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Ohio | New details reveal what happened in the hours leading up to a father killing his 3 sons

CLERMONT COUNTY, Ohio (WKRC) - A heart-wrenching 911 call was played at a press conference in Clermont County on Monday to help explain to the public what led up to the moment a man shot and killed his three little boys.

The mother of the boys first went to call 911 because she thought that when her husband, Chad Doerman, picked up a rifle, he was suicidal.

"Laura takes her phone out to call 911 to get some help there for Chad, who she believes is about to kill himself,” Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve said. “He grabs her phone, throws it across the room, and tells her, 'It's too late. He's not going to kill himself. It's too late to save those boys.'"

One of the boys, thinking his father was going to shoot himself, begged him not to. Doerman would turn the rifle on that little boy, shoot, and kill him. He would then go on to shoot and kill his other two sons. The screaming from the mother of those boys could be heard after her husband systematically executed each one of them.

Prosecutor Mark Tekulve laid out the days, hours, and minutes before Doerman took his rifle and executed his three boys, 3-year-old Chase, 4-year-old Hunter, and 7-year-old Clayton. It was June 2023. Tekulve said there was nothing that could have foretold what was about to happen to what he called a "happy, little family."

"Were there drugs involved? Were there prior incidents of violence?” Tekulve asked rhetorically. “There were no reports—no prior reports or any calls made to law enforcement, for any event, any disturbance at the Doerman residence at Laurel Lindale Road."

Tekulve shared how Doerman went to Kroger the morning of the murders and stood at the Little Clinic but left before speaking to anyone. He then went home, had lunch with his family, and told his wife that this would likely be the last good meal he would have. Just before the shooting began, he spoke to his boys.

"[At] 4:00 p.m., he's telling Clayton, Hunter, and Chase that he loves them,” Tekulve said. “And that they did nothing wrong, and that they're the best boys ever, knowing he's about to kill them."

Chief Assistant Prosecutor Lara Baron-Allen described a phone call Doerman made to his brother from jail just 12 days after the murder.

"So, within two weeks, he's comparing himself to Hitler and saying that he's as big as Hitler. That he's internationally known. ‘Look at me,’” said Baron-Allen.

On Friday, Doerman agreed to drop his not guilty by reason of insanity plea and plead guilty to the three murders. In exchange for the prosecutor taking the death penalty off the table. Prosecutor Tekulve said it's what the boys' mother and sister wanted, so they wouldn't have to endure a trial.

Chad Doerman has been in jail since the day he killed his three little boys. He's scheduled any day now to be transferred to prison, where he will spend the rest of his life without the possibility of parole and no option to appeal.

Local 12 is choosing not to include the actual 911 recordings in this report, as we have determined there's little to no journalistic value in doing so.

Source: dayton247now.com, David Winter, August 6, 2024

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde



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