Staff writers

Police in the Central American country of Belize said Monday they are seeking to question John McAfee, the Silicon Valley founder of the McAfee anti-virus software firm, in connection with the shooting death of another U.S. native whose body was discovered Sunday.

A housekeeper found the body of Gregory Viant Faull, 52, shot in the back of his head, according to a report filed by police in the tiny town of San Pedro.

Belize police spokesman Raphael Martinez said the 67-year-old McAfee, who has a home in San Pedro, was being sought for questioning in the case as “a person of interest.”

McAfee could not be reached for comment by this newspaper and Martinez said police had been unable to locate him since the murder.

McAfee, who launched McAfee Associates in 1989 in Santa Clara, left that company shortly after it went public in 1992 and moved to Colorado, where he pursued other activities, reportedly including teaching yoga, singing Vedic chants and starting a short-lived Internet communities site called Tribal Voice. Officials at Santa Clara chipmaker Intel (INTC), which bought McAfee in 2010, declined comment.

He moved to Belize in 2008, according to a story published in the San Pedro Sun, which said that nation’s police in April confiscated 10 firearms from his home and temporarily detained him in handcuffs. One of McAfee’s 11 dogs on the property was killed after it allegedly bit an officer and the story noted that McAfee was at the home with a 17-year-old Belizean girlfriend.

It added that McAfee was later released without being charged, although authorities were investigating whether antibiotics or antiseptics had been produced at the home without a license.

McAfee was quoted in the story as saying the police treatment of him was “brutal” and that he was kept in custody for 14 hours without food. The story noted that McAfee has been a major donor to authorities in that country, giving a boat worth more than $1 million to the Belize National Coast Guard in 2009.

Earlier this month, McAfee also offered to help equip the San Pedro police, provide them with use of a boat and let several police officers use “five air-conditioned rooms at his establishment,” according to a another story the San Pedro Sun published Friday, three days before Faull’s body was discovered.

Contact Steve Johnson at sjohnson@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5043. Follow him at Twitter.com/steveatmercnews