>> then came the mystery -- his neighbor suddenly found dead. >> there was blood all over the floor. everyone was crying. >> i said, no, it can't possibly happen. >> and the millionaire who was suddenly on the run, taunting authorities, launching a chase, an international hide and seek hunt. >> it seems like it's fiction. it doesn't seem real. >> he may have eluded the police, but he did not elude us. >> so, neither you nor anybody representing you went over to greg faull's house and shot him through the head? >> no, sir. can you possibly get any inkling of the truth? you will not believe the things that happen. >> get ready for some serious heart of darkness [bleep] here. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> hello, and welcome to dateline. silicon valley pioneer john mcafee launched a hugely succesful software firm to resign. eventually, he moved to an island off the coast of belize, saying he wants to get away from the rigid business rules in the states. but when his neighbor turned up dead, authorities wondered if mcafee those trying to get away with murder. investigators were determined to question the eccentric tech giant. but first, they would have to find him. here is keith morrison with the fugitive millionaire. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> an american murdered in a tropical paradise, while a famous and wealthy man went on the run. >> i was trying to delay my imminent capture. >> why was he hiding? >> he is bonkers, in my view, without a doubt. >> the story is a strange brew of dogs and guns and girls, teenage girls. >> i was ready to shoot him, and for some reason, i missed. >> an interconnected web with one man at its center. >> john is smart. he knows what he's doing. >> the case will take us on the high tech world of silicon valley, to the jungles of central america, and finally, finally back state-side into the deep south. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> all right, get ready for some serious heart of darkness [bleep] here. >> heart of darkness? oh, yes. and a wildly strange tale about a high flying business tycoon named john mcafee, and the bizarre chain of events that would make him the focus of an international man hunt. there is little doubt you know the name mcafee, even if you don't recognize his face. that's because you probably had antivirus software on your computer at one time or another. >> for the past three weeks, we've seen five new viruses. >> back in the eighties, it was the visionary john mcafee who recognized the threat posed by invisible computer viruses and made a fortune by devising defenses to stop them. david faber is a business reporter for cnbc. >> he made 100 million dollars when it was really something to make 100 million dollars. >> but faber knew mcafee lost most of that money in the real estate bust. >> this is called snake alley for obvious reasons, anyway, that i hope we don't fight and about. >> it was 2009, faber was making a documentary about boom and bust. he found mcafee at his new adopted home in belize. and the buff and charismatic then 64-year-old made a fascinating case study. >> my life has turned around 180 degrees down here. i mentioned the freedom here. there are virtually no regulations on business. >> a lot of it was, belize is a paradise for people like me, because i can do anything i want. there are no laws. intellectual property, nobody cares. i can start anything. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> and he did. whenever he perceived an opportunity to make a buck, water taxis, ultra lights. but his pride and joy, mcafee told faber, was the creation of a special lab in which he planned to make new medicines from jungle plants. >> hopefully, we will be in production of some very unique pharmaceuticals. >> with a beach arm on the island off the coast called ambergris caye and the jungle compound near the town of carmelita, john mcafee could still afford to live large and make an impression. >> i remember the night i arrived in belize. he invited me over to his home. and i walked in, and he was playing the piano. and it did have the feel of almost being in a bond movie, and this was your villain, in some ways. he didn't turn to me and say, "hello, mr. faber, " but it almost had that feel to it. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i think he likes drama. i think he likes intense experiences. >> joshua davis is a contributing editor of wired magazine, and one time nbc news consultant. he got to know mcafee after he learned that belizian police had rated the millionaire's mainland compound, looking for illegal drugs. >> i heard about this raid on april 30th, when the belizian police force burst into his compound in the jungle, and that struck me as extraordinary. >> as it turned out, the police did not find any illegal drugs in mcafee's compound in that raid, though mcafee was charged with having an unlicensed gun. the fact the police even suspected mcafee of making drugs was intriguing. mcafee had been an outspoken teetotaller since kicking a drug habit back in 1980. so, davis went to belize to investigate. it was there, said davis, mcafee told him the belizian was seriously corrupt and the government's paramilitary gang suppression unit, or gsu, was out to get him. >> one of his initial explanations for why the april 30th raid happened was that one of the local politicians had come to him and asked for a donation. he had refused, as a result, they sicced the gsu on him. >> to which the belizian government replied, nonsense. >> they raided him because they didn't know what was going on. he had this laboratory there, it was heavily guarded, he had more bodyguards than the prime minister. he had essentially a private army, and he's got a laboratory making god knows what, because he won't tell anybody. >> davis went to carmelita, the tiny town nearest mcafee's jungle compound, where townspeople told him, he said, that mcafee had "gone native". >> as he got more involved in this small little village of carmelita, the way he talked started to devolve. his dress devolved. i think that the jungle and that environment started to infect him, almost like a virus. it's what he said to his friends, was "my fragile connection with polite society has been severed. " >> after that raid, mcafee moved back to his island house on ambergris caye, where davis reported he surrounded himself with guard dogs, armed men, and several teenage girls. in a country where the age of consent is 16, mcafee told davis he liked to keep those girls busy in bed. >> he told me that, for him, five hours is a quicky. and he brought one of his girls out to confirm the point. she said, yeah, that's true. >> mcafee was 67, living a schoolboy's dream, albeit a rather heavily armed schoolboy. davis was soon convinced the man who once to billed himself as the world's greatest computer security expert was now a security risk to himself and others. >> we were in his bungalow, and he had a smith and wesson 38 special strapped to his chest in a holster. he took the gun out, opens the chamber, there's six bullets, and he drops them out, he takes one of the bullets out and he chambers it, closes it and spins the cylinder, and he puts it to his head. and i'm like, john, we don't have to do this. he goes, i know we don't. and he says, your perception of reality may not be correct. and he starts pulling the trigger, click, click, click, click, click -- five times. and there's only six chambers. and he pulls in the sixth time and nothing happens. he says you have missed something about reality. and i say, oh, it's a trick? he goes, no, it's not a trick, and he opens the door, and he aims the gun at the sand and he pulls the trigger and the bullet goes off. it was a live round. >> paranoid eccentrics make good stories, but rarely make good neighbors. the armed guards and snarling dogs were an aggravation to the tourists and others who had to walk past mcafee's house. and by november 2012, one of john mcafee's neighbors may have decided he'd had enough. >> coming up, a murder mystery. >> his body with there, motionless. >> there was blood all over the floor. >> when dateline continues. some luxury creams just sit on top of skin. but olay goes 10 surface layers deep. our clinically proven hydration beats the $500 cream. to strengthen my skin for smoother, brighter results. your best skin yet. olay. my husband and i have never been more active. for smoother, brighter results. shingles doesn't care. i go to spin classes with my coworkers. good for you, shingles doesn't care. because no matter how healthy you feel, your risk of shingles sharply increases after age 50. but shingrix protects. proven over 90% effective, shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. shingles doesn't care but, shingrix protects. shingrix is now zero dollars for almost everyone. ask your doctor about shingrix today. 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everybody knew that he was going to poison the dogs. >> and 36 hours later, early on a sunday morning, shane mccann woke up to a ringing phone. it was greg faull's caretaker. greg, he said, was dead. >> we thought heart attack. >> i was thinking heart attack. i'm thinking he could've slipped and fell on a tile. >> but no. when the mccann's and the other expats got to greg's house, it was clear this was no slip and fall. >> his body was there motionless. >> there was blood all over the floor. >> there was blood everywhere. >> police soon determined that greg faull had been killed with a single gunshot to the back of the head, execution style. there was one oddly horrifying detail, the position of greg faull's t-shirt. >> it was pulled over like a hockey move, or something, where you pull the center up over your head like that. it was all the way behind his neck. but his shirt was still on, it was just the center was pulled