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Janice McAfee: "I came to Spain with John and I don't want to leave without him"

2023-01-30T11:06:45.939Z


The corpse of the famous creator of the antivirus has been in a morgue in Barcelona for more than a year and a half, waiting for the judge to authorize a second autopsy


The famous creator of the antivirus to which he gives his name, John McAfee, died in a Catalan prison on June 23, 2021 at the age of 75, after being informed of the extradition to the United States that claimed him for tax fraud.

Forensics concluded that he committed suicide.

Since then, his body has been kept at 18 degrees below zero at the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Catalonia, waiting for a judge to decide whether to accept new proceedings or definitively archive the case.

From the Costa del Sol, where he is staying with some friends, his partner, Janice McAfee (40 years old, California), considers that too much time has passed: "It is difficult not to feel that they are doing it intentionally and cruelly, inhumane."

Question

.

He has been in Spain for more than a year and a half waiting for the Barcelona Court to authorize a second autopsy of his partner, John McAfee.

How is he?

Reply.

I'm fine.

Tired, but ready for this to end and to receive a response from the courts we appealed to after they tried to shut down the investigation without publishing John's autopsy report [the woman's lawyer clarifies that they consider the autopsy to be incomplete] .

I am in my right.

It is not to sully the Spanish courts or anyone, I would just like to have the information.

Q.

Would you have requested a second autopsy if you knew the process would take so long?

A.

In retrospect, perhaps I would have made a different decision.

But at that time he could only do it based on the information he had.

More information

The founder of the McAfee antivirus, John McAfee, commits suicide in a Barcelona prison

Q.

You have said that you do not believe that he committed suicide.

A.

No, I don't know.

That is the question, and that is why I want the autopsy report [a more exhaustive opinion], so as not to speculate.

Q.

The autopsy says that he committed suicide.

A.

I understand.

And that's why I'm asking for the autopsy report [that more forensic tests be performed].

If I can get that information, there would be no need for a second autopsy.

08:43

John McAfee's widow recounts the current status of her husband's case

Janice McAfee, this Wednesday in Malaga. Photo: GARCÍA-SANTOS

Q.

Are you having a legal battle with John McAfee's daughter after his death?

His lawyer claims they were divorced.

A.

I am not in a legal battle with anyone.

The marital status in the United States between John and I has nothing to do with our status here in Spain.

We were still husband and wife, that's what I considered myself.

I was his wife and he was my husband, and we continued to live together as a couple.

Q.

How did they end up in Spain, in a small town in Tarragona?

R.

It depended on John, I just followed him.

I know that he had friends here and that they helped us live from day to day and manage our situation.

Q.

What relationship did you have with a hotel converted into a cryptocurrency farm in Cambrils?

Did they live there?

A.

John's friends who helped us expected some privacy, so I prefer not to talk about where we were staying.

I don't know your relationship with the hotel or with the cryptocurrency farm.

Q.

When did they arrive?

A.

Late summer/early fall 2019.

Q.

Why are you still in Spain?

A.

I came to Spain with John and I don't want to leave Spain without him.

Although it has been difficult staying here, being away from my loved ones and support network, I felt it was necessary.

P.

McAfee was arrested in October 2020 at the El Prat airport.

Why did he take that plane to Turkey if he knew that justice was after him?

R.

I was going to visit some friends.

We had already traveled from Spain before without problems.

There was no warrant against him, which I don't think many people knew.

He was able to show his passport everywhere, they never stopped him, or interrogated him, or anything.

What he explained to me, after he was arrested, was that his passport was marked as stolen and that's why they arrested him.

And while he was detained, the arrest warrant was issued against him, for the cause in the United States.

John McAfee, in Cuba in 2019. ADALBERTO ROQUE (AFP)

Q.

That is not the official explanation of the police, who say that he had a warrant.

R.

I understand that they are going to tell a different story... We left the United States in January 2019. And during that time we traveled to the Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic.

And then we traveled to the UK, Spain, Italy and Germany.

He showed his passport at these places, and he never had a problem until the last time.

Q.

Did McAfee die rich or broke?

Q.

That's an interesting question... I honestly don't know.

I know we used cash to pay lawyers and all that.

I helped with the few funds I had.

I'm sure he had cryptocurrency.

Where they are or how much he had, I don't know.

But his finances were just that, his finances.

Q.

So who knows?

A.

I don't know.

She didn't have a will, so there's no estate.

There are no assets that no one can claim.

Q.

Are you afraid that someone will think that your real intention is to make money?

A.

There is no money to be made, I just want to know what happened to John.

I'm here spending my own money.

I would also like to clarify, because it was misreported, that when they found him he was not dead, he was alive, he was breathing and he had a pulse.

It's in the police report.

I need or want the [more exhaustive] autopsy report because I would like to know what happened from the time he was found alive with a heartbeat, which of course was not strong, until he was pronounced dead.

Janice McAfee poses during the interview in Malaga, this Wednesday.

garcia-santos

Q.

Do you think the government has any responsibility for his death?

A.

I don't know, I don't know how the prison system works here.

I just know that it's been very difficult, not getting the answers and it almost seems deliberate.

The appeal was filed in February of last year.

We were supposed to have an answer in October at the latest.

And here we are, in January 2023, with no answer.

It's hard not to feel like they're doing it intentionally and cruelly, inhumanely.

I have tried to be reasonable and patient and maybe covid has slowed everything down.

But that's an incredible amount of time to wait to bury a loved one.

I don't understand why they take so long to say yes or no.

I thought it would be a quick decision to collect his remains and bury him, a right of every human being.

Q.

Surrounded by weapons, private security, bunkered… Was McAfee living in a state of paranoia that could have affected him in prison?

A.

I guess so, maybe he was a little paranoid, but there were also people who were chasing him.

So the paranoia was not without reason.

People who were chasing him to harm him, either physically or trying to extort him, blackmail him… People saw him as an easy target.

And it's nothing out of the ordinary, it's what most celebrities do.

Q.

In prison, did he tell you if he detected something strange, someone strange, something abnormal?

R.

I imagine that he did not tell me everything that was happening to make me worry.

I don't know of any overly negative experience that I had.

He said that the guards treated him well, that they were kind.

Also the prisoners.

In a way, they took care of him.

And they were surprised that he was in prison for the charges, for being an American and some kind of public figure.

They called him

Papa America

.

Q.

Would you say you were depressed?

R.

I would not say depressed, I would say that he had good and bad days.

We talked every day, three times.

The calls lasted only eight minutes each.

Normally, he would read the headlines to him, we would talk about the news, or he would give me a

tweet he wanted me to post on his behalf... He had more good days than bad.

Q.

Do you think there is something left of the legacy of John McAfee, the cybersecurity pioneer?

A.

That legacy is still strong.

Obviously, his later stage in his life began to overshadow him.

People forget how brilliant and cool he was and how he was able to reinvent himself over and over again.

History will be kind to him.

He was a very polarizing figure, you either hated him or you loved him.

But if people are interested in who John really was, there's a lot of information about him, and not just the scandals [including the murder accusation of a neighbor in Belize].

His legacy speaks for itself.

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Source: elparis

All business articles on 2023-01-30

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