In Their Bodies Was The DNA of Over 16 Men | True Crime Documentary

STAND UP. STAND UP. STAND THE UP.  BODY CAMERA FOOTAGE shows a man sitting calmly  on the front porch of his own home. Just a few yards away, the bodies of three little boys lie on the ground. Off camera, you can hear their mother screaming after losing three of her four children. Officers order him to show his hands.

He doesn’t run. He doesn’t resist. He doesn’t look like someone who just suffered an emotional breakdown. Only minutes earlier, he had chased his own sons across the yard as they desperately tried to escape. It all started on what seemed like an ordinary summer day. Their father came home from work earlier than expected.

 He played with the kids, had lunch with his family, read the Bible to his youngest son. He told the boys they were the best kids in the world. Then he opened the gun safe. Their mother begged the children to run. Their 14-year-old sister tried to carry her little brother out of the yard. She watched her father catch up to one of the boys.

 Then he raised a rifle and pointed it at her head. Within just a few minutes, the home that had been filled with the sound of children’s laughter turned into the scene of one of the most horrifying family murders in Ohio history. But the most disturbing part of this case isn’t just what he did. As investigators dug deeper, they came to believe that the children may never have been the real targets at all.

Hey guys. Let me grab you for just a second. I’m really curious where my audience is watching from. So, I’d love for you to drop a comment and tell me what city you’re in and what time it is for you right now. Thanks for taking a moment. Go ahead and share that in the comments. And now, let’s keep going.  He took my life from me.

My life.  Chad Doerman didn’t just kill his sons. He lined them up in a single row and executed them right in front of their mother. Throughout the trial, Chad never revealed the real reason behind what he had done. But everything investigators uncovered as the case unfolded pointed in the same direction. It appeared that his wife may have been the one he truly wanted to punish.

Chad and Laura lived in a modest home on a quiet street in Monroe Township, a rural part of Clermont County, where most days revolved around school drop-offs, work shifts, and kids playing outside in the yard. Chad worked in manufacturing and came home after his shifts every day, while Laura’s life centered entirely around the children, getting them dressed, putting them down for naps, packing what they needed, and keeping the house running.

They weren’t a wealthy family, and this wasn’t the story of a big city filled with chaos. It was the everyday life of a hardworking family, where the local fields, the neighborhood school, and their own backyard made up the center of their world. And inside that home lived four children who had no idea what was waiting for them.

Clayton was only 7 years old. He was at that age when a little boy starts feeling almost grown-up. He wanted to run faster, climb higher, and be the one the younger kids looked up to. Seven is old enough to understand that you have two little brothers who absolutely admire you. Then there was Hunter, 4 years old, at one of the purest stages of childhood.

 He could already walk, talk, and was fascinated by everything around him. Yet, he was still young enough to curl up comfortably in his parents’ arms. Hunter was at that age when every answer leads to another question, and why becomes the most common word in his vocabulary. The world was still so new that every single day brought something exciting.

Then there was Chase, a 3-year-old with chubby cheeks who always seemed to be smiling whenever he was with his brothers. He was at that stage when the world is only beginning to make sense. Favorite stuffed animals are still your best friends. A scraped knee feels like the biggest tragedy imaginable, and hearing one of your parents’ voices can instantly make everything okay again.

 Alexis, the oldest, was 14. She was Laura’s daughter from a previous relationship, but she had long since stopped thinking of it that way. To her, Chad was simply dad, the man who had been there throughout her childhood, the person she trusted and always felt around. From the outside, this family looked like they had everything they needed.

A father who came home from work and sometimes played outside with his sons. A mother whose days were completely devoted to caring for the children. A teenage daughter who helped her parents and adored her little brothers. And three young boys who filled the house with noise, laughter, and life. On paper, they looked like a completely ordinary family.

That’s exactly what makes this case so difficult to understand. Because if the parents worked hard, the children were loved, and the home appeared stable and happy from the outside, then one simple but brutal question hangs over this entire story. If everything seemed so normal, what went so terribly wrong? June 15th, 2023, just 3 days before Father’s Day.