over. >> as he stood there looking at his friends corpse, he was struck by the fact in spite of the obvious violence, there seems to be no sign of a robbery, or even any struggle anywhere in the house. >> just found it very odd somewhat could subdue somebody like greg, a guy that could free-dive 50 feet for a conch at 52 years old, ex military. how could you just subdue to somebody like that? >> shane figured greg, given half a chance, would've put up a fight. that was all the first thing art faull, greg's father, thought when he got the news in jacksonville, florida. >> i said, no, it can't possibly happen. not greg. you know, he goes, i don't think anybody could've overpowered greg if he'd had a chance. you know? i suspect that he just never had a chance. >> given the bad blood between greg faull and john mcafee then, the belizian police thought it would be a good idea to walk down the beach and have a word with the reclusive millionaire. the trouble was they couldn't find him. he'd up and disappeared. in short order, the police declared mcafee the primary suspect and the news flashed around the world. >> the tech millionaire is now a fugitive. >> a celebrity manhunt in the tropics? that was like catnip. so i packed my bags and booked a flight to belize. >> coming up, a one-time member of mcafee's harem let's us into his lair. >> you tried to shoot him? >> uh-huh. >> when dateline continues. but you know what is? 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(vo) football season is here. get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. a $449 value. plus, get a free samsung galaxy z flip5. only on verizon. bold. daring. expressive. contra costa college allows me to be whoever and whatever i want to be, providing the stage, the canvas, the tools to use my voice and write my story. find your passion and create your future at contra costa college. start today at contracosta.edu ♪ ♪ ♪ >> when we arrived on this strip of island that was john mcafee's paradise in november, 2012, the american expats we met seemed to be waiting for something to happen. everybody knew the police were scouring the place, searching for the man they believed knew something about the murder of greg faull, but john mcafee truly seemed to have vanished, though it didn't mean reporters weren't hearing from him. >> right now, sir, i am holed up in a place where the mattress here has lice. i've never experienced that before. >> 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 about 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 funny. >> okay. >> not only did he deny committing the 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's 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 into the police because they will kill me. >> kill him? yes. he truly believed the belizian police wanted to get rid of him, rub him out, do him in. >> i'm trying to delay my imminent capture. >> armed with a laptop and cell phone and a flare for the dramatic, mcafee tantalized the press and taunted the police with clues that he was still on ambergris caye. >> this is a regular occurrence, apparently. there are police in there, armed police with a rifle. and they are looking through the house. as they do on a regular basis, or have been ever since the beginning of this. i don't think there's an expectation, really, that he is going to be here. but they are looking. can you speak about this? >> though police admitted they had no other suspect, john mcafee's classification was downgraded to the less ominous sounding person of interest. >> we still think he's here in belize. >> rafael martinez was the police spokesman. >> we believe that he will come in. >> if you find him, you will arrest him? >> we will detain him, and we will ask him some questions. >> but undermanned and underfunded, the belizian police force seemed ill equipped to actually hunt him down. a man of means like mcafee, a man who clearly did not want to be found. >> what's your message for john mcafee? >> i would want to appeal to him and tell him please come in, let's bring closure to this case, and let's all carry on with our lives. >> but john mcafee seemed to be toying with the police, leaving clues in his blog hinting he might be hiding right under their noses, cleverly disguised as a tourist or a street vendor. >> been in public many, many times. i went shopping in public the other day, went to buy some strawberries. >> our search was quite unlike that of the police. we made arrangements with middlemen for a secret rendezvous. but mcafee never showed. >> of course, john might not be on the island at all. >> the only person who seemed always to know how to reach him was this woman, one of mcafee's former teenage lovers, amy herbert. >> a lot of guests here, besides girls? i mean, not much other company? no. >> amy had john mcafee's trust, it seemed. >> front door, doesn't matter. >> it was with his permission, she said, that amy showed us