McAfee’s wife: He said I love you and will call you – he was not suicidal

25 June 2021, 14:34

Janice McAfee
Janice McAfee said her husband John was not showing signs of being suicidal when she last spoke to him (Joan Mateu/AP). Picture: PA

The British-born antivirus pioneer was found dead in a Spanish jail this week while awaiting extradition to the US on tax evasion charges.

The widow of John McAfee, the British-American tycoon who died in a Spanish prison this week while awaiting extradition to the United States, said on Friday that her husband was not suicidal when she last spoke to him hours before he was found dead.

“His last words to me were, ‘I love you and I will call you in the evening,'” Janice McAfee told reporters outside the Brians 2 penitentiary north-west of Barcelona where she recovered her late husband’s belongings.

“Those words are not words of somebody who is suicidal,” she added in her first public remarks since the software entrepreneur’s death on Wednesday.

John McAfee Obituary
John McAfee was awaiting extradition to the United States where he faced tax evasion charges (Todd J. Van Emst/Opelika-Auburn News via AP)

Authorities in Spain are conducting a post-mortem examination on McAfee’s body but have indicated that everything at the scene indicated that the 75-year-old killed himself.

John McAfee was arrested at Barcelona airport in October last year on a warrant issued by prosecutors in Tennessee for allegedly evading more than four million US dollars (£2.87 million) in taxes.

Hours before he was found dead, Spain’s National Court agreed to his extradition to the US but the decision was not final.

“We were prepared for that decision and had a plan of action already in place to appeal that decision,” Janice McAfee, 38, told reporters.

“I blame the US authorities for this tragedy. Because of these politically motivated charges against him my husband is now dead.”

Results of McAfee’s post-mortem examination could take “days or weeks”, authorities have said.

By Press Association

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