There was nothing in the days leading up to the tragedy in Monroe Township, Ohio, that would have given any indication of what 32-year-old Chad Doerman was about to do. Doerman was a family man. He lived with his wife Laura and their three fair-haired sons, Clayton, seven, Hunter, four, and Chase, three, in a ranch-style home. Doerman was also stepdad to Laura’s 14-year-old daughter, Alexis, from a previous relationship.
The house was full of laughter with the three energetic young boys. It was June 2023, and there was nothing out of the ordinary about Doerman’s behaviour. He’d been to work as an insulator, coached the boys at their baseball practice and had taken them fishing.
On the morning of 15 June, Doerman drove to work and looked up a song on YouTube called Happy In Hell by Colt Ford. The lyrics were, on reflection, sinister: “I’m in a catch twenty-two/ Damned if I don’t damned if I do/ I’m in love with another girl/ And I’ve been dreamin’ in another world/ I’ve been livin’ with the devil/ While I’m creepin’ with an angel/ All’s well that ends well/ I guess I’ll be happy in hell.”
That morning, he went to a walk-in health clinic after admitting to his mum that he was having “some confusing feelings”. But he left the clinic after two minutes without speaking to any staff members. Could there have been a different outcome if he had?
Doerman left work early and had lunch with his wife. “This will be my last good meal,” he said, casually. Laura thought the statement was strange but without context, not alarming.
It was the same when he phoned his father and commented, “Clayton is going to be the hardest one.” But this would not have given any reason to predict what was coming.
That afternoon, it was warm and sunny. Doerman worked in the garden while the children played. Then, at around 4pm, he suggested they all have a nap in the master bedroom.
Calling for help
Soon afterwards, several 911 calls were made. One was from a neighbour of the Doermans, reporting that a blonde-haired girl was running down the street, crying that “my stepfather is killing everybody” in her house. The next call was from Laura who was screaming. “My husband shot my baby!” she told the dispatcher before the call was disconnected.
When the call was connected again, Laura can be heard trying to administer first aid and yelling for her hysterical children to run while they screamed. “I called and nobody came!” she cried. “Their father killed them!”
When the emergency services arrived at the single storey house at 4.25pm, they approached with caution, but Doerman was sitting outside, calmly waiting for them. He was handcuffed without a fuss.
Bodycam on the officers recorded Laura screaming at her husband, “You took my life from me!” confirming what the police feared – that Doerman had opened fire on his own family. Laura was bleeding from a gunshot wound to her hand, and her daughter was badly shaken, but safe.
First responders found the bodies of the boys lined up. Clayton, Hunter and Chase were declared dead at the scene.
Chase had been shot once, while his older brothers had each been shot four times. Their killings had been execution style. Systematic, ruthless and brutal.
As the house was turned into a crime scene, one of the boys’ bikes lay on the front lawn where they’d left it while playing.
“Tell them I did it. Take me to jail,” Doerman shouted after being handcuffed.
Laura was taken to hospital for treatment and Doerman was arrested on charges of murder, kidnapping and felonious assault.
When investigators discovered the horrific details of what happened, it was unthinkable.
At around 3.30pm, Doerman had started reading the Bible to Hunter. He started to repeat, “Chad knows what’s right.”
When he told his family to join him for a nap, Laura and their three sons went into the master bedroom, while her daughter watched TV in the living room.
Doerman had opened the gun safe, which alarmed Laura. “You’re scaring me,” she’d told him. Doerman told his sons they were the “best boys ever” before grabbing a .22 rifle.
Laura and the boys started to scream. She thought that her husband was going to hurt himself. She begged him not to kill himself and said they all loved him. Laura tried to dial 911, but Doerman threw her mobile across the room. Then he turned the gun on four-year-old Hunter and shot him multiple times.
Laura’s daughter heard the shots and ran into the room to see her little brother get gunned down by her stepfather.
Alexis ran, as Doerman chased seven-year-old Clayton through the house and gunned him down in a field outside.
The young girl turned back to the house and grabbed three-year-old Chase to try and protect him. Doerman threatened to shoot her if she didn’t drop him.
Fight to save boys
A camera at the house captured her begging, “Please don’t shoot me,” before she was forced by gunpoint to put her brother down.
Chase ran to his mum. Doerman shot towards him, but the gun misfired. When Chase got to Laura, she tried to get the gun off her husband – she even put her thumb over the barrel of the gun. He simply fired, shooting his wife in the hand.
As she physically recoiled from the force, Doerman turned the gun and executed Chase. Laura had witnessed all three of her sons being shot and killed.
Doerman laid their bodies next to each other in the garden. As Laura desperately tried to resuscitate them, Doerman watched, and waited for the police to arrive.
When interviewed, Doerman said he’d been thinking about killing the boys for months, and had had trouble sleeping because of it.
The shooting deeply shocked the rural community. Doerman had no history of violence towards his wife. There was one assault charge against his father, but the charges were dropped.
At first, the death penalty was on the table. Doerman, then 33, was charged with nine counts of aggravated murder for every bullet that had hit the three boys and was held on a $20million bond.
Initially he pleaded not guilty but in August this year, he made a deal to plead guilty in exchange for three consecutive life sentences without the chance of parole. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of felonious assaults for injuries to Laura and her daughter.
The surprise deal was agreed to by Laura, whose statement was read out in court saying nothing would bring her boys back but having Doerman behind bars forever was what was best and would bring some finality for her and her daughter. She said she wanted her boys to be remembered for their lives, not their deaths.
“Remember them as the three little boys who loved fishing, go-carting, and swimming. Remember them as the boys who love to have fun and were inseparable from one another. Their lives are not only about what happened to them — they are so much more than that. I love you Clayton, Hunter and Chase.”
Laura’s daughter had written a statement that was also read out for her in court, “Chad, I trusted you with my life… I saw you as my dad, not just a stepdad. I will never in a million years ever forgive you for what you have done, and hope you pay for your actions like you deserve, but I will never hate you.”
So many questions remain. Why did Doerman gun his young sons down on that sunny afternoon? The prosecutor referred to the killing as “lightning from a blue sky”, as it came out of nowhere. He was supposed to protect his family but he betrayed them in the worst way.
