Returning to the United States this week after a month-long, international run from Belize police, anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee said he played the "crazy card" while attempting to elude capture, ABC reports.
According to the Associated Press, McAfee arrived in Miami on Wednesday after being deported from Guatemala. The founder of tech company McAfee, Inc. had reportedly snuck into the Central American country illegally from Belize, where he is wanted for questioning over the alleged murder of one of his neighbors.
As an earlier Huffington Post report notes, McAfee has been on the lam since Nov. 11, when a neighbor he had allegedly been "quarreling with" was found dead in San Pedro, Belize. According to a police report, 52-year-old Gregory Faull was shot in the back of the head.
Like McAfee, Faull was an American expatriate living in Belize.
Though Belizian authorities have not implicated McAfee as a murder suspect, they say the software mogul may be linked to Faull's death and that he is needed for questioning.
McAfee has not made this easy, however.
Throughout the last few weeks, McAfee, a British native who claims to have dual citizenship to the U.S. and the U.K., has gone to great lengths to avoid Belize police -- including adopting bizarre disguises, hiding in both attics and "the jungle," and throwing authorities off the scent with misleading information about his whereabouts.
Earlier this month, McAfee snuck into Guatemala but was detained almost immediately after his arrival for illegal entry. Subsequently, as Guatemalan authorities mulled over McAfee's request for asylum, the man "fell ill."
The mysterious illness, described by his attorney alternately as a heart ailment or a nervous breakdown, led to a scene with reporters chasing his ambulance down the narrow streets of Guatemala City and right into the emergency room, where McAfee appeared unresponsive.
McAfee was reported to have suffered "two mild heart attacks" and "high stress."
But, according to ABC News, this illness was merely a ruse.
"It was a deception but who did it hurt? I look pretty healthy, don't I?" he told the outlet.
McAfee apparently faked the heart attacks in order to "buy some time" in Guatemala. He also admitted to having fabricated some stories while he was on the run to "gain news coverage," but it's not clear as to what parts of the mysterious tale he was referring to, AP reports.
McAfee has denied killing his neighbor and says he believes the Belize police want to torture and kill him. According to CNN, McAfee has claimed that "armed soldiers" stormed his Belize property last April. He also claims that days before Faull's murder, a few of his dogs had been poisoned.
As the AP notes, Belize's prime minister, Dean Barrow, has "expressed doubts about McAfee's mental state."
"I don't want to be unkind to the gentleman, but I believe he is extremely paranoid, even bonkers," Barrow said.
But McAfee now insists that this veil of insanity is what he was going for all along.
"What's a better story, millionaire mad man on the run," he told ABC News. "You [the media] saved my ass. Because you paid attention to the story. As long as you are reporting, it is hard to whack somebody that the world is watching."
An FBI representative in Miami told the AP that it was not involved with McAfee's return to the U.S. It is still unclear whether McAfee will be questioned or detained in this country.