That morning, everything inside the Dorman home began just like any other day. Around 7:00, Chad left for work. Laura stayed home with the kids. The boys spent the morning riding their bikes and playing with their toys in the yard. Alexis was outside, too, spending time with her younger brothers. Nothing about those morning hours seemed any different from countless days before, but later that day, Chad unexpectedly came home early, and Laura immediately felt that something wasn’t right.

He almost never came home that early just to spend time with her and the kids. When she asked why he was back, Chad simply said he wanted to be with his family. Around 1:00 in the afternoon, Laura started making lunch for everyone. Meanwhile, Chad played outside with all three boys while taking care of a few simple chores around the yard.

 He pulled weeds, tossed a ball back and forth, and watched his sons run across the grass. If you had been looking through the kitchen window, it would have looked like the kind of afternoon most parents dream about. A father home early from work, children laughing, a mother making lunch for the whole family. Later, they all sat down together to eat.

At one point during the meal, Chad looked at Laura and told her this would be his last good lunch. Laura assumed he was just overwhelmed by stress at work. Maybe that was why he’d come home early in the first place. People under a lot of stress sometimes say strange things. At the time, she never took those words as a warning.

 After lunch, Chad went back outside. He worked around the yard for a while and spent more time playing with the boys. At around 3:30 that afternoon, Chad picked up a Bible, sat down next to Hunter, and began reading it to his 4-year-old son. He told Hunter that he loved him, and then he told all three boys that they were the best kids in the world.

After that, he quietly began mumbling to himself. Chad knows what’s right. Chad knows what’s right. Laura saw it. She heard the words he was saying, and she felt something was wrong, but she still had no obvious reason to believe he was about to do what he was about to do. Just before 4:00 that afternoon, Chad walked over to the gun safe in the bedroom.

Laura watched as he opened it, then said, “You’re scaring me.” He just brushed her off. “I’m just kidding. I’m just messing around.” Then Chad suggested that the whole family take a nap together in the master bedroom. Everyone was tired, so Laura, the three boys, and Chad all lay down on the bed. Meanwhile, Alexis stayed in the living room watching TV.

For a while, the house was completely silent. No screaming, no chaos. That’s afternoon nap became the last peaceful moment this family would ever share. Chad got out of bed and walked back to the gun safe. He opened it, took out a Marlin .22 caliber rifle, and this time he wasn’t joking. He loaded it with a magazine full of ammunition.

Laura and the boys were right in front of him. Chad raised the rifle, aimed it at Hunter, and fired twice. The sound of the gunshots shattered the silence inside the house. Laura jolted awake. Clayton and Chase woke up, too. For a few horrifying seconds, no one could understand what was happening. The boys froze in terror.

Laura had only one thought: save her children from their father. There was no time to ask Chad why he was doing this. She screamed for the boys to run as far away as they could while she tried to help Hunter. In the living room, Alexis heard the gunshots and her mother’s screams. When she rushed to the doorway, she saw Chad holding the rifle while Hunter lay unconscious in Laura’s lap.

 Alexis was terrified. But fear didn’t stop her. Even though she was only 14 years old and trapped in the middle of an unimaginable nightmare, she ran to save her brothers. She turned and chased after Clayton toward the backyard screaming for him not to stop running. Chad ran outside after them and kept firing as Clayton desperately tried to escape across the yard.

Alexis watched as Chad caught up to Clayton, raised the rifle, and shot him several times. The little boy collapsed to the ground. As he lay there wounded and completely helpless, Chad shot him in the head. Refusing to give up, Alexis ran back into the house, picked up 3-year-old Chase, and sprinted toward the road with him in her arms.

But just as they were about to make it off the property, Chad caught up to them. He pressed the rifle against Alexis’s head and ordered her to let go of her little brother. Chase cried the entire time. He was so terrified that he kept trying to hide behind Alexis. His legs could barely carry him because of his fear.

Chad pointed the rifle at the little boy and pulled the trigger. But nothing happened. The magazine was empty. Alexis begged Chad over and over not to shoot her brother and to let them go. In that moment, Chase broke free and ran toward Laura who had just rushed outside and found Clayton in the same condition as Hunter.

