He Ended His Kids’ Lives To Punish His Wife | The Chad Doerman Case

He Ended His Kids’ Lives To Punish His Wife | The Chad Doerman Case 

PART1

STAND UP! STAND UP NOW! STAND UP! STAND THE UP! >> WHAT YOU’RE SEEING IS a father sitting calmly on his own front porch minutes after executing his three little boys, Hunter, Clayton, and Chase. Behind that camera, you can hear the screams of his wife, the mother whose three of four children are gone. >> You took my life from me! My life! >> Chad Doerman didn’t just kill his sons.

He lined them up and shot them in front of their mother. During the trial, Chad never admitted the actual reason, but everything we later uncovered in this case seemed to point in one direction. He wanted to punish his wife. Hi. My name is Christine, and today we’re looking at a case that involves the loss of three very young children whose lives were taken by the person meant to protect them.

So, I’ll make sure to tell this story with utmost care and respect. As we go through what happened, my goal is to honor their memory and be mindful of the impact this case still has on their family and community. Before this became one of Ohio’s most disturbing family annihilation cases, it was just a household that looked like any other young family trying to build a life.

Chad and Laura lived in a modest home on a quiet stretch of Monroe Township, a rural part of Clermont County, where most days are measured in school runs, work shifts, and kids playing in the yard. Chad worked a regular job in manufacturing, coming home from the plant in the afternoons, while Laura’s world revolved around the children.

Getting them dressed, managing naps, packing bags, and keeping the household running. It wasn’t a wealthy family or a chaotic urban story. It was the kind of working-class life where the biggest landmarks are the local fields, the school, and the front lawn. And inside that home were four siblings who had no idea what was coming.

Clayton was just 7 years old. He was at that age where a boy starts feeling like a big kid, wants to run faster, climb higher, be the one who leads. Seven is old enough to understand that he has two little brothers who look up to him. Then there was Hunter, 4 years old, one of the purest ages a child can be, fully walking, talking, and curious, but still small enough to fit against a parent’s chest.

Hunter is the age where children ask why about everything, where the world is still new enough to be exciting every single day. And then there was Chase, 3 years old, the baby with the round cheeks, always smiling around his siblings. Chase was the age where the world is just beginning to make sense. Stuffed animals are still best friends, a scraped knee feels like the end of everything, and the sound of a parent’s voice is enough to fix anything.

Alexis, the big sister, was 14. She was Laura’s daughter from a relationship before Chad, but she had long stopped thinking of it that way. To her, Chad was simply dad. The man who had been there through her childhood, who she trusted, who she believed was safe. From the outside, it looked like a family that had all the essential pieces in place.

A father who came home from work and sometimes played outside with his sons, a mother whose days were built around caring for the kids, a teenage daughter who helped and adored her little brothers, and three young boys who filled the house with noise and life. On paper, it was just a normal family.

And that’s exactly what makes this case so difficult to process. Because if the parents were working, the kids  were loved, and the home looked from the outside like it had all the right pieces, then the question that hangs over this entire case is simple and brutal. If everyone was so good, then what went wrong? June 15th, 2023, 3 days before Father’s Day.

The morning started the way most mornings did in the Doerman house. Chad left for work at around 7:00 a.m. Laura was home with the children. The boys were playing with their bikes and toys in the yard. Alexis was also playing with her little brothers. Nothing about those early hours looked different from any other day.

Then, in the early afternoon, Chad came home from work, and it immediately felt unusual to Laura. It was rare for him to show up early just to be with her and the kids. When she asked why he was home, he told her he just wanted to be with family. It was around 1:00 p.m. when Laura started preparing lunch for everyone.

Outside, Chad was playing with all three boys in the yard, mixing in a bit of yard work between their games. He was pulling weeds, tossing a ball, watching his sons run around. From the kitchen window, it would have looked like the kind of scene most parents wait all week for. A dad home early, kids laughing, a mother making lunch for everyone.