around his beach estate. >> here is the house. >> nice. >> we would always snorkel, almost every weekend, and he would get his tan. >> but, said amy, after that police raid, everything changed. >> that's when he started being paranoid, and he just kept inside. >> given mcafee's bizarre behavior, some people wondered if he was using drugs again. >> did you guys ever do drugs in here, or anywhere? >> no. he never accepted any type of drugs on his property. >> later, amy told us she had often seen mcafee doing some kind of chemical experiments. >> so i'm like, what are you doing? he said i'm just working on some chemicals and stuff. he said it's for research. he said never to touch these, taste it, eat it, anything. he said it's poison. >> did you have any idea what it was? >> i did not have any idea. >> he wouldn't tell you? >> he would not tell me anything about it. >> it was around then, said amy, that her strange relationship with john mcafee had its strangest moment. >> i was angry, whatever. and i was ready to shoot him, and for some reason, i missed. >> you tried to shoot him? >> uh-huh. yes. i also tried to cut his throat, but he just said -- he just leaned against a wall, and said, do it. i couldn't do it. >> and you stayed together after that? >> oh, yeah, he loved me more, i guess. but he slept with one eye open. >> though the romance eventually ended, amy remained close enough to mcafee to get him on the phone for us. >> how are you doing? >> i'm doing all right, sir, under the circumstances. >> mcafee wouldn't say where he was hiding, but he did hint he was close by. >> i did notice your boats. your guys and one of my boats, giving me your business. and i'm very very glad for that business. >> we were in one of your boats, you are absolutely right. >> was he watching us? were the police watching us too, hoping we might lead them to him? >> listen, can you tell us anything that will clear up some questions about what happened over the course of that weekend, when your neighbor was killed? >> you know, i have no idea what happened to my neighbor, none. >> we traveled a long way for that phone call, and were still no closer to laying eyes on him than the belizian police. then days after the call, mcafee's blog reported he'd been captured in mexico. but no, that turned out to be false. and then on december 4th, 2012, nearly a month after greg faull was murdered, mcafee announced on his blog that he and his young female companion had crossed the border to guatemala. ♪ ♪ ♪ why here? well, a couple of very practical reasons. some of them about family, and some international politics. and because of that, the story got even stranger. after weeks on the run, there he was, in the flesh. according to mcafee, he was not running from a homicide investigation. oh no, he said he was in guatemala to ask for political asylum, and protection from the government of belize. >> seven months ago, the belizian government sent 42 armed soldiers into my property. i had to leave, but the story 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? 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(vo) football season is here. get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. a $449 value. plus, get a free samsung galaxy z flip5. >> i'm just gonna leave with only on verizon. the hour's top stories. one person is reported dead in the burning man festival in nevada. more than 70,000 people are still stranded, after weekend rains flooded the festival with. but the vessels organizer insists the situation is under control. neo-nazis and white supremacists staged a protest outside while disney resort in florida inside. it the sheriff's office said no arrests were made and they condemn the groups actions. and now back to dateline. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> welcome back to dateline. i'm craig melvin. john mcafee's life on the lam ended when he suddenly popped up with his young lover in guatemala. wanted by authorities in belize for questioning in the murder of greg faull, mcafee told reporters he was now seeking political asylum from the persecution he suffered there. the announcement created an international media frenzy, while back in the states, faull's family believed the press was chasing the wrong story. back to keith morrison with the fugitive millionaire. >> four weeks after the murder of greg faull, we and much of the rest of the world's press tried to find the elusive john mcafee. a spectacle which, for greg faull's father art and stepmom roseanne, was pretty hard to take. >> i had phone calls from cbs, nbc, abc, fox, cnn, the new york times, and the wall street journal in two days. >> it was questions about this other fella. >> mcafee? >> it's like, excuse me? you're asking the wrong question. ask me about our loss. >> that seemed almost to be secondary, like it was lost in the shuffle? >> lost in the shuffle, greg was push off to one side because it was the mcafee