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“I want everyone to know that there was foul play when it comes to my son’s death,” Tammy Mueller wrote on Facebook.

What she didn’t know is that law enforcement officers might have played a role in covering up that foul play.

That’s the allegation being made by the police chief in a nearby city, Bowling Green. The chief, Col. Ty Bounds, says one Pike County sheriff’s deputy was close to a person involved in Mueller’s death. And he has come to the conclusion that the deputy — along with other deputies — helped cover up the crime.

Bounds is going public now, he says, because he’s frustrated that local authorities didn’t act on his findings. He’s worried about what will happen to evidence in the case. And he’s worried about potential retaliation.

His concerns have drawn the attention of at least one important party. The Missouri Highway Patrol recently stepped in to take over the case.

“This is about making sure the right people know what happened,” Bounds said.

The chief stumbled on the evidence while conducting a separate investigation into a robbery in Bowling Green, which is in Pike County, about 90 miles northwest of St. Louis. Bowling Green has its own police force, separate from the county sheriff’s department. Bounds has been chief in Bowling Green since October 2024.

The robbery investigation started in mid-January. As he was reviewing phone records in that case, Bounds found several messages between one suspect and a sheriff’s deputy about an earlier incident: Mueller’s disappearance.

“One Pike County Sheriff’s deputy had close, intimate ties with a suspect in the robbery and (the Mueller) investigation, which involved the same group of individuals,” Bounds told me this week in an interview.

He also said phone records “implicated more than one Pike County Sheriff’s deputy in covering up” the Mueller case.

Bounds believes the deputies knew where Mueller’s body was and might have been involved in moving it there after he died.

Bounds declined to name any of the people in his investigation or how many deputies he believes are involved.

What we know from court records is that the robbery investigation led to a grand jury indictment, issued Feb. 7 by Pike County Prosecuting Attorney Alex Ellison. Emalee Calvin, 18, of Frankford, Mo., was charged with first-degree robbery, armed criminal action and kidnapping for an incident on Jan. 11. Also charged in the robbery were Tyrese Beaty, 22, and Landon Washington, 19, both of Louisiana, Mo.

Mueller went missing on Dec. 21. His vehicle and wallet were found that day in Pike County. His body was discovered more than two months later, on Feb. 28, in a pond near Frankford. A cause of death has not been publicly released.

Bounds says he went through the proper legal channels with his allegations and no official action was taken. He says he’s also concerned that deputies might have “an opportunity to contaminate evidence.”

Bounds and a detective in the Pike County Sheriff’s Office who worked with him, Steve Kolthoff, have retained an attorney, Chris Lozano.

Lozano wrote a letter to the sheriff and prosecutor advising them that his clients are protected under the state’s whistleblower law “relating to the death investigation of Nathaniel Mueller.”

That means they should be protected from retaliation. Bounds says that since his investigation began, “there have been several attempts to discredit me and other members of the Bowling Green Police Department.”

The investigation into Mueller’s death, which was originally handled by the sheriff’s department, is now being led by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, according to Ellison, the prosecuting attorney. He confirmed receipt of Lozano’s whistleblower letter but declined to discuss it.

Pike County Sheriff Stephen Korte said the Mueller investigation is ongoing and involves “multiple entities.”

“I have no knowledge of who Ty Bounds and my detective have spoken to,” he said.

Mueller lived in Hannibal with his mother and his 3-year-old daughter, Athena. He worked at the General Mills plant in Hannibal, which is about 30 miles north of Bowling Green.

“Athena asks every day for her father,” said Rachel Mayfield, the girl’s grandmother. “He was a big part of her life.”

Mayfield and her husband, Melvin, are caring for Athena.

For weeks after Mueller’s disappearance, family members flooded Facebook and other social media sites with messages seeking information.

“I’m praying my son will just walk through the door,” his mother posted the day after his disappearance.

“The police are giving up looking for my baby boy,” she wrote the next day.

“The pain is too hard, I can’t do this,” she wrote on New Year’s Day.

Mueller wouldn’t be found until nearly two months later. But at least one person at the sheriff’s department knew where his body was for much of that time, Bounds alleges. That helps explain why he’s going public.

“This is so the family knows that instead of nearly 70 days of waiting for closure, it could have happened much earlier,” Bounds told me.

He also believes he’s done his part: he turned over to outside law enforcement officials the evidence he collected and the draft of a probable cause statement seeking the arrest of at least one Pike County deputy. Bounds also plans a news conference Friday at noon at the Pike County Courthouse.

On Thursday afternoon, Bounds met with Mueller’s family members and updated them on his findings. ������Ƶ were shocked to learn that law enforcement officers might be involved.

“It hurts,” said Melvin Mayfield, Athena’s grandfather. “But it’s actually a little bit comforting that somebody is on our side, and they’re not giving up.”