 No one in that house could comprehend what was unfolding. In a matter of seconds, the man they had always known as a loving husband and father had become a stranger hunting his own children. Then came the most desperate struggle of all. Laura and Chad fought over the rifle. Laura tried to hold onto Chase while pushing the barrel away at the same time.

In the middle of the struggle, Chad bit her as he tried to rip Chase from her arms. Laura quickly pressed her thumb over the muzzle of the rifle hoping to stop him from firing. But Chad pulled the trigger. The blast severely injured her hand and the pain forced her to let go of Chase.

 Moments later, Chad reloaded the rifle, aimed it at Chase’s head, and executed his 3-year-old son. In less than 5 minutes, what had begun as an ordinary family afternoon nap became the scene of a mass murder where the person who was supposed to protect those children became the one who destroyed them. Alexis ran into the road desperately screaming for help.

 The quiet street that had been just another peaceful summer afternoon only minutes earlier suddenly echoed with the cries of a terrified teenage girl begging for someone to help screaming that her stepfather was killing everyone. She flagged down a passing car and pleaded with the woman behind the wheel to stop telling her that her father was shooting her brothers.

 The woman and nearby neighbors immediately called 911.  Uh there’s a girl running down the street saying that her stepfather is killing everyone in her family.  And what did the female say to you?  Uh she says that her stepfather is killing everybody in her house. I did. I’m calling 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 the car with me and she said she couldn’t leave her family.  Can you tell how many people have been shot?  I don’t know. I think two children.  Okay. All right. I need What was  Did I see him?  When sheriff’s deputies arrived on Laurel Dale Road, they still had no idea what they were about to walk into.

 What you’re hearing now is their radio traffic as they search for the suspect and try to make sure they don’t walk into an ambush themselves.  Juliana Thurman and Chad Thurman.  I know. I know, but we can’t  20 first aid and he’s not complying. You know he’s a shooter shooter.  You guys find cover first we ain’t good if we ain’t safe or so.

Hey, hey, now. We need to come in from this side where we can see him. Go and take cover behind there. We see him. We’re going to approach from this side. We got cover. Right here.  Thanks, Robert. We got to go. 29 and 63 shots fired.  We got 20 hours here right now.  Show us YOUR [  HANDS, NOW! Stand up! STAND UP! STAND UP!  STAND UP, NOW! [screaming]  Seconds later, they spotted Chad.

But, he wasn’t hiding. He wasn’t running. He wasn’t panicking. And he didn’t look like a man who regretted what he’d done. He was sitting calmly on the front porch of his home, just a few feet away from Laura, who had collapsed over the bodies of her sons. The deputies shouted commands, telling him to show his hands, stand up, and get on the ground.

Chad, however, looked like someone who had just finished an ordinary chore around the house, and was only mildly annoyed that he’d been interrupted.  STAND UP! STAND THE [  UP!  PUT YOUR HANDS UP.  I’M 72.  I’m calmer, 21.  He’s in there.  Okay, this guy is still firing with his people in the front yard, and that’s the shooter. He’s not complying.

 We need to return fire.  I got  They have to shoot him. They have to shoot him.  Man, I didn’t try to hurt nobody. I’m completely sober.  63 10-4 1. Get the EMS over here.  Well, I I did drugs when I was little, but I don’t do drugs now.  You’re sober? I’m not trying to fight you. 63  Get your butt inside. Get out. Get your butt inside.

 We’re on primary.  29, we got three down.  Play codes down 63.  Get out.  63 we’re 21. Have EMS respond over here.  The deputies immediately realized there was nothing they could do to save the three boys. There was no reason to rush them to the hospital. No desperate calls for paramedics to drive faster. It was already over.

The only thing left to do was take the man responsible into custody. And that man, their father, was the calmest person at the entire crime scene. On body camera footage, standing just a few yards away from the bodies of his murdered sons, Chad Christopher Dorman looked at the deputies and said, “I’m not going to hurt anyone.