Then the family sat down together at the table. At some point during that meal, Chad turned to Laura and said this would be his last good meal. Laura assumed it was work stress talking. Maybe that was why he’d come home early. Stressed husbands say strange things. It didn’t register as a warning in her mind.

PART2

After lunch, Chad went back outside. [music] He did some more yard work and played a little more with the children. Sometime around 3:30 that afternoon, Chad picked up a Bible and sat down with Hunter. He read to his 4-year-old son, telling him he loved him. Telling all three boys [music] they were the best boys ever.

Then he began mumbling to himself. Chad knows [music] what’s right. Chad knows what’s right. Laura saw him, heard it, and felt [music] a knot of unease. But there was still no obvious reason to believe what he was about to do. Just before 4:00 p.m., Chad walked over to the gun safe in the bedroom. Laura saw him opening it and told him, “You’re scaring me.

” He brushed it off, said he was just kidding and playing around. Then he suggested that the family should take a nap in the master bedroom. Everyone was tired, so Laura, all three boys, and Chad lay down together on the bed, while Alexis was watching television in the living room. For a little while, the house was completely quiet.

No shouting, no chaos. That nap was the last peaceful moment this family [music] ever had together. Chad got up from the bed, and again walked to the gun safe. He opened it, took out a HC.22 caliber Marlin rifle, and this time he was not playing around with the gun. He loaded it with the magazine containing bullets.

Laura and the boys were [music] just in front of his eyes. Chad pointed the rifle at Hunter and shot him twice. The sound of those shots tore through the house. Laura jolted awake. So did Clayton and Chase. For a terrifying moment, no one could understand what they were seeing. The boys were frozen.

Laura’s mind went straight to get the boys away from their father. She didn’t have time to process and ask Chad why he did [music] it. She yelled at children to run as far as possible while trying to provide aid to Hunter. In the living room, Alexis heard the gunfire and her mother’s scream. When she reached the doorway, she saw Chad holding the rifle and Hunter lying unresponsive in Laura’s lap.

Alexis was terrified, but she didn’t let fear stop her. Even as a 14-year-old caught in the middle of something unimaginable, she ran to save her brothers. She turned and ran after Clayton toward the back of the house, yelling [music] at him to keep going. Chad followed them outside, still firing as Clayton tried to get away through the yard.

Alexis saw Chad getting closer to Clayton, raised his rifle, and fired numerous shots at him. He immediately fell down, and while he was lying injured and defenseless on that ground, Chad shot him in his head. Refusing to give up, Alexis ran back into the house and grabbed little 3-year-old Chase, lifting him into her arms and heading for the road.

But as they reached the edge of the property, Chad caught up with them, pointed the rifle at Alexis’s head, >> [music] >> and ordered her to let go of her brother. Chase was crying the whole time. He was so frightened that he tried to hide behind Alexis, but his legs almost froze on that ground seeing the rifle pointed on his head.

>> [music] >> Chad fired at him, but the gun did not go off because the magazine was empty. Alexis was constantly begging Chad not to shoot her brother and let them go. In that split second, Chase broke free and ran to Laura, who had just come outside to see Clayton in the same condition as Hunter. Nobody in that house could cope with what was happening.

In a matter of seconds, the man they knew as husband and father had become someone they didn’t recognize, someone hunting his own children. Then came the most [music] desperate struggle of all, Chad and Laura fighting over the rifle. Laura tried to hold on to Chase and stop the gun at the same time.

In that chaos, Chad bit her as he tried to tear Chase from her arms. Laura quickly put her thumb over the end of the barrel trying to stop the shot, but Chad fired injuring her hand so badly she had to drop Chase. In the moments that followed, he managed to reload the rifle, aimed it at Chase’s head, and executed him. In less than 5 minutes, a family nap turned into a crime scene where the person who was supposed to protect those children had become the one destroying them.

Alexis ran into the street screaming for help. The quiet road that had been just another part of a summer afternoon was suddenly filled with the sound of a teenager yelling that her stepfather was killing everyone. She flagged down a car and begged her to stop and told the lady that her dad was shooting her brothers.

