UPDATE WITH VIDEO: Bowling Green Police Chief accuses Pike County, Mo. Sheriff’s Department of corruption in death investigation

BOWLING GREEN, Mo. — Bowling Green Police Chief Ty Bounds said Friday that Pike County Sheriff Stephen Korte and his department have blocked and interfered with the investigation of the death of a Hannibal man last year.

The car of Nathaniel Mueller, 23, was found near Frankford on Dec. 22 and Mueller was reported missing. His body was found Feb. 28.

But members of his family had been vocal about their concerns regarding the investigation and Bounds held a news conference outside the Pike County Courthouse on Friday to give his support to the family’s claims.

Bounds said he had been investigating a robbery in Bowling Green involving three suspects and believed that Mueller’s disappearance was connected to the crime. He then dropped a bombshell at the news conference and began to provide details of what his department believe had happened.

“We were able to uncover a close intimate relationship between a robbery suspect and a high-ranking member of the sheriff’s department,” Bounds said. “The sheriff has interfered in an investigation that placed numerous Bowling Green officers, sheriff’s deputies, and Missouri Highway Patrolmen at risk,”

Bounds also claimed Korte and others knew the location of Mueller’s body for weeks before it was officially recovered.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol has now taken over the investigation and Chris Lozano, the attorney for Bounds, said they could not release any further details.

“The law is the law. That’s what it is,” Bounds said. “If it’s broken, whether you’re a cop or not, the treatment should not be special.”

Lozano wrote a whistleblower letter to the Pike County Commission, City of Bowling Green and the Pike County Sheriff’s Department earlier this month.

Korte denied any wrongdoing in a comment given to KMOV-TV out of St. Louis. He said he stood by his department’s investigation and had worked closely with Mueller’s family during the process.

“When you’re conducting a professional matter, you let the facts compete and stand for themselves,” Korte told KMOV.