”  What are you doing, man?  Hey, are you copying all this?  Yeah, I’m all over. I ain’t going to hurt you. I ain’t going to I ain’t going to hurt nobody.  anything 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 or try to grab him.  Pat him.  All right. He won’t bite you.  What’s going on, man?  Nothing. Uh can I stand up? Just got to calm down.  I’m going to get you out of here.  do nothing. I ain’t running away. You can do whatever you want with  Here. You’re the only one else the house?  What?  You’re the only one else in inside the house? Sit down right here.

 My my daughter, she ran over to the fire department.  Sit down.  Uh it’s my stepdaughter.  Put him in the cage.  It was one of the most horrifying crime scenes prosecutors in Clermont County had ever witnessed. Clayton never lived to see his eighth birthday. Hunter never turned five. Chase never made it to his  fourth birthday.

Alexis went from being a loving big sister to the only surviving child in the family. And Laura went from being the mother of four children to a woman standing on the front lawn of her own home, screaming that her entire life had been taken away from her. June 15th wasn’t the day Chad suddenly lost control. Court records and prosecutors later confirmed that he had been thinking about it for roughly a year.

 He planned it. He replayed it in his mind during countless sleepless nights. He prepared for it. This wasn’t a bad day that spiraled out of control. It was the day he chose to carry out something he had already decided to do long before. He chose a method that guaranteed Laura would see it, hear it, and be forced to live with those memories for the rest of her life.

And that decision to point the gun not only at his sons, but effectively at everything Laura loved, reveals who his real target may have been. The bullets struck the children, but the punishment was meant for their mother. Before long, the case reached far beyond the small house on Laurel Lindale Road. People across the community, throughout the county, and eventually across the country were talking about it.

Laura was transported by the Monroe Township EMS to a hospital in Cincinnati. Alexis, the 14-year-old girl who had been running down the road only minutes earlier screaming that her stepfather was killing everyone, was forced to give statements and relive everything she had witnessed while her brother’s body still lay on the property.

Outside, the neighbors and the drivers who had called 911 were in a state of profound shock. One neighbor later said he heard several rapid gunshots, immediately realized it was gunfire, and then saw emergency vehicles racing down the road at high speed because it was clear that something unimaginable had happened.

 I’m shocked, to be honest with you. I just Well, we moved here 6 years ago, and uh the 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 it’s I was freaking out like this before I got ready and everything, and I just I don’t know, man. I just saw Before that, I saw two cars right here on this street zoom as fast as humanly possible. Like, something’s going down.  As the justice system began responding to the crime, the scope of the charges reflected just how extraordinary the severity of the case was.

Chad was charged with multiple offenses, including aggravated murder, kidnapping, and felonious assault. In total, he faced 21 criminal counts. He was taken to the county jail. Chad pleaded not guilty to every charge filed against him. His attorney didn’t even ask the court to set a reasonable bond, likely recognizing that convincing any judge to release a defendant accused of crimes like these was virtually impossible.

Judge Victor Haddad set bond at an almost unimaginable $20 million cash or secured bond.  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.  At 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 from the very beginning that he intended to hold Chad accountable for every crime he was accused of committing.

 He began by expressing his deepest condolences to the victim’s family. The prosecutor explained that he couldn’t discuss many of the details because the case was being prosecuted as a potential death penalty case. And his goal was to seek the death penalty for Chad for the murders of his three young sons.  First and foremost, I want to start out by expressing the deepest sympathy I have to this family.

This is an unspeakable tragedy. We do have I can’t go into a whole lot of facts, [clears throat] all right, because this is a death penalty case and my goal is to have this man prosecuted for slaughtering his three little boys. It is It is Let me try to figure out where to put this. It is an incomprehensible murder.

I can’t fathom the horror inflicted on this family. So, again, that is my most important focus right now is to ensure that they are protected and they are safe. 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.

 Why was it with how complicated the death penalty is in Ohio right now and how much extra work it adds to your office why was it important for you to seek this?  I would say the facts speak for themselves. He slaughtered his three children in the most brutal fashion you can imagine.

