Detective Works Leads Of Columbia City Man On Child Pornography Charges
Detective Works Leads Of Columbia City Man On Child Pornography Charges
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Jackie Gorski-jgorski@timesuniononline.com
Detective Works Leads Of Columbia City Man On Child Pornography ChargesA Columbia City man was arrested on child expliotation charges and child pornography charges after allegedly uploading and sharing child pornographic files while at work.
Adam Wade Kessie, 45, Columbia City, is charged with four counts of child exploitation, Level 4 felonies; and four counts of possession of child pornography, Level 5 felonies.
He was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail at 1:31 p.m. Wednesday on a $15,250 preliminary bond.
According to the probable cause affidavit, on April 21, 2021, an officer with the Indiana State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Unit processed a complaint reported on March 13, 2021, allegedly for apparent child pornography. An Internet Protocol (IP) address was recovered as being used to upload and share child pornography files between Feb. 18-20, 2021. The IP address geo-located to Albion.
There allegedly were 28 files uploaded or shared with another user or group of users, according to court documents. The officer said he viewed each reported file and some of them depicted adults performing sex acts with children.
On April 23, 2021, the ISP officer performed a query on the IP address through publicly available records located online by MAXMIND.
On June 10, 2021, the officer received subpoena results from Google and was told, due to the Google account being deleted, Google didn’t have any additional records available for production other than when it was created and deleted.
On June 21, 2021, the officer received search warrant results from MediaLab/Kik stating the subscriber matched information from March 13, 2021, with the user’s location. The warrant results also said chat logs detailed 65 unique instances where the account disseminated files of apparent child pornography.
On Oct. 19, 2021, the ISP officer was contacted by a second ISP officer with information she received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The second officer provided the first officer with the Cyber Tip the second officer received, which was a complaint on Sept. 1, 2021, of apparent child pornography. The IP addresses used in that complaint were recovered as being used to upload and share files of child pornography between June 24, 2021, and Aug. 1, 2021.
MediaLab/Kik reported there were 41 total files uploaded or shared with another user or group of users, depicting children and toddlers.
On Sept. 24, 2021, a subpoena was served on CenturyLink. On Sept. 28, 2021, the ISP officer got the subpoena results back. The subscriber information, returning within Kosciusko County, matched information the officer discovered while working a different Cyber Tip.
On Aug. 13, 2021, the officer learned the internet signal being used could be obtained in a business parking lot. The signal was password protected and wasn’t available to the general public.
On Aug. 13, 2021, a black pickup truck with a white cap on the truck bed was observed to have pulled into the parking lot and parked. An unknown man exited the truck and appeared to use a key for entry into the store.
The same truck was seen at the store Aug. 20, 2021.
On Oct. 26, 2021, the pickup parked in the driveway of Kessie’s home in Columbia City.
On Dec. 8, 2021, a search warrant was served to Google. According to court documents, Google indicated several of the Google searches the user conducted were for area where Kessie lived.
On April 19, 2022, a search warrant was granted through the Whitley County Circuit Court for Kessie and any vehicle known to be used by Kessie.
On April 20, 2022, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant. Two officers went to Kessie’s place of work and contacted Kessie. They began an audio/video recorded interview of Kessie. He was read his Miranda rights. He waived his rights.
Kessie said he was previously employed at the business for about eight years and left that job six or seven months prior. He also allegedly said he was working during the timeframe when the uploads were done. He also said he didn’t have internet at his residence, but he did have it at the store.
When confronted about possession and disseminating child pornography, he said it was “a demon for a long time” and he knew it was wrong. He said he only shared the child pornography on Kik. He said the Kik accounts in question for the child pornography were his. He said he wouldn’t save the files to his phone, but would keep them stored in his Kik account.
At the end of the interview, Kessie wrote a letter to the victims depicted in the videos. He wrote, “I’m really sorry for the things I have done. I hope everything in your life turns out the best it can be,” according to court documents.
