An official autopsy has confirmed that tech mogul John McAfee died by suicide in a Spanish prison cell where he was awaiting extradition to the U.S., El Pais newspaper said on Monday, citing unidentified sources close to the proceedings.
A spokesperson for Catalonia's court system, which is in charge of the autopsy, did not have any information on the report.
Prison wardens found the body of McAfee hanging in his cell on Wednesday in what appeared to be a suicide, his lawyer Javier Villalba said last week.
It comes after it emerged that a suicide note was found in the pocket of McAfee when he died.
The revelation was made by an official source familiar with the investigation who told the Associated Press that the note had been found on McAfee at the time of his death.
The source, who was not authorized to speak about the ongoing judicial inquiry, refused to comment on the contents of the note.
Authorities in Spain have previously said everything at the scene in his cell indicated that the 75-year-old did kill himself.
Meanwhile, his widow Janice McAfee, has demanded a 'thorough investigation' of his death, saying her husband did not appear suicidal when they last spoke.
An official autopsy has confirmed that tech mogul John McAfee died by suicide in a Spanish prison cell where he was he awaiting extradition to the U.S John McAfee is pictured together with his wife Janice, who insists he did not kill himself
John McAfee, creator of the famous commercial antivirus software McAfee, appears via videoconference during his extradition hearing at Audiencia Nacional court in Madrid on June 15
The widow of John McAfee, Janice, pictured, said Friday that her husband was not suicidal when she last spoke to him hours before he was found dead
In her first public remarks since the software entrepreneur's death on Wednesday, Janice said she wanted a 'thorough investigation' to provide 'answers about how this was able to happen.'
'His last words to me were 'I love you and I will call you in the evening,' the 38-year-old told reporters outside the Brians 2 penitentiary northwest of Barcelona where she recovered her late husband's belongings.
She said they spoke earlier on the day he was found dead and made no indication that he wanted to take his own life.
'Those words are not words of somebody who is suicidal,' she added.
'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 northwest of Barcelona where she recovered her late husband's belongings
'Those words are not words of somebody who is suicidal,' Janice McAfee said, while demanding a 'thorough investigation' in her first public remarks since the software entrepreneur's death on Wednesday
John McAfee was arrested at the Barcelona airport in October last year on a warrant issued by prosecutors in Tennessee who were seeking up to three decades of imprisonment for allegedly evading more than $4 million in taxes.
The day before he was found dead, Spain's National Court had announced that it was agreeing to his extradition to the U.S. but the decision was not final.
'We had a plan of action already in place to appeal that decision,' Janice McAfee told reporters. 'I blame the U.S. authorities for this tragedy: Because of these politically motivated charges against him my husband is now dead.
'I don't believe he did this, I will get answers,' she said.
The couple met in 2012 in Miami and married the following year. John McAfee had several children from previous relationships, Janice McAfee said.
The entrepreneur had not been connected with the companies that took over the antivirus software he built after he sold his shares in the 1990s. That early success had made McAfee rich and followed him in his troubled biography.
John McAfee's wife Janice speaks briefly with journalists on leaving the Brians 2 penitentiary center in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, near Barcelona, northeast Spain, on Friday
Lawyer Javier Villalba, left and John McAfee's wife Janice leave the Brians 2 penitentiary center in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, near Barcelona
Prison wardens found the body of McAfee hanging in his cell on Wednesday in what appeared to be a suicide, his lawyer Javier Villalba said last week. Pictured: McAfee with his wife Janice Dyson
In 2012, he was sought for questioning in connection with the murder of his neighbor in Belize, but was never charged with a crime. The controversy didn't stop him from making long-shot runs for the U.S. presidency starting in 2016.
But it was his more recent tax problems that kept him away from the U.S., the country where the British-born entrepreneur was raised and had built his early success.
The Tennessee prosecutors' indictments from 2020 showed that the tycoon allegedly failed to declare income made by promoting cryptocurrencies, attending speaking engagements and selling the rights for a documentary on his eventful life.
'Even though he was born in England, America was his home,' Janice McAfee said. 'He came there when he was a child. He had his first girlfriend there, his first case, you know, his first job. He made his first millions there and he wanted to be there. But, you know, politics just wouldn't allow for that to happen.'
John McAfee's social media postings indicated that he had chosen a northeastern Spanish coastal resort town as his base in Europe at least since late 2019.