The lady and neighbors immediately [music] started calling 911. >> And and there’s a girl running down the street saying that her dad is killing everyone in her family. >> And what did the female say to you? >> And she says that her stepfather is killing everybody in her house. I did. I’m call I’m on the phone with them right now.

>> Did she say how or what was happening? >> I asked her I asked her to get in a car with me and she said she couldn’t leave her family. >> Can you tell how many people have been shot? >> I don’t think two children. >> Okay. All right, I need What was >> seen >> When deputies arrive on Laurel Lindale Road, they don’t yet know exactly what they’re walking into.

What you’re hearing now is them trying to locate the suspect and make sure they don’t walk straight into another ambush. >> Yeah, get get back. >> His name is Chad. >> I got it. >> Storm and Chad Warmus. >> I know but >> We got to go in front. We got to go. >> I know but we can’t can’t >> 21st day and he’s not complying.

If you know he’s a shooter, shoot him. >> We got to find cover first or we ain’t no good if we ain’t safe ourselves. Hey, hey, no. We need to come in this side where we can see him. Come take cover behind the truck. We see him. We’re going to approach from this side. We got cover. Right here. >> Thanks, Robert.

29 and 63 at the residence. >> Show us YOUR [ __ ] HANDS! NOW! Stand up! STAND UP! STAND UP! >> STAND UP, NOW! >> THEY’RE about to see Chad, but he isn’t [music] hiding. He isn’t running. He isn’t frantic or remorseful. He is sitting in plain sight on the front porch of the home, right in front of Laura, who is collapsing over the bodies of her sons.

The deputies are shouting commands, telling him to show his hands, to stand up, to get on [music] the ground. Chad, on the other hand, looks like a man who has just finished a chore [music] and is mildly annoyed at being interrupted. >> STAND UP! STAND THE [ __ ] UP! >> WE HAVE THREE MALES IN THE RESIDENCE. We’re going to go ahead and try and identify them and get them >> Put your hands up.

>> What’s going on, 21? He’s in there. The first guy is the driver. There’s people in the first guy’s car and that’s the shooter. He’s not complying. They need to get him out. >> I got him. >> They have to show their hands. That’s the shooter. >> Hey, man, I ain’t trying to hurt nobody. I’m completely sober.

I never did drugs in my life. >> 63, we’re going in. Get the EMS over here. >> Well, I I did drugs when I was little, but I don’t do drugs now. >> Are you sober? I’m not trying to fight you. 63 >> Get your butt inside. Get Get your butt inside. >> We on primary? >> 29, we got three down. >> Man. 63, we’re 21.

Have EMS respond over here. >> Deputies saw the three boys already beyond saving. [music] For the deputies, there is no rush to get them to the hospital. No frantic push to paramedics to hurry. It’s already over. The only thing left to control is the man who did this. And that man, that father, is the calmest person on the entire scene.

On body cam, with his sons lying dead just meters away, Chad Christopher Dorman told deputies, “I ain’t going to hurt nobody.” >> What are you doing, man? You got a revolver? I ain’t going to hurt you. I ain’t going to I ain’t going to hurt nobody. >> on you? >> No, I ain’t got nothing, man. Phone, that’s it. I ain’t mad. I ain’t I ain’t nothing.

Just make sure that dog don’t come out. I don’t think he’ll bite you. Just don’t reach for him and try to grab him. Pet him. He won’t bite you. >> What’s going on, man? >> Nothing. Uh can I stand up? Just kind of cover >> I’m going to get you out of here. >> get out. I ain’t running away. You can do whatever you want with me.

>> Here. You the only one else inside the house? >> What? >> You the only one else inside the house? Sit down right here. >> My my daughter, she ran over to the fire department. >> Sit down. >> it’s my stepdaughter. >> Put him in the cage. >> This was one of the worst crime scenes Clermont County prosecutors had ever seen.

Clayton never got to be eight. Hunter never got to be five. Chase never got to be four. Alexis went from being a big sister [music] to being the only child left. And Laura went from being a mother of four to a woman standing on her front lawn screaming that her life had been taken from her. June 15th was not the day [music] Chad snapped out of nowhere.