circus. >> no doubt mcafee was good copy, but with the police not talking and john mcafee not talking to police, rumor and speculation was 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 ambergris 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 is smart. he knows what he's doing. i mean, he turned his phone on, and said, you know what? they're going to track us down. leave 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 say, i'm standing, like, 20 to 40 feet from my yard, and i could see that the police are raiding it. >> and 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 rivers 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, said samantha, they found a place to hole up. mcafee dyed his hair, 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. whatever it would take for a safety, he would do. >> nobody recognized him? >> no one ever recognized him. >> according to venegas, it was her uncle, the lawyer, who arranged of her and mcafee smuggled out of belize, first by taxicab to punta gorda, and then by boat to guatemala. >> it has been an adventure for me, yet disturbing. because i don't like to leave my house. it makes me sick. >> you don't feel well? >> i don't. >> john mcafee wasn't exactly feeling on top of the world either, it seemed. first, a guatemalan judge summarily dismissed his petition for political asylum, and then the guatemalan police took him into custody. not as a murder suspect, but on the grounds he had entered the country illegally. and then the next day at a local immigration detention center, as a gaggle of media waited to find out if guatemalan authorities would send mcafee back to belize, this story took a heart-stopping turn. within sight of the assembled cameras, john mcafee suddenly swooned and appeared to lose consciousness. within minutes, he was rushed to the hospital. but when doctors could find nothing wrong with him, he was returned to the detention center. and it was there that john mcafee finally agreed to sit for his only extended tv interview since the murder with us. and what an interview it was. >> a crazy man on the run is far more sensational than a political problem. >> right. and you are an insane man on the run? >> coming up -- >> may i stand up for a moment? >> expect the unexpected. >> how could that be menacing? >> when dateline continues. i work out whenever i can. but with my moderate- to-severe eczema, it can be tough. my skin was so uncomfortable. the itching was so bad. now, i'm staying ahead of my eczema. there's a power inside all of us to live our passion. and dupixent works on the inside to help heal your skin from within. it helps block a key source of inflammation inside the body that can cause eczema. so adults can have long-lasting clearer skin and fast itch relief. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. healing from within is a powerful thing. ask your eczema specialist how dupixent can help heal your skin from within. 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(vo) football season is here. get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. a $449 value. plus, get a free samsung galaxy z flip5. only on verizon. since the citi custom cash® card automatically adjusts to earn me more cash back in my top eligible category... suddenly, life's feeling a little more automatic... oooooohhh... automatic sashimi! earn cash back that automatically adjusts to how you spend with the citi custom cash® card. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> for nearly a month, john mcafee, one of silicon valley's original princes of high tech, had been hiding from belizian police. they wanted to talk to him about the murder of his neighbor, greg faull. now detained in guatemala with nowhere to hide, john mcafee decided to talk to us. though, it must be said, he didn't seem to relish the prospect. >> here's the problem. you have a deadline, right? and your deadline is always now because the news has become immediacy. immediacy! your job is to get the news out before your competition. well, that makes your deadline infinitismely small. can you possibly get any inkling of the truth and that infinitismely small space? >> no, all the folks do is research things as we do. >> all the folks who is research everybody else. new york times this, cnn said this. >> but this is really the question, the whole point is this is a story about a murder. you would not -- >> for you, it's a story about a murder. for me, it's not. >> it was interesting. for a man who wants to use to the media to set a personal advantage, john mcafee seemed to resent the press, now that he was in custody in guatemala. >> what sells in the news? sensationalism. a crazy man on the run is far more sensational than a political problem. >> right. and you are an insane man on the run? >> if you say so, i am. >> but that's the image. you have a blog, you know what the comments on your blog are. we all think you're