'All John wanted to do was spend his remaining years fishing and drinking,' his widow said on Friday. 'He had hope that things would work out. We knew that there would be an uphill battle to continue to fight this situation. But he's a fighter ... And anybody that knows John, that knows him even a little bit, knows that about him.'
'He was just so loving. He had a big heart and he just loved people and he just wanted to have peace in his life,' Janice McAfee added. 'My prayers are that his soul has found the peace in death that he could not find in life.'
McAfee's Spanish lawyer, Javier Villalba, left, said the entrepreneur's death had come as a surprise to his wife and other relatives, since McAfee 'had not said goodbye.'
John McAfee's wife Janice enters the Brians 2 penitentiary center in Sant Esteve Sesrovires
The National Court judge said John McAfee had provided no evidence to back his allegations that he was being politically persecuted.
'On the contrary, according to his own testimony, he took part in primaries of a certain party to defend his convictions with a result little favorable to him,' the judge wrote in the ruling.
In an e-mailed statement, the U.S. State Department confirmed for the first time the tycoon's death, offering the family condolences. It said: 'We are closely monitoring local authorities' investigation into the cause of death. We stand ready to provide all appropriate assistance to the family. Out of respect to the family during this difficult time, we have no further comment.'
Results of McAfee's autopsy could take 'days or weeks,' authorities have said.
Soon after his arrest last year, McAfee's Twitter account posted a dark hint suggesting that if he died in an alleged suicide, a conspiracy would be to blame
Final Tweet: In one of his final tweets, presumably dictated to his wife from behind bars, McAfee said 'I have nothing. Yet, I regret nothing.'
McAfee's lawyer, Javier Villalba, said the family was awaiting the results of an official autopsy, but he would request a second, independent autopsy as instructed by the McAfee family, who he said could take legal action once the investigation into the death was concluded.
Spanish authorities insist that there was no evidence of foul play, but McAfee's previous tweets that he would never take his own life 'a la Epstein' have fueled conspiracy theories.
'I am content in here. I have friends. The food is good. All is well. Know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine,' McAfee tweeted on October 15.
Furthermore, just minutes after his death was reported on Wednesday, his official Instagram account posted an image of the letter 'Q' - in an apparent reference to QAnon.
Some wild conspiracy theories are now emerging including the idea the tech guru activated a so called 'dead man's switch' to expose the government.
The mysterious 'Q' post shared to McAfee's Instagram minutes could indicate a hidden encryption, the theorists suggest.
A 'dead man's switch' is activated when the device's owner dies.
Just minutes after his death was reported, his official Instagram account posted a plain image of the letter 'Q' in an apparent reference to the QAnon conspiracy theory
McAfee got a tattoo in 2019 saying 'Whackd' - after he said the US government was after him and that he would never kill himself; his comments have now sparked conspiracy theories
John McAfee tweeted a shirtless photo in 2019 from the Spanish prison
The jailhouse photos from 2019 showed McAfee smiling
McAfee spent his final months of freedom in a mysterious 'ghost hotel' where he was tracked down by web sleuths.
While McAfee claimed to be jetting around to Belarus and hoaxed an arrest in Norway for wearing a thong as a mask, he was actually staying in the Daurada Park Hotel in Cambrils, Catalonia, according to the New York Post.
McAfee appears to have been hiding out in the hotel from March 2020 until his arrest in October, and was busted by amateur sleuths who spotted Spanish products and images of the Catalonian coast in his photos on Twitter.
At the hotel, no one answered the phones and it was impossible to make a reservation, according to El Confidencial, leading the Spanish newspaper to call the Daurada Park a 'ghost hotel.'
Last spring, McAfee claimed to be in 'lockdown' in Belarus, he posted photos that eagle-eyed followers noted contained Spanish products.
McAfee's photos showed beaches and balconies in the background that the sleuths were able to trace to Cambrils, and eventually the Daurada Park.
Confronted about the inconsistencies, McAfee lashed out on Twitter, claiming he had 'visited Spain for a few days.'
But it appears he used the mystery hotel as his base of operations for months before his arrest on U.S. tax and fraud charges.
McAfee was arrested at Barcelona airport in early October when he was about to board a flight to Istanbul with a British passport.
He languished in Spanish prison until a court this week approved his extradition to the U.S. to face the charges.
McAfee was found dead in his cell on Wednesday in what authorities say appears to be a suicide by hanging.
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