An Ohio father who shot and killed his three children last summer heard a creepy song in his car just hours earlier, authorities said.
Clermont County Prosecutor Mark J Tekulve gave a briefing Monday after Chad Doerman pleaded guilty Friday to three counts of murder.
The 33-year-old cried in court as he admitted to shooting dead his sons Clayton, 7, Hunter, 4, and Chase, 3, at their family home in Monroe Township, 20 miles east of Cincinnati, on June 15, 2023.
He also pleaded guilty to two counts of felonious assault against his then-wife, Laura Doerman, who tried to stop the killings, and his teenage stepdaughter, who has not been identified because of her age and status as a victim in the case.
Tekulve revealed that on the morning of the murders, Doerman searched YouTube for a song called Happy in Hell by Colt Ford while driving to work.
Chad Doerman, the Ohio father who shot and killed his three children last summer, heard a creepy song in his car just hours earlier, authorities have revealed. (Pictured: Doerman at his sentencing in court on Friday)
Doerman admitted to shooting and killing his sons Clayton, 7, Hunter, 4, and Chase, 3, at their family home in Monroe Township, 20 miles east of Cincinnati on June 15, 2023.
Tekulve previewed the song’s chorus, which includes the ominous lyrics: ‘I’m in a twenty-two situation / Damned if I don’t, damned if I do / I’m in love with another girl / And I’ve been dreaming of another world / I’ve been living with the devil / While I’m creeping with an angel / All’s well that ends well / Guess I’ll be happy in hell.’
Doerman then called his father around noon and told him, “Clayton is going to be the hardest,” a reference to the killings his father only understood in retrospect, Tekulve said.
The prosecutor also showed chilling surveillance footage of Doerman waiting for help that never came at a small clinic at his local Kroger earlier that day.
Doerman waited at the clinic, which is intended to provide help for common illnesses, for just two minutes and left without speaking to anyone.
He is seen leaning nonchalantly on the counter before leaving the store.
Ohio’s father then bought a Bud Light beer before returning home to his family.
Doerman made several strange comments in the hours before the killing, Tekulve said, but nothing that would have alerted his wife to what was about to happen.
He admitted to killing his sons Clayton, 7, Hunter, 4, and Chase, 3, when he was arrested June 15, 2023, in Monroe Township, 20 miles east of Cincinnati.
Doerman updated his Facebook page to include this image just six days before the murders.
Doerman will serve three life sentences without parole, but will not face the death penalty
He told his wife, “This will be my last good meal” as they ate lunch together, and they opened the gun safe later that day.
But he also spent much of the day playing with his family as usual, just as he had coached them at baseball practice the night before, as if nothing was wrong.
“Between approximately 13:00 and 15:30, the defendant spent the afternoon doing gardening, playing with the children, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that alerted Laura that she needed to do something to protect the family,” said Tekulve.
‘At 3:30, 3:45 p.m., he starts reading the Bible to Hunter. He walks around the house with the Bible in his hand and mutters, “Chad knows what’s right, Chad knows what’s right.”
‘Just before 4 p.m., he opens the gun safe and unlocks it. Laura tells him, “You’re scaring me.” Chad replies, “I’m just messing around.”
“He did this to once again allay any concerns about her safety, his own or the children’s. He actively misled her.”
Tekulve added that at 4 p.m. Doerman was telling his children that “he loves them and that they did nothing wrong” and that they were “the best kids in the world.”
The prosecutor then described the moment when Doerman pointed the gun at his children.
A child’s bicycle, along with evidence markers, in the front yard of the home in Monroe Township
Police body camera footage shows the arrest of Chad Doerman, who was sitting on the front steps of his home when police arrived after he shot his three children, ages 7, 4 and 3.
A tearful Doerman appeared in court for his arraignment on Friday.
‘Around 4 p.m. on the day of the murder, the defendant, Laura and the three children entered the master bedroom,’ he said.
‘Laura is worried in the back of her mind that he’s going to do something to hurt her.
‘Suddenly, after lying down, the accused jumps up, grabs the .22 caliber rifle from the safe and terror fills the room.
‘Laura is screaming, the boys are screaming, Laura is afraid that he is about to commit suicide.
‘Everyone tries to dissuade him, telling him they love him and begging him not to commit suicide.
‘Laura pulls out her phone to call 911. He grabs the phone, throws it across the room and tells her it’s too late.’
“And then, what I can only imagine… well, I can’t imagine… he points the rifle at Hunter and shoots him several times.”
Doerman then shot the two younger children and wounded his wife as she tried to save them.
On Friday, Judge Richard Ferenc sentenced Doerman to three life terms without parole and a minimum of 16 years in prison on the assault charges. He will not face the death penalty.
The children’s distraught mother told the court she approved of the plea deal but said the decision would come as a surprise to some, though “it brings some finality to the court case for my daughter and me.”