Investigators read 16 of the shooter’s personal notebooks and searched her laptop, cell phones, thumb drives, online storage accounts, and social media.
“Early in the investigation, it was suggested [the shooter] left behind a ‘manifesto‘ detailing her motives and intentions,” the summary said. “This has elicited a great deal of interest from the public and had led to repeated demands this manifesto be released for public study and comment.”
“By definition, a manifesto is a mission statement or other document written and disseminated by an individual or group to enumerate or expound upon the guiding principles and beliefs that inform their actions,” investigators explained. “Regardless of length, a manifesto is a single document that outlines all the factors, intentions, and objectives of an individual act or a series of actions.”
The report added, “In this case, a manifesto didn’t exist. [The shooter] never left behind a single document explaining why she committed the attack, why she specifically targeted The Covenant, and what she hoped to gain, if anything, with the attack.”
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The only thing investigators found were “a series of notebooks, art composition books, and media files” that the shooter created to document “her planning and preparation for the attack, the events in her life that motivated her to commit the attack, and her hopes regarding the outcome of the attack.”
“No single document, notebook, or digital device contains the answer to those questions. The answer is scattered throughout all the assembled material, which required a careful review of the material to understand Hale’s motive,” investigators said.
Investigators came to the conclusion that the shooter’s motive was “notoriety.”
“She craved the notoriety Harris and Klebold attained following Columbine,” said investigators. “This can be seen clearly with the frequent references in her writings and videos of how they became ‘gods’ following their attack. This led to a deep desire on her part to become a ‘god’ like them and other mass killers who attained notoriety, even if it meant infamy.”
Investigators discovered that the shooter considered the attack to be a failure unless at least ten people were killed. The report said, “in that respect, she did fail, in no small part due to the actions of the faculty and staff at The Covenant. But she managed to attain the notoriety she craved simply by self-documenting her life and actions in a way no other mass killer has done before.”
Investigators explained that the shooter’s writings “often complained how she didn’t know enough about the mental health history or motives of most mass killers, as nothing was publicly documented regarding their struggles.” Investigators said that the shooter “hoped her attack would be different simply by providing years of writings, artwork, and digital media files which explained her motives and actions—in this respect,” they believe, the shooter “succeeded.”