 As I mentioned in court the extra work is no extra work at all. It’s what we do. This merits our attention, devotion and our effort.  Thoughts on that initial not guilty plea?  That that has to be done.  After the tragedy, when investigators say Chad shot and killed his three sons, one overwhelming question remained. Why did he do it? As detectives began carefully reconstructing everything that had happened, one detail immediately stood out.

 And once you notice it, it’s impossible to ignore. Chad didn’t kill every child who was in that house. He killed only the three boys who were his biological sons. Clayton, Hunter, and Chase. But he didn’t kill Alexis. Alexis was right there. At one point, she was literally within arms reach. He even pressed the rifle against her head and ordered her to let go of Chase.

 He had the opportunity to kill her, but he never pulled the trigger. His focus remained fixed on the boys. The children he shared with Laura. The children who represented their marriage. For the people who knew this family well, the anger hiding beneath the surface wasn’t a complete surprise. Neighbors later said Chad had a very short temper.

They described him as someone who regularly yelled at Laura and treated her badly.  He wasn’t yelling that day. He didn’t yell at his wife and kids out there. He was just angry. Yelling at her all time, treating her like two babies. Sitting in the yard. Laying in the yard. The 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. Lay the one up there right beside that silver truck. To the left of the entire 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.  Some sources also claimed that Laura had been considering divorcing Chad and wanted sole custody of their three boys because of his criminal history.

When Chad was just 18 years old, he was charged with criminal damaging, a relatively minor offense involving damage to someone else’s property. The case was later dismissed after the damage was paid for, so it never became part of his criminal record. But that wasn’t the end of it. In 2010, Chad was charged with domestic violence after he was accused of choking his own father.

That case was also dismissed after a key witness failed to appear in court. In addition, he had been cited multiple times for traffic violations, most of them for speeding. There’s another detail that quietly sits in the background of this entire case. Beginning in 2020, police were called to the Dorman home twice.

 Two separate responses to the same address on Laurel Lindale Road. But officials have never publicly disclosed why those calls were made. The claim that Laura was planning to divorce Chad was never definitively proven. Even so, everything else investigators uncovered seemed to point in the same direction. He appeared to be a controlling and domineering person.

 According to those who knew the family, he yelled at his wife on a regular basis. He also had a history of domestic violence allegations. And what investigators learned about the days leading up to June 15th only reinforced that picture. Even the night before the murders seemed completely ordinary. Chad attended Clayton’s baseball game where he was serving as the third base coach.

 His entire family was there with him. The next morning on June 15th at around 7:00 Chad left for work. During the drive he opened YouTube and played a song called Happy in Hell. One of its lyrics says, “Somewhere between happiness and hell, that’s where I’m living now.” That was the song playing in his mind 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 same morning he stopped at a Kroger store. He was wearing the same clothes he would still be wearing just a few hours later when he shot  and killed his sons.

Chad told his mother that he was overwhelmed by strange and confusing feelings. She advised him to visit the walk-in clinic inside the store. Surveillance footage shows him walking up to the registration desk. He stood there for about 2 minutes. Then he turned around and quietly walked away without speaking to anyone.

And shortly before returning home that day he called his father. He said only one sentence. “Clayton will be the hardest.”  Shortly before he kills his kids, Dorman calls his father and makes the statement that Clayton is going to be the hardest one.  Investigators also determined that in the days leading up to June 15th, Chad had barely slept.

Three or four days in a row the weight of the decision he had already made wouldn’t let him sleep. When sheriff’s deputies asked him directly at the scene whether he had shot his sons, he simply replied, “I don’t remember.”  Did you shoot your son?  No.  Who did?  I don’t remember.  In other conversations, he openly admitted what he had done. “I did it.

Take me to jail.” He also told investigators that thoughts of shooting his boys had first entered his mind back in October of 2022. According to Chad, those thoughts weighed on him so heavily that during the three or four days leading up to the murders, he had barely slept. However, 12 days later, after denying responsibility during police interviews, Chad spoke with his brother by phone from jail. And this is what he said.