Court documents and prosecutors would later confirm that he had been thinking about this for a year, planning it, lying awake over it, preparing for it. This was not a bad day that got out of hand. This was the day he chose to carry out something he had already decided to do. He chose a method that guaranteed Laura would see it, hear it, and live with it for the rest of her life.

And that choice, the choice to aim the gun not just at his sons, but at Laura’s entire existence, tells you everything about who the real target was. The bullets were fired at the children, but the punishment was meant for their mother. The case quickly spread outward from that small house on Laurel-Lindale Road into a neighborhood, [music] a county, and eventually the entire country.

Laura was rushed by Monroe Township EMS to the hospital [music] in Cincinnati. Alexis, the teenage girl who had just been running down the road yelling that her [music] stepfather was killing everyone, had to give statements and relive what she’d seen while her brothers’ bodies were still on the property. Out on the street, neighbors and drivers who had called 911 were left [music] shaken.

One neighbor described hearing multiple rapid shots, realizing they were gunfire, [music] and watching cars speed down the road knowing something was going down. >> I’m shocked to be honest with you. I just Well, we moved here 6 years ago and uh place is great and and you know, New Richmond’s coming up and you just hate to see anything like this anywhere.

>> All of a sudden I hear boom boom and then like five more I’m like that’s seven shots. That’s shots. Like there’s no way. So I was freaking out. Like this before I got ready and everything and I just I don’t know, man. I just saw our Before that I saw two cars right here on this street zoom as fast as humanly possible.

I was like something’s going down. >> As the legal system began to respond, the scale of the charges reflected how extreme [music] the crime was. Chad was charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping, [music] and felonious assault, eventually totaling 21 charges, and was held in the county jail. He pleaded not [music] guilty to all of the charges, and his lawyer chose not to request bond, [music] likely recognizing how difficult it would be to convince any judge to release him.

Judge Victor Haddad then set bond [music] at an almost unimaginable level, $20 million cash or surety. >> Judge, the facts of this case are hopefully like no other we will ever see. When this case gets indicted in the court of common pleas, I am certain that a no bond hearing will be held and I would hope that would be granted.

But at this point, this juncture, we’re going to ask this court to issue a bond we’ve never asked for before. I’m going to ask for a bond of $20 million. I hope I never need to request such a bond again. >> This point in time, bond’s going to be set in the amount of 20 million cash or surety. >> Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve made it clear that he intended to fully prosecute Chad for every crime he was accused of.

He began by expressing his deepest sympathy for the family. He explained that he couldn’t go into too many details because the case was being handled as a potential death penalty case. And that his goal was to have Chad executed for slaughtering his three little boys. >> First and foremost, I want to start out by expressing the deepest sympathy I have for this family.

This is unspeakable tragedy. We do have I can’t go into a whole lot of specifics, [clears throat] all right, because this is a death penalty case and my goal is to have this man executed for slaughtering his three little boys. Uh It is It is Let me try to say that right way before this. It is incomprehensible the act of horror that he perpetrated [clears throat] on this family.

So, again, that is my most important focus right now is to ensure that they are protected and they are safe. >> [snorts] >> And my hope and wish and prayer is that someday they will be able to find peace. Uh but factually I’ve said what I said on the record and I’m going to stick with that, all >> Why was it with how complicated the death penalty is in Ohio right now um and how much extra work that adds to your office, why was it important for you to seek this? >> I let the facts speak for themselves.

He slaughtered his three children in the most brutal fashion you can imagine. As I mentioned in court um the extra work is no extra work at at It’s what we do. This merits our attention, and devotion, and our efforts. >> Thoughts on that initial not guilty plea? >> That That has to be done. >> After the tragic incident where Chad allegedly shot and killed [music] his three sons, one big question still remained unanswered.

Why did he do it? By the time investigators [music] began putting this case together, one detail stood out immediately, and it’s something [music] you can’t ignore once you see it. Chad didn’t kill every child in [music] that house. He killed the three boys who were biologically [music] his, Clayton, Hunter, and Chase. But he didn’t kill Alexis.

