When detectives first questioned Chad Doerman after the deaths of his three sons, they were not simply trying to identify a suspect. They were trying to understand an apparently incomprehensible sequence of events that had unfolded inside a family home. More than three years later, newly released footage of that interrogation has revealed what Doerman told investigators about the hours leading up to the killings. His answers are fragmented, disturbing and deeply tied to religious ideas, giving the public a new look at the explanation he offered immediately after the crime. The video was released in August 2026 by the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office and reported by FOX19. In it, Doerman described believing that he was in Hell, that the world was ending and that Jesus was coming. He said he had been frightened by what he believed was happening around him. At first, however, the interview did not produce a straightforward confession of motive. Doerman frequently told detectives that he did not know.

The questioning continued for hours. Slowly, he began describing the ideas that he said had been occupying his mind. He referred to a biblical story about sacrifice and explained that he believed God was testing him. Detectives pressed him on the implication of that belief. Doerman eventually said that he had killed his sons “for God.” That statement is now one of the most widely reported elements of the newly released footage, but it needs to be understood within the context of the interview. It is Doerman describing his own thinking after the killings, not a finding by investigators that a divine command existed. The distinction is crucial. The footage documents his words and the detectives’ responses. It does not establish the religious explanation as an objective cause. What it does establish is that Doerman himself presented his actions in those terms during questioning. The interrogation also reveals how disoriented his account appeared to investigators. At one point, he asked whether he was in Hell. He spoke about fiery gates, Jesus and the end of the world. He told detectives that he had been asking for help because of thoughts he said were frightening him. He described believing that members of his family were in danger and said there were signs that he interpreted as warnings. The detectives continued to ask practical questions about the killings. Their task was to move from the chaotic scene outside the house to a coherent timeline. The broader investigation had already established key facts. On June 15, 2023, Doerman returned home early, obtained a rifle and sH๏τ his three sons. Clayton, 7, Hunter, 4, and Chase, 3, died. Their mother was injured, and another family member escaped and summoned help. Deputies found Doerman at the property after the shooting. What happened before those events had been the subject of intense attention from the beginning.

Prosecutors later described the killings as planned. In 2024, court proceedings established that Doerman would plead guilty rather than proceed to a trial where he could have faced the death penalty. He admitted responsibility for the three murders and two felonious ᴀssaults. The resulting sentence was three consecutive life terms without parole, with additional prison time for the ᴀssaults. That legal resolution created an unusual situation: the central question of guilt was settled, but public curiosity about motive remained. The newly released interrogation footage now fills in some of that missing context, although it does not solve every question. One particularly important detail is that Doerman described his thinking as something that had developed over time rather than something that appeared at the instant he picked up the rifle. He referenced a church service he had attended “a while ago” and connected that experience to the biblical story he believed was relevant. He said he had continued thinking about the story and ultimately interpreted it as an instruction that could not be refused. The timing is still unclear. He did not provide investigators with a precise moment when the thoughts became a concrete plan. That uncertainty prevents a neat reconstruction of his decision-making process. There is evidence about what happened on the final day, but the exact transition from thought to action remains something investigators and the public can only examine through the available record. The newly released video also reveals a disturbing detail about how Doerman described the intended sequence. He told detectives that he believed there was an order in which members of the family were supposed to die. He said he had made a mistake in carrying it out and expressed regret about the order because he believed one person had suffered as a result.

Again, this is significant not because it provides a rational explanation, but because it shows that he described the killings as an organized act governed by rules he believed existed. That description is consistent with prosecutors’ earlier portrayal of the killings as planned, while adding his own claimed religious interpretation. Another important part of the story is what the footage does not show. It does not show a simple, coherent motive that can explain every event. It does not answer why ordinary family interactions continued so close to the killings. Earlier reports described Doerman telling his sons that they were the “best boys ever” before the shooting. That detail remains difficult to reconcile with the subsequent violence and demonstrates why the case cannot be reduced to a single explanation. The interrogation therefore becomes almost a second crime scene — not a physical one, but a record of the thoughts and explanations Doerman offered after the physical evidence had already been collected. Detectives had the home, the firearm, the surviving witnesses and the victims. What they did not have was direct access to the decision that had led to the killings. The interrogation was an attempt to reconstruct that missing part. In 2026, the public is finally able to hear much more of that attempt. The result is not closure in the conventional sense. It is another piece of a case that had already ended legally two years earlier. Doerman is serving life without parole. The three boys cannot be brought back. The surviving family members must continue living with what happened. But the footage has changed the available record by allowing people to hear, in Doerman’s own words, the explanation he gave for an act that had previously been understood primarily through police reports, court filings and prosecutors’ statements. The most important question may therefore no longer be simply what happened on June 15, 2023. That part of the case is established. The harder question is how Doerman’s perception of God, sacrifice, Hell and the end of the world became connected to the decision that ended the lives of three children. The newly released video offers clues. It does not offer an easy answer.

Source: https://nypost.com/2024/08/05/us-news/chad-doerman-told-his-sons-they-were-the-best-boys-ever-before-gunning-them-down/