Software found McAfee fears for his life

Software company founder John McAfee says he won't come in for questioning about the killing of his neighbour in the Caribbean, fearing he will be killed in custody.

McAfee, the creator of the antivirus program of the same name, contacted The Associated Press from an email account he gave to a journalist in May.

“Suspect or no, I believe the (Belize) government wants me out of the way,” he said.

“Too many people have died in custody in this country so I intend to do nothing that puts me in their custody.”

He gave no indication of his whereabouts.

McAfee, 67, has been identified as a “person of interest” in the killing of 52-year-old Gregory Viant Faull, whose body was found on Sunday.

On Monday McAfee told Wired magazine that he had nothing to do with the death but feared police would kill him if they found him.

McAfee said he hid in the sand when he saw police going to his house on Sunday and put a cardboard box over his head to breathe.

Belize police believed McAfee was still in the country but said they would contact authorities in the US, Mexico and Guatemala if there were signs he had left.

“We want to encourage him to come in,” Raphael Martinez, spokesman for Belize's Ministry of National Security, told the AP on Tuesday.

“If he feels threatened, we need to tell him, 'Get someone to go along with you, but come in. Let's solve this crime and you can free yourself.'“

Martinez said two people had been detained for questioning but not charged. Police had yet to establish a motive in the crime.

Faull was found with a gunshot wound to his head inside his two-storey home north of San Pedro, a town on the island of Ambergris Caye, Martinez said. A housekeeper discovered the body on Sunday morning and called police.

McAfee told Wired that whoever shot Faull might have been gunning for him instead and mistakenly killed his neighbour.

San Pedro mayor Daniel Guerrero said Faull had given the town council a letter complaining that McAfee's dogs were running loose, chasing cyclists and attacking people and that McAfee's security guards had trespassed on other homeowners' property.

Faull's family said in a statement that the murdered man - from Orlando, Florida, and the owner of a construction business - had just finished rebuilding his Belize home and was planning to offer it as a vacation rental while he sailed the seas.

“Losing Greg leaves a hole in our hearts and our lives. We urge law enforcement authorities in Belize and internationally to bring those responsible to justice quickly,” the statement said.

McAfee sold his stake in the antivirus software company that is named for him in the early 1990s and moved to Belize about three years ago to lower his taxes.

He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had lost all but $US4 million ($A3.85 million) of his $US100 million fortune in the US financial crisis.

Wired reported that McAfee said his dogs were poisoned on Friday night and that he blamed the deaths on Belize authorities, not Faull, who'd complained about them.

Martinez said officers didn't find any dogs when they arrived at McAfee's home and an employee there said the dogs had died and McAfee buried them.