Alexis was right there. She was within his reach. At one point, he even pointed the rifle directly [music] at her head and ordered her to let go of Chase. He had the opportunity, but he didn’t pull [music] the trigger. Instead, his focus stayed on the boys, the children he shared with Laura, the children that represented [music] their marriage.

And for people who knew the family, the anger behind [music] this wasn’t entirely invisible. Neighbors would later say [music] Chad had a temper, that he yelled constantly at Laura and treated her badly. >> There wasn’t a tone in that day. He didn’t yell at his wife and get upset. >> Okay. Okay. >> He was just angry.

Yelling at her all time, treating her like See the babies? Sitting in the yard. Laying in the yard. One was right there by the tree, right by the road, not even 20 ft from the road right there. That’s where that dude laid him. Laid the one up there right beside that silver truck, to the left of the tire about 5 ft.

It’s all I see every time I come out here. For any man to even think about doing that is just No words can explain it. >> Some sources also suggested that Laura was thinking of giving divorce to Chad and taking custody of all three boys because Chad had previous criminal histories. When Chad [music] was just 18 years old, he was charged with criminal damage, a misdemeanor.

[music] That case was eventually dismissed after restitution was [music] paid, so it never followed him. But it didn’t stop there. In 2010, he was charged [music] with domestic violence for allegedly choking his own father. But that case was also dismissed [music] as the witness didn’t show up to court. And on top of that, he had accumulated several [music] traffic infractions and violations, mostly related to speeding.

There’s one more detail that [music] sits quietly in the background of all of this. Police had been called to the Doerman house twice since 2020. Two separate [music] visits to that same address on Laurel Lindale Road. But no further details about those visits were ever publicly provided. The divorce [music] theory was never proven.

But the pattern of everything else in this case points in the same direction. He was a controlling [music] man who yelled at his wife every day, who had a history of domestic violence. [music] And what investigators uncovered about the days leading up to June 15th [music] only made this clearer. Even the night before the murders, everything looked [music] completely normal.

Chad was at Clayton’s baseball game coaching third base with the entire family there beside him. Then the next morning, June 15th, Chad left for [music] work at around 7:00 a.m. And on his way to work, he searched YouTube for a song titled >> [music] >> “Happy in Hell”. Part of the lyrics, “Between happy and hell, that’s where I’m living now.

” That was the soundtrack playing in his head on the morning he killed his children. >> Way to work, he searches on YouTube for a song titled “Happy in Hell”. >> Part of the lyrics, “Between happy and hell, that’s where I’m living now.” >> Later that morning, that same man walked into a Kroger store wearing the exact same clothes he would be wearing hours later when he shot his sons.

Chad told his mother that he was having some confusing feelings, so she told him to go to the little clinic inside [music] the store. You can see in the footage of him walking up to the desk. He waited about [music] 2 minutes. And then he turned around and left without saying a word to anyone. And then, shortly before reaching home that afternoon, he called his father >> [music] >> and said, “Clayton is going to be the hardest one.

” >> Shortly before he kills his kids, Dorning calls his father and makes the statement that Clayton is going to be the hardest one. >> Investigators also revealed [music] that in the days leading up to June 15th, Chad had not slept for 3 to 4 days because the weight [music] of what he’d already decided to do was keeping him awake every night.

When deputies asked him directly [music] at the scene if he shot his sons, he simply said he doesn’t remember. >> Did you shoot your son? >> Yeah. >> You did? >> I would never do it. >> At other points, he flatly admitted it saying things like “I did it. [music] Take me to jail.” And even telling investigators he’d been thinking about shooting his boys since October [music] 2022.

He said those thoughts had weighed on him so heavily that he hadn’t slept for three or four days before the murders. But 12 days later, after denying the shootings to detectives, Chad was on a recorded jail call with his brother. And this is what he said. >> Hey, they thought Hitler was big, dude. Yeah, I’m matching him.

