It doesn't sound like much of a disguise, but John McAfee is doing his best to change his appearance as he continues to evade the police in Belize.
In a case that seems to get more bizarre by the day, the 67-year-old has continued to call me with semi-hourly updates. The latest disclosure: He claims to have dyed his hair, eyebrows, beard, and mustache jet black.
"I have modified my appearance in a radical fashion," McAfee said, "I’ll probably look like a murderer, unfortunately."
The American antivirus pioneer is wanted for questioning in connection with the murder of Gregory Faull, 52, an American expatriate and neighbor of McAfee’s. They both have beachside properties on the island of Ambergris Caye, about 20 miles off the Belize coast. Faull was found dead, face up in a pool of blood, in his villa Sunday morning, shot once in the back of the head. Faull had complained about the barking of McAfee’s dogs -- McAfee kept 11 at his beachside compound -- and four of those dogs were poisoned Friday night.
When police arrived at McAfee's property Sunday afternoon to question him, McAfee hid, he says, burying himself in sand and covering his head with a cardboard box. He says he spent 18 hours hiding on his property before slipping away.
He has been running ever since, he says, riding in boats, huddling on the floorboards of taxis, sleeping in a bed that he said was infested with lice.
Since going into hiding, McAfee has repeatedly denied that he had anything to do with Faull’s death. He says that he does not want to give himself up to authorities because he is afraid they will torture or kill him.
He’s convinced that, while he’s away from his compound, the police will plant incriminating evidence unrelated to Faull’s murder. “The police have been to my house seven times,” he said. “I expect them to uncover a cache of fully automatic weapons, four tons of cocaine. Maybe a Soviet submarine.”
The authorities, meanwhile appear to be trying to put pressure on McAfee by arresting friends and associates, according to two sources (who are not McAfee). Since Sunday, police have detained one of McAfee’s bodyguards, William Mulligan; his groundskeeper, Cassian Chavaria; and a local taxi driver, Cesar Trapp.
McAfee said he is outraged by the detentions: “This is exactly what happened to Soviet dissidents when Stalin took power. If they could not catch the man himself, they rounded up all of his friends.”
