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Antivirus software pioneer John McAfee arrived in Portland last January.

(Ross William Hamilton/The Oregonian)

Update, 5:15 p.m.: John McAfee says he didn't threaten anyone and has left Portland for good.



Former software entrepreneur John McAfee, who arrived in Portland early this year while being sought for questioning in the murder of his neighbor in Central America, may be unsettling people here, too.

The 68-year-old was evicted from his luxury Southeast Portland apartment last week, and the building manager took out a protective order against him. Multnomah Circuit Court granted a temporary protective order against McAfee and set a hearing for Jan. 3 to revisit the subject.

Neither McAfee nor the man who sought the protective order, Connor Hyde, immediately returned messages seeking comment. An attorney for McAfee's landlord declined comment.

McAfee started the software security firm McAfee Associates in 1987, left the company in 1994 and sold his remaining interest soon afterward. Now owned by Intel, it remains a leading purveyor of antivirus tools.

Enriched by his software success, McAfee put the company behind him and became a famous eccentric. He moved to Belize, then sold properties in Colorado, New Mexico, Hawaii and elsewhere. McAfee told reporters after the Great Recession he had lost nearly all his fortune. In Belize, he said he was working on medical research.

Then, a year ago this month, authorities in Belize called McAfee "a person of interest" in the murder of Gregory Faull, a neighbor living near McAfee. McAfee decamped to Guatemala, was deported to Miami, and then unexpectedly turned up in Portland, where he said he planned to work on a graphic novel about his life, with Portland illustrator Chad Essley.

Since his arrival in January, McAfee has been intermittently in the news, producing a video with Portland strippers on uninstalling antivirus software and – McAfee claims – being courted by GOP staffers in Congress to weigh in on the failure of the healthcare.gov website. Earlier this month, McAfee told Reuters that he will answer questions about Faull's shooting in a deposition. But McAfee said he will not return to Belize.

In Portland, McAfee moved to The 20 on Hawthorne, an upscale apartment building managed by the Riverstone Residential Group. Riverstone employs Hyde as a property manager.

-- Oregonian reporter Helen Jung contributed to this report.

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699