Forensic team to perform toxicology tests on McAfee’s body

In this file photo taken on December 13, 2012, John McAfee talks to the media at the Beacon Hotel. Pic/AFP

Authorities in Spain say that a judge has ordered an autopsy on the remains of John McAfee, the gun-loving antivirus pioneer, cryptocurrency promoter and occasional politician who died in a cell pending extradition to the United States (US) for allegedly evading millions in unpaid taxes.

A court spokeswoman for the Catalonia region said on Thursday that a forensic team would need to perform toxicology tests on McAfee's body to determine the cause of death and that results could take "days or weeks." Authorities have said that everything at the scene indicated that the 75-year-old tycoon killed himself.

The judicial investigation is being handled by a court in Martorell, a town northwest of Barcelona with jurisdiction over the prison where McAfee died. The spokeswoman wasn't authorised to be identified by name in media reports. McAfee's Spanish lawyer, Javier Villalba, said the entrepreneur's death had come as a surprise to his wife and other relatives, adding he would seek to get "to the bottom" of his client's death.

"This has been like pouring cold water on the family and on his defence team," Villalba told The Associated Press on Thursday. "Nobody expected it, he had not said goodbye." Although Villalba said that he had no evidence of any foul play, he blamed the death on "the cruelty of the system" for keeping a 75-year-old behind bars for economic and not blood-related crimes after judges refused to release him on bail. "We had managed to nullify seven of the 10 counts he was accused of and even so he was still that dangerous person who could be fleeing Spain if he was released?" the lawyer said.

$4mn
Amount of unpaid taxes McAfee was charged of evading

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