For weeks, John McAfee hid from authorities, donning a disguise and using disposable cell phones to communicate.

On Tuesday, the 67-year-old Internet security pioneer emerged publicly in Guatemala's capital, hundreds of miles away from the Caribbean island in Belize where his next-door neighbor was found dead.

McAfee's lawyer said he left Belize to escape police persecution and planned to file a formal request for asylum with Guatemalan officials Wednesday.

"He had to come here because it was the closest and the most immediate place to protect his life," attorney Telesforo Guerra told CNN en Español.

McAfee's arrival in Guatemala was the latest twist in an investigation that has drawn international attention and prompted the well known software company founder to go into hiding for weeks.

Belize authorities have said they only want to talk to McAfee about the November 11 shooting death of Gregory Faull, 52, an American businessman who was found dead in his home on the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye.

McAfee, who is not a suspect in the case, lived next door.

"I had nothing to do with his death," McAfee wrote on his website Tuesday in a message to Faull's family. "I have lost five close family members in my 67 years and I know your suffering."

A Belize police spokesman said authorities there believe McAfee could still be in their country, and they still want to question him in his neighbor's killing.

McAfee, who founded the computer security software company that still bears his name, said in a blog post Tuesday that he would speak to Belizean police on the phone and offered to meet with the Central American nation's prime minister "in a neutral country."

"If I am indeed merely wanted for questioning," he wrote, "this should suffice."

A Guatemalan official said late Tuesday that officials there had not received a request for asylum from McAfee and did not know how he came into the country.

There is no registry of McAfee entering legally at any official border crossing, said Marco Tulio Chicas Sosa, director of international bilateral relations for Guatemala's foreign ministry.

"Everything we know about this case comes from the media," he said.

The Guatemalan official said he could not comment on whether his country would offer asylum to McAfee, since no request had been filed.

Earlier Tuesday, a Belize police spokesman said authorities thought McAfee was still in that country, but declined to say why.

"We're not even sure he's left Belize," said Raphael Martinez, spokesman for the Belize Police Department. "He said a lot of things. The police feel he's still here in Belize.

"It's difficult to pinpoint what he will say next or what he will do next. I still question his frame of mind," Martinez said. "I think the best thing is for him to come in and answer a couple of questions."

Belize won't seek extradition of McAfee, Martinez said.

Authorities aren't unfairly persecuting McAfee, and his attorney "should come to Belize and see what's happening here," Martinez said.