Software company founder John McAfeesays he's hiding in plain sight, wearing a disguise as he watches police andreporters stake out his home — and blogging about it all.
In the latest twist in the highly-publicized case, McAfeehas started his own blog, in which he describes life on the lam after police inBelize called him a "person of interest" in the slaying of fellowAmerican Gregory Viant Faull and asked him to turn himself in for questioning.
In phones interviews with The Associated Press, McAfee hasnever said where he's hiding. But in his blog this week, he claims to havedisguised himself as a grungy street peddler and a foul-mouthed German tourist,and claims he approached an Associated Press reporter outside his staked-outhome on the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye, and almost sold the reporter awood carving.
It's hard to separate fact from fiction in the wholeaccount, but one thing is clear — seldom has there been more detailed coverageof someone on the lam since O.J. Simpson led police on a low-speed chase in1994, and much of that detail is being provided by McAfee himself.
The Internet-savvy former tech-company founder has talkedabout his case with reporters via email, on cell phone calls from undisclosedlocations, and now in his blog, "Who is McAfee? The official blog of JohnMcAfee," whose creation he announced Saturday in an interview with the AP.
"Anyone who would like to read the blog and check outthe references, will understand my reluctance to turn myself in," he said,referring to his distrust of the Belizean government and particularly its GangSuppression Unit, a quasi-military police squad. McAfee also described life onthe run as "very fearful" and said it has "not beencomfortable."
But in a blog post Monday, he described it in almostfanciful terms, describing how he donned a far-fetched disguise and watched aspolice searched his house and reporters gathered.
"I darkened the skin of my face, neck and handscarefully with shoe polish and put on an LA Saints baseball cap with the brim facingbackward and tufts of the front of my hair sticking out unkempt through theband," according to the post. McAfee confirmed the authenticity of theblog in an email which he has been using to communicate with the AP.
"I stuffed my cheeks with chewed bubble gum stuck tothe outside of my upper and lower molars - making my face appear much fatter. Idarkened and browned my front teeth," he wrote. "I wore an old,ragged long sleeve shirt. I donned an old Guatemalan style serape and toted abag containing a variety of Guatemalan woven goods.
"I adjusted my posture so that I appeared a good sixinches shorter than my actual height and slowly walked up and down the beachwith a pronounced limp, pushing an old single speed bicycle and peddling mywares to tourists and reporters using a broken English with a heavy Spanishaccent. On my second day, while peddling small wooden carvings, I nearly sold adolphin carving to an Associated Press reporter standing at the edge of mydock. He was pulled away from my enticement by an urgent phone call."
None of the four Associated Press reporters and cameramenwho had reported from outside his home north of the town of San Pedro recalledhaving been approached by anyone matching that description.
McAfee, 67, claims even police didn't recognize him.
"I watched the police search my residence 7times," he wrote. "At one point I got too close and was angrilyordered to go away. "
He claimed that other disguises included posing as afoul-mouthed German tourist spewing profanities.
"On subsequent days using different disguises, I didthe same general thing, one day selling tamales and burritos that I hadpurchased wholesale from a real vendor, on another pretending to be a drunkGerman tourist with a partially bandaged face and wearing speedo swimmingtrunks and a distasteful, oversized Hawaiian shirt."
As with his other stories, it has been difficult to verifyany of McAfee's claims. One resident who lives near McAfee's home, which is twodoors down from Faull's, also doesn't remember seeing any of the threecharacters McAfee describes.
Faull was shot to death in early November. McAfeeacknowledges that Faull had complained about his dogs, which were poisonedshortly before Faull's killing, but he says he didn't kill him.
"He did not like my dogs, but neither did any of myneighbors. I didn't like them myself sometimes, they did bark at night and theywere annoying," McAfee said in the Saturday interview. "I did notkill the man and I had no reason to do so," he said, suggesting he had analibi — something corroborated by at least one young woman who said she spentthe night at McAfee's house the night Faull was murdered. "There were manypeople at the house with me."
McAfee, the creator of the McAfee antivirus program, has leda life of eccentricity since he sold his stake in the anti-virus softwarecompany that is named for him in the early 1990s and moved to Belize aboutthree years ago to lower his taxes.
He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had lost all but$4 million of his $100 million fortune in the U.S. financial crisis. However, astory on the Gizmodo website quoted him as calling that claim "not veryaccurate at all." He has dabbled in yoga, ultra-light aircraft andproducing herbal medications.
Neighbors say McAfee seemed to keep company with a lot ofyounger women, and in his blog he acknowledged that raised some questions.
"Many have commented that these women were only with mebecause of my money - a fact that I have to agree with," he wrote.
"I am wealthy and living in a country of extremepoverty," McAfee added. "Parents here 'promote' attractive daughtersto men with money constantly ... I am not foolish enough to believe that manyyoung women could love a 67 year man."