An Ohio father read the Bible, told his children he loved them very much, and made a mysterious call to his own father — in which he said his oldest son “will be the toughest” — before he brutally murdered his three younger sons in their family home. Independent informed of.
Chad Dorman, 33, shot and killed his sons Clayton, 7, Hunter, 4, and Chase, 3, in Monroe Township, about 75 miles west of Columbus, on June 15, 2023. On Friday, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison.
Disturbing new details have emerged about Dorman’s activities leading up to the murders and the final hours of the three young boys’ lives.
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In a press briefing on Monday, Clermont County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Tekulve revealed that on the day of the shootings, Dorfman had lunch with his wife Laura and told her, “This will be my last good meal.”
Despite this ominous statement, Laura did not feel the need to “do anything to protect the family”, and the doorman spent the afternoon working in the garden and playing with the children.
Tekulve said that between 3:30 and 3:45 p.m., Dorman began reading the Bible to Hunter. “He was walking around the house with a Bible and mumbling, ‘Chad knows what’s right. Chad knows what’s right.'”
Just before 4 p.m., Dorman invited his family into the master bedroom to take a nap. His wife and three sons joined him in the room, while his 12-year-old stepdaughter watched TV in another room.
When the doorman opened the gun safe, his wife panicked and told him, “You’re scaring me.”
Tekulve told reporters in a separate press briefing on Friday that what happened next was so horrific that it brought veteran officers to tears.
Dorman told his family he loved them very much and called his sons “the best boys ever.” He then leapt out of bed, grabbed a .22 rifle from the safe, and his family initially worried about his safety rather than their own, fearing he might commit suicide.
“Laura is screaming, the boys are screaming, Laura is afraid he’s going to commit suicide,” Tekulve said. “They’re all trying to discourage him, telling him they love him and begging him not to commit suicide.”
According to a Clermont County Sheriff’s Office press release, the boys’ mother was also shot in the arm. She was sent to University Hospital of Cincinnati for non-life-threatening injuries after being found outside the home. Prosecutors said she was trying to grab the gun from Mr. Dorman and was shot during that time. She was sent to the hospital for treatment of injuries. However, the daughter’s age and the extent of injuries are still unknown.
After the incident, the father was found sitting on the porch outside his home and in a later interview with authorities, he admitted to standing the boys in the yard and shooting them. He said he had been planning the murders for several months.