 Hey, they thought Hitler was being me.  Yeah, I’m imagining him.  There was no remorse, no grief. He openly took pride in what he believed had made him the next Hitler. By that point, in his own mind, this story had already become a story about himself. Investigators later interviewed Chad several more times.

 The most disturbing details emerged when the conversation turned to his religious beliefs and his marriage. During one of those interviews, he made a twisted statement that he claimed was based on the Bible. “The Bible says you kill your firstborn, then your second son, then your third son. But first, you have to kill your wife.

” He then added that he had not killed his wife after all. Those words were horrifying, not only because of what they said, but because they revealed how he justified his own actions. In his mind, the boys were merely part of a punishment that began with Laura. He described the murders as a sequence, with his wife at the center of it all. While all of this was unfolding, the community did everything it could to support Laura and Alexis.

Laura’s sister organized a fundraiser to help cover the boys funeral expenses and the family’s everyday living costs. Neighbors and local organizations held a candlelight vigil in their honor. Everyone was asked to wear bright colors to celebrate the lives of Clayton, Hunter, and Chase. Memorial services were held both at the family’s church and on a baseball field.

Even Alexis’s decision to keep playing sports in memory of her brothers became another reminder that the family was not facing this tragedy alone and that the boys would be remembered for far more than the way they died.  People 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  On August 2nd, 2024, the case finally moved beyond interviews, evidence collection, and a lengthy investigation into the final stage of the legal process.

After months of investigative work, court hearings, and preparation by both sides, the moment had arrived that would bring the case to its legal conclusion. This time, Chad pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder along with the other charges filed against him. By doing so, he effectively waived a full trial where prosecutors had been prepared to present all of the evidence they had gathered in court.

He accepted a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. That meant he would spend the rest of his life behind bars with no chance of ever being released. With that decision, the criminal case officially entered its final chapter. Even though, for the victim’s family, true closure never came.

 Norman asked count one, I’ll impose a prison sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. No fine be imposed. As 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.

 After Chad pleaded guilty, the court held a sentencing hearing. That day, he was forced to sit in silence and listen to the people he had hurt the most, the ones whose lives had been forever changed by his own choices. For the first time in the courtroom, the voices being heard were not those of investigators or prosecutors, but of the people who had been living with the consequences of this tragedy every single day.

 In her victim impact statement, Alexis spoke about the man she had called dad her entire life, the person who had always made her feel safe. She spoke about a father she had trusted without hesitation  and never feared. She remembered not only the day everything happened, but also the life they had shared before it. And she described how her world was shattered the day he decided to kill her brothers.

She said that in a single moment she lost not only her brothers, but also the man she had believed was her father for so many years. She spoke about a pain that could never truly be put into words and about memories that would stay with her forever. Her statement was not only about the tragedy she had endured, but also about a trust that had been destroyed and could never be restored.

 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 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 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.

And when good things like that happen, it sucks to look on the sideline and not see you be there and for the boys not to be cheering me on like they always did. And Chad, I still work  very hard on my grades and I was on the honor roll this past year and I I  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.

Another thing that has impacted me was every single  holiday. 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 took  their lives.

 As her words were read aloud, Chad appeared emotional. He cried as he listened to memories of his sons and of the daughter who had loved him and trusted him without question. His expression changed and tears became visible whenever the statements turned to his children and the way they remembered their father.

But when Laura’s victim impact statement began, the woman who had lived beside him and watched her sons die on the front lawn of their home, his reaction was completely different. The emotions that had been visible just moments earlier were gone. The contrast between those two moments was impossible to ignore.

Her words were so heartbreaking that even the attorney reading them aloud struggled to hold back tears. He had to pause several times to compose himself before continuing. The courtroom fell silent as each sentence echoed through the room. Laura spoke about the silence that now filled the house where the voices of three energetic little boys had once echoed every day.

She spoke about empty bedrooms where there was no longer any laughter, no familiar voices, and none of the ordinary sounds of family life. She described a home that would never again be the place where a happy family once lived. She said her life had become a daily form of torture that she could never escape.

