Millionaire software company founder John McAfee has gone on the run after his neighbour was found apparently murdered on an island off the coast of Belize.

The 67-year-old, who amassed a \$100m (£63m) fortune developing anti-virus software, said he buried himself in the sand with a cardboard box over his head so he could breathe, to evade police when they came to question him about the murder of Gregory Faull.

The head of the country's anti-organised crime brigade, Marco Vidal, said Mr McAfee was wanted for homicide.

However, in an interview with technology magazine Wired - which was apparently given while he was on the run in the Central American country - Mr McAfee denied killing his neighbour and claimed the Belize government had a vendetta against him.

He said he ran because he feared Mr Faull had been killed by mistake and he had been the real target of the shooting.

In the telephone interview he said: "I thought maybe they were coming for me. They mistook him for me. They got the wrong house. They killed him. It spooked me out."

He described how he had hidden from police under the sand and claimed that if the Belize police found him they would kill him.

Mr Faull, 52, a retired builder, was found dead inside his two-storey home north of San Pedro on the island of Ambergris Caye on Sunday morning.

There was a gunshot wound to his head and a single 9mm Luger case was found at the scene.

It is known that Mr Faull had been unhappy about Mr McAfee's dogs and had filed a formal complaint with the mayor in San Pedro last week.

Mr McAfee claimed in his communications with Wired magazine that the dogs had been poisoned on Friday. But he said he did not suspect Mr Faull, just the Belize authorities.

Last April, Belize police raided Mr McAfee's home looking for drugs and guns, but he was released without charge after being detained for a few hours.

He said: "Under no circumstances am I going to willingly talk to the police in this country. You can say I'm paranoid about it, but they will kill me, there is no question.

"They've been trying to get me for months. They want to silence me. I am not well-liked by the prime minister. I am just a thorn in everybody's side."

Mr McAfee moved to Ambergris Caye in 2008, where he had armed guards patrolling his property. He sold his stake in the software company in the 1990s and reinvented himself as a yoga teacher.

He said he lost all but \$4m of his \$100m fortune in the financial crisis.