Days after Chad Doerman admitted murdering his three young sons with a rifle and was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison without parole, Ohio prosecutors held a press conference revealing shocking additional evidence in the case one of their own once called the “worst crime” he had ever seen. There’s now a clearer picture of what the adjudicated 33-year-old killer said and did in the days and hours before the family execution murders.
Clermont County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Tekulve began his presentation by revealing that several days before the murders Doerman took his sons Clayton, 7, Hunter, 4, and Chase, 3, out for a “boys day” at a dirt racing track and also went fishing with them.
Then, the day before the murders, he woke his 14-year-old stepdaughter Alexis up in the morning and apologized to her for anything he’d ever done to hurt her, an incident that was described as highly unusual. That night, he coached third base at his son Clayton’s baseball game. Finally, on the day of the June 15, 2023, murders, Doerman searched YouTube for the song “Happy in Hell,” and at lunch that afternoon, after he got home from work early, he told his then wife Laura Doerman “this will be my last good meal.”
All the while, Tekulve said, nothing seemed amiss or abnormal at work, and Doerman, an Insulator’s Union member, would give conflicting statements about whether he really had troubling sleeping in the lead-up to the horrific crimes.
Though he told his mother that he was having some confusing feelings, she didn’t call Laura or 911 or a crisis hotline, the prosecutor said. Instead, she suggested that he go to the Little Clinic, inside a Kroger in Clermont County. And when he went to Kroger on that fateful June 15, 2023, after leaving work around 9:30 a.m., it seemed from the video played Monday that no one was at the desk. In any event, it was “not the right place to go” for feelings you may be having psychologically, Tekulve said.
The video showed Doerman walking into Kroger, wearing the same clothes as he has wearing when he was arrested.
Chad Doerman walks into Kroger on June 15, 2023 (Law&Crime).
He walked through a vitamin aisle, folded his arms and looked at products, but didn’t take anything off of the shelves.
Chad Doerman stares at merchandise in Kroger (Law&Crime).
He walked over to the Little Clinic desk and leaned on it, waiting there for a minute or two before walking away.
Chad Doerman (top) at The Little Clinic desk (Law&Crime).
On the way home, he picked up a 16-ounce can of Bud Light.
After he got back to the Laurel Lindale Road residence, his family returned from running some errands. His sons were happy to see him and they played together.
Then, while eating lunch prepared by Laura, Chad said “this will be my last good meal,” which she worried was a suicidal statement, according to this account.
Prosecutors further said that the evidence showed Chad Doerman called his father and said “Clayton’s going to be the hardest.” Doerman even read the Bible to Hunter, mumbled to himself “Chad knows what’s right,” and told his sons around 4 p.m. that he loved them and that they did nothing wrong.
When the family went into a bedroom for an afternoon nap, Chad jumped out of the bed and grabbed a rifle from the gun safe. In this moment, Tekulve said, Laura believed he was going to kill himself.
Chad grabbed Laura’s phone when she tried to call 911 and told her “it’s too late.”
A short time later, prosecutors played distressing audio of Laura screaming for help during a 911 call. Gunshots could be heard.
The dispatcher on the other end of the line repeatedly told her to “calm down,” not yet understanding what was happening.
Bodycam video from that day showed Doerman was waiting on the front step for deputies to show up at the residence and arrest him, and the rifle was right next to him.
When Clermont County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the murder scene, took Doerman to the ground, and placed him in handcuffs while he was face-down, one of the deputies asked: “What are you doing, man?”
Left inset: Clayton, Hunter, and Chase Doerman (obituary). Right: Chad Doerman after his arrest in June 2023 (Law&Crime).
Doerman turned his head and said: “Can I roll over? I ain’t gonna hurt ya. I ain’t gonna hurt nobody.”
After again being asked what was going on, Doerman replied: “Nothing. Can I stand up? It’s kind of uncomfortable.”
Video recorded after Doerman was taken into custody also showed him banging his head against a wall.
Though prosecutors had initially pursued the death penalty in the case, based on the evidence of planning, the severity of the crimes, and a confession, Common Pleas Judge Richard P. Ferenc ruled in March that the “full admission” Doerman made in custody had to be suppressed because a detective failed to properly advise Doerman of his Miranda rights and continued to question him after he asked for an attorney.
Thereafter, Doerman shifted his defense strategy to plead not guilty by reason of insanity and mental illness. The defense has said he was in a state of psychosis on the day of the murders.
Months later, Doerman pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and felonious assault charges, the latter two crimes for wounding Laura Doerman with gunfire as she tried to save her children and for an attack on Alexis, who was watching TV in the living room when the shooting began.
After addressing the evidence from ahead the shooting on Monday, prosecutors reiterated their view that Doerman knew what he was doing before, during, and after the murders.
By way of example, prosecutors said that 12 days after the murders, during a jailhouse visit with his brother, Doerman compared himself to Hitler — as in, Hitler made global news and so did he — and he did not express remorse.
With the support of the surviving victims, the state and the defense reached a plea agreement that took the death penalty off the table in exchange for life without parole, also putting an end to the defendant’s “serious mental illness” claims.
Laura Doerman said Friday that she and her children “went through a nightmare that most people cannot even begin to imagine. We grieve every day for my boys, and we miss them so much.”
She added that she “in full agreement with how the criminal case resolved,” as the “decision to end this criminal case with a plea and multiple life sentences brings some finality to the court case for my daughter and me.”
“No punishment will ever bring my boys back,” the grieving mother said. “Having a guarantee that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars is what is best for my family.”
Laura asked for privacy and for the public to remember Clayton, Hunter and Chase for how they lived, not how they died.
“Remember them as the little boys who were always at the baseball fields or running outside. Remember them as the boys who love to have fun and were inseparable from one another,” she said. “Their lives are not only about what happened to them — they are so much more than that.”
During victim impact statements, which were not allowed to be recorded, stepdaughter Alexis looked directly at Doerman as a prosecutor read what she wrote, according to Angenette Levy.
“Nothing will ever be the same again because of you,” she said. “Softball will never be the same… you made me a good ball player. I always want to tell you because I know you would be so proud of me… And Chad I still work very hard on my grades and I was on the honor roll this year.”
Alexis said that Christmas mornings aren’t the same anymore, and that when Doerman murdered her brothers Clayton, Hunter, and Chase, he took her mom’s life and her own life too.
Laura’s statement said that Chad “ripped away and destroyed forever” the life she once knew.
“I grieve the loss of Clayton, Hunter and Chase every day. I grieve the life they never got to live,” their mother said.
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