That every new day began and ended with the same unbearable pain, a pain that time had done nothing to ease. She said that no punishment in the world could ever compare to the suffering she was forced to endure every single day. In her words, the true life sentence had already been handed down, not to the man behind bars, but to the mother who had lost her children.

 On behalf of Laura Dorman, 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,    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,    and joy for life. Where there used to be so much laughter, happiness, noise of rowdy little boys, there is now silence    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 changed. I lost my husband and my children to this horrible crime.

The law will never replace my life and give me back what I have lost.  [snorts]  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.”  [gasps]  Until then, I will live my days with nothing but sadness.  Thank you, Judge.  Thank you.  It seemed that Chad could cry over his own image as a father, over the story being told about his children, over the way other people would now see him, but not over the woman he had deliberately chosen to punish.

The person who had been the true target of his cruelty, hatred, and desire to inflict pain from the very beginning. That striking contrast between his tears during Alexis’s statement and his complete lack of emotion during Laura’s revealed as much about his true motive as anything he had ever told investigators during their interviews.

To many people, that difference spoke louder than any explanation or excuse he ever offered after the sentence was handed down. After the television cameras were turned off, after the reporters left the courtroom, this story did not end. It simply became quieter. For most people, it gradually became just another criminal case that had reached its conclusion.

But for those who survived, it continues every single day. The Dorman family home is no longer just another house on a quiet country road in Ohio. It is now the place where three little boys once played, laughed, ran through the yard, and fell asleep without ever knowing that their childhood would end so brutally.

And where their mother now lives with the memories of the day, all of that joy disappeared forever. Every corner of that house is a reminder of a life that can never be brought back. Today, Laura and Alexis are trying to rebuild their lives in the shadow of what happened. They are learning how to move forward while carrying a loss that will remain with them forever.

 After Chad was sentenced, Laura released a statement supporting his guilty plea and the agreement that sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. That decision spared both her and Alexis from having to relive every detail of the murders by testifying during a lengthy trial where the death penalty could have been considered.

 It meant they would not have to return again and again to the most painful moments of their lives in front of a packed courtroom. According to public records and official statements, Laura and her daughter are undergoing psychological therapy. Together, they are working to cope with their grief, the severe emotional trauma, and the lasting effects of everything they endured.

Their goal is to heal little by little, rather than being forced to relive this tragedy over and over again. Every new day is another step in that long process of recovery. Laura has also asked the public to respect her family’s privacy. She urged people to remember Clayton, Hunter, and Chase, not only for the way they died, but for who they were, three little boys who loved dogs, baseball, and each other.

Boys who laughed, played, and lived ordinary childhood lives. Not simply another set of victims in a newspaper headline. Not just another story that would eventually be replaced by the next high-profile case. Alexis, for her part, still lives with the memories of the day she ran into the road calling for help, and desperately tried to save her brothers.

 Those moments have remained with her long after the trial came to an end. At the same time, she has gradually found ways to honor their memory through her education, through sports, and by pursuing the future her brothers never had the chance to live. That is how she keeps their memory alive. The neighbors also carry their own pain and sense of guilt.

Some recalled how Chad was constantly yelling, how poorly he treated Laura. How he seemed angry, aggressive, and out of control almost every single day. Many only looked back on those moments differently after the tragedy. Now, they regret not doing more. Not calling more often. Not stepping in.

 Not taking those warning signs as seriously as they should have. It is very easy to dismiss constant yelling, humiliation, or controlling behavior as simply part of someone’s personality. To convince yourself that it is just family trouble or someone else’s private relationship, to say, “That’s just the way he is.

” But cases like this show just how dangerous and misleading that kind of excuse can be. These murders did not happen in a home that everyone already saw as a place of horror, violence, or constant danger. They happened in an ordinary house, a home that looked no different from any other, a place that neighbors, friends, and even strangers believed was perfectly normal, peaceful, and safe.

That is what makes stories like this even more terrifying. Don’t forget the people you love. Protect your children. Pay attention to those who are part of your everyday life. Because sometimes the greatest danger is hiding much closer than anyone realizes in a place no one sees and where no one else knows it exists.