say, i m standing, like, 20 to 40 feet from my yard, and i could see that the police are raiding it. that was a lie? that was a lie! when your life is in danger, you have to lie. and he did. but it certainly wasn t easy, said samantha. very uncomfortable in those early days on the land. we d go in bushes, everywhere. we crossed reversed by boat. john s back was at one point looked horrible. it had a lot of bites on it. i even told him, dude, you look really sick. you don t even look like john. he was skinny, cause he didn t eat, he didn t drink water. true? impossible to know, but that was her story. eventually, sets the mantle, they found a place to hold up. mcafee died as air and whenever he needed to venture out into the open, he donned a disguise. he pretended he was a couple guy back. dyed his hair white. a beard. put on the hat, glasses.
speculation is about all there was. that is until the world s most wanted person of interest surfaced in guatemala, seeking sanctuary. according to mcafee s traveling companion, samantha venegas, the couple had used their wits to elude capture. for weeks, she said, mcafee made the police think he was on amergris caye, when in fact, he and she were hiding out on the mainland, she said, in belize city. he was in the city. i mean, john a smart. he knows what he s doing. i mean, you turned his phone on, and said, you know what? they re going to track us down. we have the phone there. we took it all the battery of the, phone and left one on the island, and people really thought he was there. because his cell phone was there? it went on and on, because they were tracking it. what made them think he was there? because on his blog, he would
has to get out. according to mcafee s 20 -year-old companion, samantha venegas, the couple came to guatemala in part because she had a relative here who could be helpful. so, i tell him i have an uncle who s a lawyer. and he s a pretty good lawyer. and you can ask anyone here in guatemala. you certainly could. sam s uncle has represented some of the biggest names in central america, like former panamanian strongman manuel noriega. but convincing a judge that john mcafee was a political refugee was shaping up to be john mcafee s s biggest challenge yet. coming up, inside his life on the run, a master of disguise. nobody recognized him? no one ever recognized him. when dateline continues. at seresto.com.
joshua davis, who was writing an article about mcafee at the time, was among the first to get a call. i can t sleep at night because i m allergic to every noise. mcafee told davis he had a young woman with him. sam is quite the soldier. samantha, she has been with me loyally for the past couple of months. he insisted he knew nothing whatever his neighbor s murder. let me ask you for the record, point blank, because i don t think i did before, did you kill him? [laughs] no, sir. no, sir. not even a funny. okay. not only did he deny committing murder, he proposed an astonishing idea. the bullet that killed faull had really been meant for him. the first thing i thought about was, oh, my god. he s a white man, i m a white man, someone, you know, the government finally decided to off me. they got the wrong white man. so, he says, the last thing i m going to do is turn myself