Chesterfield is a city in St Charles County, Missouri, and is a western suburb of the city of St. Louis. Its population is roughly 50,000. Prostitution and sex trafficking activity throughout St. Charles County – including the city of Chesterfield – have been well-documented. Among the tactics used to address prostitution and sex trafficking are those focused on consumer-level demand. For example, in June 2017, fourteen people were arrested during a web-based reverse sting operation conducted by the St. Louis County Police Multi-jurisdictional Human Trafficking Task Force and collaborating agencies. The target was consumer-level demand, specifically those seeking to purchase sex from potential human trafficking victims. The investigation concluded with 14 people alleged to have tried to purchase sex from potential trafficking victims between June 19, 2017, and June 22, 2017, at various locations within St. Louis County and St. Charles County. The names, ages, and addresses of the 14 individuals were listed in news reports.

Instances within Chesterfield include a case in February 2021 in which a local man pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of a child for an incident that occurred in 2019 while he was on probation for a previous sex crime. The man started talking with a 17-year-old girl on Snapchat. The girl told him how old she was, and he said that was “close enough” and asked the girl to send him nude photographs, but she declined. The court documents said he offered to pay her in exchange for sex and then drove her to his Chesterfield apartment, where he sexually abused her and gave her $200 before driving her back to her parents’ house. The man had used an alias so the girl would not be able to find him on the Missouri sex offender registry for prior attempted sexual exploitation of a minor in Boone County. Police arrested the suspect after taking over control of the girl’s Snapchat account and arranging for another meeting. The man’s identity was included in news reports.