Fredericktown native wins state award for investigation into fatal crash

Fredericktown native Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Orrin Hawkins was awarded Sworn Team Member of the Month for February by the Missouri Department of Public Safety. His investigation into a fatal crash claiming the life of a 14-year-old, found that the driver of the vehicle had been taking photographs for social media leading up to it.

During the investigation, Hawkins obtained a search warrant for the suspect’s phone and found evidence he was snapping photos while driving immediately before the fatal crash. Though not originally assigned to the investigation, Trooper Hawkins requested to handle the investigation because he had prior experience with examining forensic extractions from digital devices.

“Being a police officer for nearly 15 years now, whenever anyone loses their life for anything, from a wreck to a violent homicide – it’s tragic, the work I try to pour into each investigation is primarily for the family that lost that loved one,” Hawkins said.

The crash happened on June 13, 2025, on MO Route 34 in Bollinger County, after a vehicle had crossed the centerline and struck another vehicle head-on in a curve, Hawkins said. Evidence on the scene suggested the driver was distracted which led investigators to look closer at the details. Several investigative techniques were deployed which revealed the juvenile driver was using his phone, which “directly contributed” to his causing the fatal crash.

The investigation spanned three months and was completed in early fall.

The driver was initially incapacitated from an injury but after he was discharged from the hospital, investigators visited him to obtain his initial statement, Hawkins said. During that interview, investigators were given permission to look at his phone. They immediately established probable cause which suggested that the phone was being used during the crash.

Trooper Hawkins then assisted in securing the search warrant to complete a data extraction of the phone, which in turn led to him securing an additional search warrant for the user data to a specific social media site. He said as a result, the images retrieved were quite literally, “digitally, the proverbial smoking gun.”

“I will never encounter an image like that again in my life,” Hawkins said. “It was a damning piece of crucial evidence.”

Hawkins grew up in Fredericktown, spending his entire childhood there. While in school, Hawkins was Student Body President and played football until he graduated in 2008. Trooper Hawkins served briefly in the United States Marine Corps and afterwards, he became a police officer with the Cape Girardeau Police Department for nearly ten years.

In that time, Hawkins served in many roles across several divisions until he was promoted and transferred to be the supervisor of the Detective Division’s – Scientific Investigations Unit (SIU). In that capacity, he was attached to the Cape Girardeau County and Bollinger County Major Case Squad where his primary role and responsibility was to deploy to violent crime scenes with his team to locate, preserve, and collect crucial evidence for the investigation.

Hawkins joined Missouri State Highway Patrol in 2022 and has only worked in Troop E, in Zone 05 (Cape Girardeau and Bollinger County).

He still uses many of his skills from his role as an investigator today.

“My prior experiences helped me 1000% with the investigation. Having that invaluable experience with the Cape Girardeau Police Department was paramount; homicide, robbery, burglary investigations, serving search warrants on electronics in the past and having learned how to parse that information, and apply it to the investigation,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins has had plenty of experience seeing the dangers caused by phones while driving. He cited Missouri’s ‘Siddens Bening Hands Free’ law. Hawkins said that officers cannot pull drivers over solely for using the phone, but can use it as a secondary offense, such as when coupled with a center lane drift or disobeying a stop sign.

“A lot of people take that initial stance of ‘this is my right, you can’t do that,’” Hawkins said. “We’re not out there trying to violate citizen’s rights; we are simply trying to protect people. My job is to ensure that people using Missouri’s roadways get to where they need to go safely.”

Hawkins said sometimes officers have been criticized for using their phones, but he explained that the law does have exceptions for law enforcement. He explained that law enforcement is often required to use technology necessary to operate several electronic components within the patrol vehicle. Many of the items they use promote information sharing in an immediate and more effective manner, like in-car camera footage, MDT computers, radios, and cell phones.

He said many statistics show that people get hurt when their attention is pulled from the road, and he sees it first-hand all too often. Cases like the one he was awarded for reinforce his commitment that cell phones need to be placed aside, even on short drives.

“If you take a life as a result of you being on an electronic communication device, it’s a Class D felony,” Hawkins said.

He’s notified many families about the death of their loved one.

“That text message, that picture, that video – it can all wait. Don’t let that selfishness be the reason why a mother and father never get to hold their child again, it’s tragic and by far the worst part of my job.”