John McAfee (News - Alert) has allegedly gone into hiding after authorities were said to be searching for him to inquire about a weekend shooting on an island off of the coast of Belize, according to news reports.

McAfee, 67, is the founder of the McAfee anti-virus software company. The victim is Gregory Viant Faull, 52, whose body was found on his living room floor on Sunday with a gunshot wound to the back of his head, police said. He was a U.S. national. 


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The shooting is likely to have taken place between 10 p.m. Saturday night and Sunday morning, news reports said. He was found by a housekeeper.

Belize police spokesman Raphael Martinez called McAfee "a person of interest," news reports said. McAfee also “may be able to assist” police “in their investigation,” according to the San Pedro Sun newspaper.

Police said that McAfee was one of several people wanted for questioning, TMCnet reported, citing a report from ABC News.

"It's too early in the investigation. To say he is a suspect would be a bold statement," Martinez told The Associated Press. But Wired reported that Marco Vidal, the head of Belize’s Gang Suppression Unit, called McAfee a “prime suspect” in Faull’s death.

There were no signs of forced entry into the victim’s residence. But a laptop computer and an iPhone (News - Alert) were missing from the residence, police said.

Also, police in April confiscated 10 guns from McAfee’s home and “temporarily detained him in handcuffs,” according to the San Jose Mercury News. One of his dogs bit a police officer at that time, police said. He was never charged in connection with the April incident, but he claimed he was given "brutal" treatment by the police, the news report said.

Sometime after Sunday morning, McAfee said he buried himself in the sand, was hiding under cardboard boxes and was in fear of the police, according to Wired.

“They will kill me if they find me,” McAfee told Wired, adding that he was not involved in the shooting death.

McAfee moved to Belize in 2008, according to the San Pedro Sun. 

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