Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the Metro Nashville Police Department’s (MNPD) handling of the investigation of the March 27, 2023 attack by Audrey Elizabeth Hale on the Covenant School has “defied reason and logic” as the department claims it is in the “finalization” stage of completing the process nearly two years after the attack occurred.
“This entire investigation has defied reason and logic for a year or more, as long as I’ve been covering it,” Pappert said on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Pappert made the remarks while discussing his article published Saturday which details that a source familiar with the Covenant shooting investigation told The Star that an MNPD captain, who led the department’s search of the killer’s residence, ordered police officers not to complete the required evidence documentation form for some of the items obtained during the search conducted on the day of the March 27 attack.
In the piece, Pappert included comments from MNPD Public Affairs Director Don Aaron who said the department knows “nothing” of the bombshell claim.
In regards to MNPD’s ongoing investigation into the shooting, Aaron also revealed for the first time to The Star that there had been a staff change at the department among the lead detective who had been in charge of the case from its inception on March 27, 2023.
Noting the staffing change at MNPD, Pappert said he “doesn’t understand,” if the investigation is indeed in its finalization stage, what is preventing the new lead detective from closing the case.
“We’ve been told for almost a year, if not over a year, that this investigation is in the final documentation phase. Where they’re just typing up reports and putting it in a giant manila folder that they’ll then put in a filing cabinet somewhere. I don’t understand why this detective is so happy to have this open file on his desk for months on end when apparently all he needs to do is print out some documents and sign it and get it all over with,” Pappert said.
Pappert went on to say that while MNPD’s initial handling of the investigation was “competent,” it appeared to have hit a turning point in late 2023, early 2024.
“[The initial] lead detective seems to have been doing a very competent job during the early months of this case. Just like, by the way, the Metro Nashville Police Department did a very competent job, I think it was 90 seconds or something like that, from the second they got to the Covenant School to the time Audrey Hale was dead,” Pappert said.
“These are very competent people, but then something seems to have happened in late 2023, early 2024, when it seems as though it became the policy of the Metro Nashville Police Department that it was never going to finish this case,” Pappert added.
Watch the full segment:
Tune in now to The Michael Patrick Leahy Show – your AMERICA FIRST news talk
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– Read more at @TheTNStar https://t.co/h3U4DxgTUI— MichaelPatrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) February 10, 2025
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Covenant School” by Metro Nashville PD.
