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Hiding out in Belize, McAfee tells Wired he didn't kill neighbor

In an interview with the tech pub, John McAfee, a pioneer in combating computer viruses, denies knowledge of the murder of Gregory Faull, who was found shot to death this weekend. Police say McAfee is wanted for questioning.

Greg Sandoval Former Staff writer
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. Based in New York, Sandoval is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at @sandoCNET.
Greg Sandoval
2 min read
A screen shot from an interview John McAfee gave to the Belize Reporter newspaper last May. YouTube

John McAfee, an Internet security expert and one of the pioneers in battling computer viruses, acknowledges that he's hiding from police but said he is innocent of the murder of his neighbor who was found shot to death Sunday morning.

Wired.com interviewed McAfee hours after it was reported that police in Belize were searching for him in connection with the murder of Gregory Faull, a general contractor and restaurant owner from Florida who was found Sunday morning shot in the back of the head.

Wired reporter Joshua Davis asked McAfee, founder of the Web security firm that bears his name, if he had any knowledge about Faull's death. The 67-year-old who has had multiple run-ins with police in Belize said he had none.

"I thought maybe [whoever it was who shot Faull] were coming for me. They mistook him for me," McAfee told Wired. "They got the wrong house. He's dead. They killed him. It spooked me out."

About the possibility of surrendering, McAfee told Wired: "Under no circumstances am I going to willingly talk to the police in this country. You can say I'm paranoid about it but they will kill me, there is no question."

In May, McAfee's home was raided and police said they found multiple unlicensed firearms and McAfee with a 17-year-old girl. Police also said at the time that they discovered McAfee was manufacturing an antibiotic without a license in his home.

McAfee's story becomes more bizarre by the hour. In fact, the tale had drawn reporters from Gizmodo and Wired even before the murder. The publications appear to have been covering McAfee's legal troubles when the murder occurred.

In the Wired article, Davis wrote: "For months, I have been investigating McAfee's claims against the government and the government's charges against him."

Gregory Faull's body was found on Saturday in Belize. Police say Faull, who owned a restaurant in Orlando, Fla., was shot in the head." facebook.com/greg.faull

Davis wrote that in August he learned that McAfee's neighbors had complained about his dogs barking. In a story published last week, Gizmodo reported that some of McAfee's neighbors were afraid of the armed security guards who patrolled the grounds of his home, located on Belize's Ambergris Caye. Days before his murder, Faull reported McAfee to the mayor's office for firing guns and "roguish behavior," according to Gizmodo.

From her home in Florida, Vicki Faull, the murdered man's wife, acknowledged in an interview with CNET that the relationship between her husband and McAfee was acrimonious but said she had received little information about the crime.

"I just know that McAfee alienated a lot of people around him," she said. "Frankly, I was surprised to hear that he was still living there."

Below is an interview with McAfee done in May after police raided his house looking for illegal drugs and firearms.

More to come