Anti-virus legend McAfee wanted for murder in Belize

Cops raid his house to probe killing of fellow American, but McAfee nowhere to be found

I / Belize City November 13, 2012, 10:51 IST

John McAfee, founder of the eponymous anti-virus company, is on the run for killing another US citizen in a resort town, Belizean police said.

Police raided McAfee's mansion on the island of Ambergris Caye, in northeastern Belize, late Sunday to question him about the murder of American Gregory Faull. But McAfee was nowhere to be found, said the head of the country's anti-organised crime brigade, Marco Vidal.

McAfee "is wanted so that he can be interrogated for homicide," Vidal told reporters yesterday.

Vidal's officers had searched McAfee's mansion several months ago looking for weapons and drugs, and detained him for several hours.

McAfee claimed he was arrested because he refused to make a donation to a local politician's campaign.

Florida native Faull, 52, was found dead at his home by his housekeeper Sunday morning.

At the crime scene, investigators found a 9mm shell, "consistent with the wound in the back of Faull's neck," said National Security Ministry spokesman Rafael Martinez.

A police report said there were no signs of a break-in, and that a laptop and cell phone were missing.

Residents of the island, known for scuba diving, tropical fishing and its American expatriate community, told the website Gizmodo that Faull and McAfee had a recent fallout.

According to Gizmodo, which quoted locals speaking on condition of anonymity, McAfee had displayed increasingly erratic behaviour and was estranged from the expatriate community.

The website also reported that McAfee had been experimenting with psychoactive drugs.

McAfee has been living in Belize, a former British colony, for the past four years.

The 67-year-old made millions when he sold his anti-virus software company in the early 1990s.