>> No grief, no remorse. He felt absolute pride that he was matching Hitler. In his mind, by that point, the story was already about him. Now, deputies started sitting down with Chad for multiple interrogations. The most disturbing details came out [music] when the conversation turned to his beliefs and his marriage.

In one interrogation, he made a twisted [music] religious statement. “The Bible says you kill your firstborn. You kill your secondborn. You kill your thirdborn. And first, you’re supposed to kill your wife.” He added that he didn’t kill his wife. That line wasn’t just horrifying. It showed exactly how he was framing what he’d done.

In his mind, the boys were part of a punishment script that began with Laura. He was talking about murder using a sequence that puts his wife at the center of the target. At the same time [music] all of this was happening, the community tried to push back with whatever support it could offer Laura and Alexis. Laura’s sister organized a fundraiser to help pay [music] for the boys’ funerals and living expenses, and neighbors and local groups held a celebration of life, asking people to wear bright colors to honor Clayton, Hunter, and Chase.

Memorial events at a church [music] and baseball field, and even Alexis’s wish to keep playing sports in their memory became ways for people [music] to say that the family wasn’t alone, and that the boys would be remembered for more [music] than the way they died. >> People are filing in and out of the church behind me for most of the day, coming together to celebrate the lives of Chase, Hunter, and Clayton Dorman.

The family asked those attending to wear bright colors in honor of the boys. >> Just to be able to come here and support the family, but show and be respectful to to who the boys were by being fun, by wearing fun colors. >> These boys were were were wonderful kids um that everyone loved to be around. >> You know, it’ll be hot, we’ll be out there playing ball, and somehow they have the energy to kick up a dust storm like you haven’t seen, and then play get up there and bat and run around the bases. Just always

bounding with joy, always looking to get into something. >> Our goal is to uh you know, continue to talk about who the boys were, to you know, have their memories live on in everybody’s minds, hearts, and just to continue to spread that throughout the world. >> We want to celebrate who these who these boys were um because what happened to them is not who they were.

>> On August 2nd, [music] 2024, eventually, the case had to leave the interrogation room and move into the courtroom again. This time he pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder and other charges, and [music] accepted life in prison without the possibility of parole. >> Dorman as to count one, I’ll impose a prison sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole and no fine being imposed.

As to count two, it’ll be life prison term without chance of uh parole. And count three, it’ll be life in prison without the possibility of parole. These three uh counts and these three sentences will be served uh consecutively with one another. >> That guilty plea led to the sentencing hearing. The day he had to sit and listen and while the people he hurt most spoke back to him.

Alexis’ victim impact statement described the man she had always called dad. The person she believed was safe and how her life had been ripped apart since the day he chose to kill her brothers. >> My life has been something I would never wish upon any family. It is the most heartbreaking and emotional thing anyone could go through.

Chad, I miss you and I miss the boys dearly. And nothing will ever be the same again because [music] of you. Whenever something exciting happens, I always just want to tell you because I know you would be so proud of me. Softball to me isn’t the same anymore because that was our sport. And that was the boys’ sport.

You made me an amazing ball player. And whenever I play softball, there isn’t one game >> [music] >> where I don’t think about you. And whenever I get a good hit or I learn a new pitch, I always wish I could tell you because I know you would be so proud of me. >> [music] >> And when good things like that happen, it sucks to look on the sideline and not see you be there [music] and for the boys not to be cheering me on like they always did.

>> [music] >> And Chad, I still work very hard on my grades and I was on the honor roll this past year >> [music] >> and I know for a fact if you were there to see it, you would be so happy for me because my grades have always been so important to me. >> [music] >> Another thing that has impacted me was every single holiday.

>> [music] >> Waking up on Christmas isn’t the same anymore. I don’t get excited. I don’t even look forward to having presents because it’s not the same. I don’t get to wake up early and wake the boys up. I don’t get to hide the elf. I don’t get to do any of the fun stuff anymore because they’re gone and you [music] took their lives.