nuts. half of them do. >> half of them think i'm nuts, half of them think they love me. both of them are nuts. the one who think they love me, they haven't met me. >> the assumption is you enjoy it. that's the perception. >> why was i not in the press for ten years? i would not talk to our reporter. i don't trust you guys. >> can't imagine why. >> because whatever i say to you people, because i live a lifestyle which might be a little over the line, or outside, over the line of normal behavior, instead of looking at the latest thing i'm trying to develop, that's great, that's great about the antivirus. but tell me about your lifestyle. >> on the subject of greg faull, john mcafee conceded there was bad blood between the two of them. >> i did not particularly care for the man. he drank a lot. i am sorry. i don't hang with people who drink. i don't even want to talk to people who drink, while they are drinking. >> in the weeks and months leading up to the murder, how often did you see him? >> maybe one time. maybe twice. and only passing the beach. he did come by one time, and said i'm just angry about your dogs, can't sleep. i'm really sorry, i can't sleep either. i'm angry about my dogs. i sympathized. >> and? did you saw you were going to do something? >> yes, i built another fence, they were jumping out. that was annoying all the neighbors. >> was he also complaining about your security guards and the guns? >> everbody complained about that too. >> everybody? >> he was not an exception. >> you would allow security guards to wonder around in the front of your house, in front of a public beach with guns, menacing, at least in the perception of the tourists walking by, these people, and not prevent them from doing so? >> may i stand up for a moment? >> do whatever you wish. >> so, now, if someone is carrying a gun, a shotgun, holding like this, how could that be menacing? how can that be menacing, sir? someone sees a gun, the world's full of gun. america has 280 million of them. >> however, your neighborsweare saying these men weren't just holding the gun down there, they're pointing them? >> that's not true. do you think i would tolerate that? get real! >> as he had from the beginning, mcafee insisted he had no motive for killing faull. he never believed faull was responsible for poisoning his dogs, he said. >> i knew who killed three dogs. >> who? >> the government. >> a witness who has no reason to lie claims that greg faull told him he was going to kill the dogs. >> he told everybody. >> the night before. >> he told everybody he was going to kill the dogs. he drank a lot, sir. i know for a fact he is not the kind of person who would kill a dog. >> how do you know that? >> because he was a dog lover. >> i'm told he didn't love dogs at all. >> that's fine. all i can tell you is i believed he loved dogs. >> there's lots of evidence to suggest greg faull killed your dogs. >> no, i say there's a lot of evidence where greg faull could have killed my dogs. anybody could've killed my dogs. i know who poisoned my dog. >> the government? >> my paranoia tells me -- okay. agreed. >> neither you nor anybody representing you who went over to greg faull's house on that occasion and pulled his t-shirt up over his head and shot him through the head? >> no, sir. the government poisoned my dogs. >> and the government killed greg faull? >> how would i know who killed greg faull? i don't believe the government killed him. that was the first thought through my mind, however. >> though at the time we spoke, mcafee seemed to face a probability of deportation back to belize, he seemed remarkably unconcerned. in fact, told us that after five years in what he once called an entrepreneurial paradise, he was looking forward to going home back to the good old usa. >> how do you see this whole saga ending? >> happy for everybody. happy for everybody. what i will do, is i will stop bashing police in my blog. my neighbors can have some peace and quiet. the guatemalan government can go, thank god he didn't want to stay here. everybody is happy. america's happy. more tax dollars. it's the perfect solution, that will be the solution. >> you are convinced of it? >> you know, i haven't been wrong much about my life, you know? the people who know me will say one thing -- don't ever bet with this man. i don't like to lose money. i don't. i will bet you on this one. >> spoken like a gambler who might have known the fix was in. the real question was, whether john mcafee would ever be forced to sit face to face with homicide detectives. >> coming up, mr. mcafee in danger again? 