Doerman Children

Case background and investigation

Clayton Doerman, 7, Hunter Doerman, 4, and Chase Doerman, 3, were shot and killed at their family home in Monroe Township, Clermont County, Ohio, on the afternoon of June 15, 2023. Their father, Chad Doerman, then 32, was arrested at the scene. WCPO reported that the shootings happened at about 4:15 p.m., and CBS News reported that deputies found him sitting on a stoop at the house.

According to the account prosecutors gave in court, as reported by NBC News, Doerman had come home early from work and rested with the boys before taking a rifle from a gun safe and loading it. He shot Hunter first. Clayton ran out through the back of the house and was pursued and shot. The boys' 14-year-old half-sister, Doerman's stepdaughter, saw the shootings and tried to get away with Chase; prosecutors said Doerman threatened her with the gun. The children's mother, Laura Doerman, was shot through the thumb while struggling for the rifle, and Chase was then shot.

A grand jury indicted Doerman on nine counts of aggravated murder, eight counts of kidnapping and four counts of felonious assault, WCPO reported, and Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve initially said he would seek the death penalty. Doerman later entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. In March 2024, Judge Richard Ferenc of the Clermont County Common Pleas Court suppressed Doerman's statements to investigators, finding that his Miranda rights had been violated, including after he said he would wait for a lawyer, according to WCPO.

On August 2, 2024, Doerman pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder and two counts of felonious assault. Under the plea agreement prosecutors dropped the specifications that made him eligible for the death penalty. Judge Ferenc sentenced him the same day to three consecutive terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole; CBS News reported a further 16 years on the two felonious assault counts, which related to the boys' mother and the stepdaughter. Tekulve said the decision took into account the trauma of the surviving family members, and the judge noted that the victims' family approved of the agreement. Defense attorneys said Doerman was seriously mentally ill at the time.

Laura Doerman addressed the court at sentencing. According to NBC News, she said she would never forgive him but would not hate him.

In August 2026, news outlets reported that the Clermont County Sheriff's Office had released video of detectives' interviews with Doerman, in which he gave a religious explanation for the killings. The release did not change the legal outcome of the case. Doerman is serving his sentence in the Ohio prison system.