>> As her words were read, Chad appeared emotional. He cried when hearing about the boys and about the daughter who had loved and trusted him. But when Laura’s statement [music] was read, the woman who had lived beside him, who watched her sons die on her front lawn, his reaction [music] was very different. Her words were so raw that even the attorney reading them broke down in tears describing the silence in the house where there used to be rowdy little boys, the way her life has become a daily torture she can’t escape.

She said no form of punishment would ever equal the torture she has to endure every single day. >> On behalf of Laura Dormann, your honor. On June 15th, 2023, my life was changed forever. My life was ripped away from me and destroyed. Since that day, I have spent every day grieving the loss of my three sweet so very little sons.

I grieve the loss of Clayton, Hunter, >> [music] >> and Chase every single day. And I grieve the life that they did not get to live. I no longer get to raise them and watch them grow. I miss each one of them so very much. I miss their laughter, silliness, love, >> [music] >> and joy for life. Where there used to be so much laughter, happiness, noise of rowdy little boys, there is now silence >> [music] >> and emptiness.

I would do anything to push them on the swing, cover them up one more time, and hear their little ways of saying I love you. All of it gone when I should have had so much more life left to live with them. I ask myself how a mother is supposed to carry on a life as a mom with one child left here on Earth and three gone forever.

I struggle every day with the will to get up or give up. Life for me is the true pain and suffering. I will never agree to think that any form of punishment could amount to the form of torture and suffering I have to endure each day. My husband I trusted with everything made a decision that has left my life forever [music] changed.

I lost my husband and my children to this horrible crime. >> [snorts] >> The law will never replace my life and give me back what I have lost. I will hold the life I had and lived so close to my heart forever. Grief will never go away as it is all the love that is left with no place to go. And my love for Clayton, Hunter, and Chase will never go away.

And I will never let them be forgotten. I quote, “When I get to where I’m going, I’ll only have happy tears.” Until then, I will live my days with nothing but sadness. Thank you, Judge. >> Thank you. >> It almost looked like Chad could cry for the image of himself as a father and for the story being told about his children, but not for the woman he chose to [music] punish, the person he had aimed this cruelty at from the beginning.

And that contrast between his tears for Alexis’s words and his coldness during Laura’s says as much about his motive as anything he ever told detectives. After the sentencing, after the news cameras turned off, the story didn’t disappear. It just became quieter. The Dohrmann house is no longer just a normal family home on a rural Ohio road.

It is a place where three little boys once played, [music] laughed, and slept, and where their mother now lives with the memory of the day that joy stopped. Today, >> [music] >> Laura and Alexis are trying to rebuild a life in the shadow [music] of what happened. After sentencing, Laura released a statement supporting Chad’s guilty plea and [music] the life without parole deal because it spared her and Alexis from having to relive [music] the murders on the witness stand over a full death penalty trial.

Public records and reports say Laura and her surviving daughter are in therapy and working together to cope with their grief and trauma, focusing on healing rather than reliving the case. She has asked for privacy for her family and urged people to remember Clayton, Hunter, and Chase [music] for more than the way they died.

To see them as three little boys who once loved dogs, baseball, and each other, not just as victims in a headline. Alexis, [music] meanwhile, continues to carry the memory of running into the road for help [music] and trying to save her brothers while slowly finding ways to honor them through school, sports, and the future [music] they never got to have.

Neighbors carry their own guilt and grief. Some remembered him yelling, [music] treating Laura badly, being angry almost every day. They wish [music] they had done more. Called more, intervened more. It’s easy to dismiss shouting or controlling behavior as just how some [music] people are. Cases like this show how dangerous that dismissal can be.

Because these murders didn’t happen in a place [music] everyone already thought was monstrous, they happened in a house people thought was ordinary. I hope I did justice to [music] their story. My deepest condolences to Laura and Alexis and to everyone who loved Clayton, Hunter, [music] and Chase. May their names be remembered longer than the man who took them, [music] and may this case remind us to take every cry for help, every pattern of control and anger as seriously as a life depends on it. If there is another

[music] case you believe needs to be heard, let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to share their story in a future video. Until then, take care of yourselves and of the families and children around you who might be living with dangers nobody else can see.