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will you disappear, will you you go to answer those charges? >> i'll answer any questions, i've offered to answer them in a neutral country. -- it will not happen, sir. >> back on belize's amergris caye, american expats like vivian yu and jeff spiegel are left to wonder if the investigation intoe greg faull 's murder is even active. >> no one did anything. they're not looking for anybody else as far as we are concerned. why? we only know as much as you know, and as much as anybody else knows. >> as for john mcafee, after brief stints of living in colorado springs, oregon, montreal, he settled in lexington, tennessee. among his many projects, he started a project called future tense central, to deliver internet security and privacy products. mcafee also became a big backer of cryptocurrency and even ran for president in 2016 as a libertarian. as for those young woman mcafee spent time with down in belize, they were left behind. mcafee married his wife gianna's in 2013. last time we spoke, he still believe the believes in government was out to get him, and described what he believed was an attempt on his life in portland. >> at 2:15 in the morning, two police motorcycles followed by a black sedan followed by a garbage truck parked in front of our condominium at 2:15. my wife and i ran downstairs, we hid under a car for four and a half hours while they searched everywhere for us. the security cameras, by the way, were removed on that day. it was a frightening experience for us. >> but in spite of that, said mcafee, he was tired of running. >> it's exhausting to live in fear. and at some point, you say this is no way to live. >> and if you're wondering what happened to all those guns he seemed so fond of brandishing from the cameras, mcafee told us that was all just for show. >> in order to sell newspapers, they need drama. a mad man with guns, well, that's drama. so here you go, hold it up. how do you want me hold it? you bet, i'll do that. i don't even have them with me today. trying to see a gun, my security guard has one. so, that's not me. that's what the press wants to make of me. >> perhaps, but john mcafee kept adding fuel to the fire. a few months after this interview, the self professed teetotaller was arrested for driving while under the influence and possession of a handgun while intoxicated. in typical mcafee fashion, he joked about the incident on social media and claimed, falsely, that he had a shootout with police. he pleaded guilty to a dui, forfeited his weapon, paid a fine, and spent 48 hours in jail. all of which beggedthe question, could anybody take seriously anything john mcafee says? as you might imagine, for greg faull's family, the answer to that was no. >> it doesn't make any sense at all. if mcafee claims his innocence, why did he disappear and make a circus of this whole thing? i don't understand it. and i just wish someone would investigate it, or find someone who can talk about it, and bring some justice, somewhere. >> but faull's family wasn't holding their breath waiting for justice. >> it almost feels hopeless because, you know, it's a foreign country, and i don't know how to handle it. >> you getting any answers or any contact from them? >> no, not anything from them at all. >> in 2013, the family filed a wrongful death suit against john mcafee. after the millionaire failed to respond to their claims, a federal judge deemed him to be in default, and ordered mcafee to pay faull's estate more than $25 million. in response, mcafee issued a statement insisting he was never charged with greg faull's murder, he also claimed he had no assets, so he was unable to pay even a penny of the judgement against him. and he wouldn't be paying another nemesis either, the irs. from undisclosed locations around the world, mcafee taunted the taxman on twitter. >> i have not paid taxes for eight years. i made no secret on it. i've not filed returns. every year, i tell the irs, i'm not filing a return. come and find me. >> on the fall of 2020, the justice department did just that. tracking mcafee to spain and arresting mcafee for income tax evasion, but his legal woes didn't end there. -- so the district of new york indicted mcafee on several new charges, including wire fraud, conspiracy to connect -- and conspiracy to commit money laundering. alston from his online promotion of cryptocurrencies. the 75-year-old denied any wrongdoing. but he would not see it is -- he would not love to see is day in court. on june 23rd, 2021, john mcafee was found hanging in his jail cell, his death ruled a suicide. but in a cryptic tweet sent months before his death, mcafee wrote but know that if i hang myself, like jeffrey epstein, it would be no fault of mine. in death, as in life, the eccentric millionaire keeps people guessing. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. you for watching >> i'm craig melvin >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> i want to tell around which i miss her, and that i love her. and she is the reason why i am who i am today. i would tell her thank you. lauren giddings, law school grad with the world at her feet. >> fiercely intelligent? >> and fiercely -- her opinion, she made friends wherever she went. >> so, it was strange when she drop