MONROE TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A day after what prosecutors called one of the "most heinous" crimes in Clermont County history when a man admitted to lining up and shooting his three sons in his front yard, many in the community have struggled to make sense of the act and process the grief left behind.
Hazel Warren, a friend of the boys' older sister, said she couldn't sleep Thursday night because she felt so heartbroken.
"It just hurts more to know them and what happened," she said.
Warren wasn't able to get a hold of her friend shortly after the shootings. Her friend happened to be grounded and didn't have her phone, she said. Not being able to make sure she was OK was one of the scariest feelings she's experienced.
She said it didn't take her long to decide to launch a GoFundMe for her friend and her mother.
"I hope everything will be OK for them," she said.
Warren said she would often hang out at her friend's house and that the little boys would always treat her as if she were family. She recalled a sweet routine the brothers would do every time she stayed over.
"They were definitely like the cutest I've ever seen. They were just like a little pack," she said. "Their bedtime was like 8 p.m. and they would all come in and individually they'd all tell me goodnight."
Friday morning, a crisis team of about 20 grief counselors was on hand at Monroe Elementary School to offer comfort and support to those who need it. New Richmond Schools Superintendent Tracey Miller was there as well, sharing his own heartbreak.
The boys' older sister was a student in the district, and her 7-year-old brother who was being home-schooled at the time of the shooting had at one point also been a student.
"It's brutal. Just me as superintendent, our staffs, our community, our parents — the kids played T-ball, the young lady at our middle school going to be high school, involved with softball, umpiring just very involved — just great, great kids," he said.
It's the second time in four months the district is grieving the loss of a student. In February, 13-year-old Ethan Cain was killed along with his father and mother in a murder-suicide.
"This impacts everyone, but when everybody is impacted, everybody is going to pull together and make sure we get to the other side of this mountain," Miller said.
A handful gathered at Connection Point Church in New Richmond later in the day at the call of Pastor Robert Wooten.
"Find the people that you can safely speak to," he said. "Find those safe people. All of us should have them, and if we don't we need to find them."
Wooten opened the doors of his church to anyone and everyone in need of an ear to listen or a hand to hold. Many inside seemed to focus on a single aspect of the case.
For Wooten's wife Becky, that has been the pictures of the three boys — aged 3, 4 and 7 — circulating online.
"When you look at those pictures, you see such joy and life and such promise," she said.
For Sarah Stapleton, a New Richmond Middle School intervention specialist, it's the memories she has of the daughter who survived the shooting. Stapleton said she had the girl as a student two years ago.
"She's full of life, and I can't imagine the trauma and everything that she's going to have to work through in these next weeks, months, years," she said.
Wooten said the vigil in his church was very informal and impromptu, but a more formal church service has been planned at the First Baptist Church in New Richmond at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Another GoFundMe created by the sister of the children's mother has raised nearly $60,000. A judge ordered the father, 32-year-old Chad Doerman, be held in the Clermont County Jail on a $20 million cash bond.
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