WASHINGTON COUNTY, Mo — A second suspect has just been arrested in the Washington County murder of Christian Hildebrandt.

“It’s a huge breakthrough,” Kim Little told us. Her son, Christian, died in March 2021. He’d sent his mom a final text message that day: “Help me, please leave with Derek Policy.” Investigators believe he was referring to Derek Politte and that the victim’s phone incorrectly autocorrected the last name.

60-year-old Derek Politte was charged with murder after a ten-month investigation. He’s pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. We’re now more than three years from the murder and a second man is charged with Hildebrandt’s killing.

Little added, “We’ve been waiting for so long. We knew he was involved. We felt it in our guts from the very beginning.”

The second defendant is 54-year-old Roger Sohn, whose former property in Fletcher, Missouri, is where the victim was last known to be alive. About four hours after the victim’s haunting text, a Washington County Sheriff’s deputy reported finding Hildebrandt stabbed twice in the neck just 700 feet south of the property on Trucker Road—the length of two football fields.

A witness told Fox 2, prior to any criminal charges, that Hildebrandt told her he was heading somewhere to earn cash. Ladonna Kay told us in October 2021, “It was an opportunity to make some money and he needed that. He was broke. He said, ‘I’ve got to go; my friend is picking me up in a minute,’ and he gave me a hug and left. I never saw him again.”

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Investigators say it was Derek Politte picking up Hildebrandt to take him to Roger Sohn’s. There’s no indication yet about a possible motive.

Little said, “There’s been so many lies from the two of them—I don’t know if we’ll ever get real answers. I can’t come up with any answer that would actually ever make sense.”

She’s continued to honor her son with tattoos – including a Pokémon, a game they played together the night before he died. She says conversations with Christian in heaven – are more joyful now.

She laughed, saying, “Oh man, we had a big, long talk. I was like, ‘baby boy, I feel like I finally got where we were trying to get [to] from the very beginning.’”

Suspect Sohn was picked up recently on the arrest warrant. We’ve been unable to reach him for a comment, and the court record doesn’t yet indicate who will represent him in court.

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