Highway Patrol Corporal Adam McAtee named State Team Member of Month for tireless investigation into exploited children

Corporal Adam McAtee, a special victims investigator with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, has been named the Missouri State Team Member of the Month for July for his tireless efforts to combat the sexual exploitation of children. What began as an investigation to locate a single suspect and child victim led to the capture of two suspects and locating three child victims.

McAtee was recognized in a ceremony at Highway Patrol General Headquarters on July 31, 2026.

“Corporal McAtee’s relentless effort to track down a child sex trafficker and his victim not only resulted in locating the suspect and child, he discovered two other child victims and a second suspected trafficker,” Department of Public Safety Director Mark James said. “McAtee’s commitment to protecting children and hunting down those who abuse them as well as his work to put together a multi-agency team to accomplish the mission serve as a model for all investigators.”

In November 2024, a Minnesota officer reached out to McAtee to report that evidence showed a man arrested in that state was communicating with a Missouri man about sex trafficking a child. The child’s identity was not known. McAtee quickly identified the Missouri suspect, but the child victim’s identity eluded him. Eventually, McAtee’s investigation located a different child victim of exploitation. McAtee did not give up. He put together a multi-agency team to serve a search warrant at a home in the Kansas City area. The search revealed another child victim of sexual exploitation.

McAtee’s persistence paid off when, with the help of facial recognition software and online photo albums, the original child victim was tracked to Georgia, where officers located and rescued the exploited child.

In all, McAtee’s relentless yearlong investigation led to two arrests and three exploited children being located. The two suspects have each been charged in federal indictments in the Western District of Missouri.

“Corporal McAtee’s thorough investigative work on this case is exactly why the Patrol established the Special Victims Unit within our Division of Drug and Crime Control in 2024 – to merge the investigative expertise of specialists in computer-related crimes and those focused on human trafficking,” MSHP Colonel Michael Turner said. “Corporal McAtee dedication to following all the leads in this case is emblematic of his 25 years of service with the Highway Patrol.”

McAtee became eligible for consideration as State Team Member of the Month for July because of his selection as Missouri Department of Public Safety Sworn Team Member of the Month for June. He is a 25-year veteran of the Patrol. There are more than 43,000 full-time Missouri state government team members across the state.

For more information, call 573-751-5432 or e-mail mike.oconnell@dps.mo.gov