmay Mathur will be “succeeding” Pawlikowski on July 15, and added that the current president is retiring “this summer.”
The March announcement about Pawlikowski explains she “joined VUMC in 2015 as Vice President of Operations for Vanderbilt Behavioral Health,” and a LinkedIn profile suggests she began serving as president of Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital and Vanderbilt Behavioral Health in January 2021.
The dates of Pawlikowski’s employment suggest she was in a leadership position at VUMC during much of Hale’s treatment, including in 2019, when the killer was referred for commitment by her initial psychologist.
While Hale was apparently referred for commitment, The Star obtained MNPD photographs of a folder retrieved from the Hale family home appear to show she instead participated in a VUMC Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP).
The Star confirmed Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) served both a subpoena and a search warrant on VUMC to obtain records related to Hale’s treatment. The subpoena was sent on May 13, 2023, and the search warrant was approved by a judge on June 1, 2023.
Notes taken by an MNPD investigator after a search warrant was served on VUMC indicated Hale was prescribed four medications by VUMC staff members, including two anti-anxiety medications and the generic version of the popular antidepressant Lexapro.
The notes additionally reveal that Hale told VUMC staff members she fantasized about killing her father and committing a mass shooting at a school.
Hale committed her devastating attack at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023, when she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three staff members.
More police photographs, obtained by The Star from a source familiar with the investigation, revealed prescription bottles corresponding to the four drugs.
A fifth medication prescribed to Hale, identified by The Star from police photographs, is the anti-anxiety drug Lorazepam, also known as Ativan, which is from the Benzodiazepines family of drugs the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warns is “associated with amnesia, hostility, irritability, and vivid or disturbing dreams.”
The announcement from VUMC that Mathur would succeed Pawlikowski came on the same day the U.S. Supreme Court said it would hear an appeal from the Biden administration over the Tennessee law which prevents hospitals, including VUMC, from offering transgender treatments to minors.
Star News Digital Media Inc., which owns and operates The Star, and editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy are plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuits which seek to compel both MNPD and the FBI to release Hale’s full writings, including those sometimes called a manifesto.
Earlier this month, The Star published an FBI memo which “strongly” advised MNPD Chief John Drake against releasing “legacy tokens” from individuals like Hale, and an FBI definition suggests the agency wants both the roughly 80 pages of Hale’s writings obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuit withheld from public release.
The FBI declined to confirm it sent the memo in a statement to The Star, but acknowledged it sends such “products” to local law enforcement.
Since it received a tranche of documents related to the Covenant investigation and the journal police recovered from Hale’s vehicle, The Star has published more than 40 articles about the subject, including dozens which include the killer’s own words.
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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 “Tanmay Mathur” by Vanderbilt University Medical Center and “Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital” is by Erin O. Smith.
