Matt Williams in New York guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 November 2012 17.24 GMT
Software engineer has been evading authorities who want to question him about the murder of his neighbour Gregory Faull
Belizean police want to question anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee about the murder of his neighbour Gregory Viant Faull. Photograph: Henry Romero/Reuters
Fugitive software pioneer John McAfee appears to have started a blog about his life on the run from Belizean authorities, charting the disguises he claims to have used to evade police and spy on their investigation.
McAfee, named by police in Belize as a "person of interest" in the murder of American businessman Gregory Viant Faull, has protested his innocence, insisting he is the victim of state harassment.
Now he claims to have returned to his residence in San Pedro in the days after his disappearance and watched police search his property. He claims to have seen police dig up the bodies of four dogs he says they poisoned, before chopping off their heads and reburying them.
He did so, he claims, while dressed first as a peasant hawker and then as a drunk German tourist.
The allegations appear in the blog apparently written by McAfee, which he says he plans to update regularly, either while on the run or if captured.
"I have pre-written enough material to keep this blog alive for at least a year," he states in the latest post launched Monday.
Faull was found dead at his home in San Pedro on 11 November with a gunshot wound to his head.
Police described McAfee as a "person of interest" whom they wanted to question in relation to the death. The two men allegedly quarrelled about the dogs McAfee kept as his home, but McAfee has claimed that he "barely knew" the victim.
Since going on the run, the anti-virus company founder has kept in regular contact with American media, telling CNBC in an interview on Friday that he will fight the allegations "as long as I'm still breathing".
He added that he was refusing to hand himself in to authorities as he feared he would be killed in the cells before a trial took place.
The 67-year-old also alleged harassment at the hands of Belize's notorious Gang Suppression Unit (GSU), an arm of the police that has been accused of abuses in the past.
"Things do not operate here as they do in the states," he said, adding: "We are living in a near dictatorship where the legal system is subservient to the cabinet."
Responding, Belize's prime minister Dean Barrow has said he believed McAfee is "bonkers".
The fugitive's apparent blog – whoismcafee.com – alludes to the mental strain that being on the run may cause him.
McAfee writes that he was driven to return to his property out of concern that unless he knew what was going on in the murder investigation "my chances of coming out of this intact, both emotionally and physically, were slim".
He claims that he returned to his residence two days after going on the lam, but in disguise so that the authorities would not notice him.
In detail, he explains how he used shoe polish to darken his skin and stuffed his cheeks with bubble gum to make his face look fatter.
"I stuffed a shaved down tampon deep into my right nostril and died the tip dark brown – giving my nose an awkward, lopsided, disgusting appearance," he wrote in a post dated 19 November.
The disguise, completed with rags instead of his normal clothes, was enough to fool a reporter hanging around his complex, McAfee claims.
In a further boast, the fugitive says he also pretended to be a drunk German tourist in swimming trunks, oversized Hawaiian shirt and a bandaged face, "yelling loudly at anyone who would listen, 'Leck mich um ausch!'".
"At 67 years of age it was quite a spectacle," McAfee wrote.
While at his property he spoke to the man who discovered Faull's body and watched the police operation at his home, McAfee further claims. His blogpost states that officers searched his home seven times.
"What I discovered is that the police are more concerned with finding me than catching Mr Faull's killer," he wrote.
McAfee goes on to offer a $25,000 reward for the "capture of person or persons responsible for Mr Faull's murder".
It is claimed that the blog is being maintained with the help of Chad Essley, who describes himself as a graphic novelist working on a publication of McAfee's story. In a separate blog, Essley says McAfee's website is authentic.
The British-born computer programmer built up a personal fortune as the founder of McAfee anti-virus software. He moved to Belize in 2008. But it is believed that his wealth has dwindled in recent years.
There has been past concern over McAfee's mental health. In the interview with CNBC, he brushed off reports that he had played Russian roulette with a loaded gun. "My point was life isn't exactly what you see," he said.
John McAfee starts blog documenting life on the run from Belize police | World news | guardian.co.uk
