He’s 'Killing Everyone'
Laura thought her husband was going to kill himself, and she pleaded with him to put down the gun, prosecutors said. She reminded him that he was loved as she tried to call 911, but he ripped the phone out of her hands and told her it was “too late.”
Chad then fired off two rounds into Hunter, killing him.
As Laura tried to save her 4-year-old, she screamed for her other two boys to run.
Her 14-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, who had been watching TV in the family room, witnessed the shooting and tried to make a run for it with her little brothers.
Chad quickly caught up to Clayton and shot the 7-year-old to death.
At the same time, Chad’s stepdaughter scooped up her youngest brother, Chase, and tried to flee toward the main road in the direction of the fire station. However, Chad chased them down, and he ordered the teen to drop the 3-year-old.
Out of ammo, Chad reloaded his rifle, and Chase fled into the arms of his mom while his sister ran for help.
The teen managed to flag down a passerby and told them that her stepdad was “killing everyone.”
At the same time, Laura confronted her husband, struggled with him over the gun and placed her thumb over the barrel in an attempt to save Chase, but Chad pulled the trigger, injuring his wife and forcing her to drop their son.
Doerman shot Chase to death in front of her.
'I Did It'
Chad lined up his sons' dead bodies in their yard and watched from the porch as Laura tried to render aid.
Deputies took the dad of four into custody without incident.
“I did it,” he confessed to authorities, court documents read. “Take me to jail.”
Chad admitted to ruminating about killing his boys for months and confessed that “the thoughts of having to kill his sons was so heavy on him that he hadn’t slept for three or four days prior” to the murders, prosecutors wrote. Family members alleged the day of the killings, Chad was carrying his Bible around the house and mumbling, “Chad knows what’s right.”
He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
A Deal Is Struck
A psychiatric evaluation proved Chad did not suffer from any mental illnesses that would have hindered his moral judgment, prosecutors said, according to WXIX.
“A plea of not guilty by reason of insanity will not be pursued if you don't have evidence substantiating the fact that your client didn't understand the lawfulness of his conduct because of a severe mental defect or condition,” criminal defense attorney Clyde Bennett, who has no connection to the case, tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “Absent that at the time of the offense, you can't make that argument. It would be reckless.”
Subsequently, both sides agreed to a plea deal, and in August 2024, Chad pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder and two counts of felonious assault. Prosecutors also agreed to drop the death penalty, and Chad was sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole plus 16 years for the counts of felonious assault.
Bennett says there are several reasons the state might have waived a trial seeking to send the triple murderer to death row.
“One reason is to not take the victims’ family through the process where they would have to relive what transpired,” he says. “And, in all practicality, with life without parole, you're still accomplishing the person being removed from society for the rest of their lives.”
Why Did Chad Doerman Kill?
While prosecutors did not elaborate on a motive, the defense suggested mental health issues drove Chad to murder.
However, the state alleged an evaluation proved that he did not suffer from any significant psychiatric distress prior to the day of the slayings, nor was he ever treated for severe mental illness in the past.
“I think there's this misperception that mental illness must always be involved in cases of filicide,” says Dr. Susan Hatters-Friedman, a professor of forensic psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University who is also not involved in the case. (Filicide is when a parent deliberately kills their child.)
While in some instances “it might have the appearance that someone just snapped,” Hatters-Friedman clarifies to A&E Crime + Investigation that’s seldom the case, but says it would be reckless for her to speculate on what motivated Chad to kill without personally evaluating him.
Where Are Laura Doerman and Her Daughter Now?
It’s unclear what Laura and her daughter are up to now, but at Chad’s August 2024 plea hearing, prosecutors shared the family’s victim impact statements with the court.
Laura said she agreed with the plea deal to bring “finality” to the case.
"Where there used to be so much laughter, happiness, noise of rowdy little boys, there is now silence and emptiness," she wrote in her statement. "I would do anything to push them on the swing … and hear their little ways of saying 'I love you.' All of it is gone, when I should have had so much more life left to live with them.
"My husband I trusted with everything made a decision that has left my life forever changed. 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."
Laura’s daughter admitted she trusted Chad before he ripped their family apart and admired him as her father figure.
"Most of all, I saw you as my dad—not just a stepdad,” she wrote.
