The fight over what happened to John McAfee continues, and his body remains in limbo in a Spanish morgue in the interim. The 75-year-old, who developed the first commercial anti-virus software, was found dead last June in a Barcelona-area prison cell, and authorities claimed it was a death by suicide. But McAfee's family—particularly his wife, Janice—insisted he never would've killed himself, and thanks to the investigation they've spurred, his body is now "being held while legal deliberations continue," per Deadline.
McAfee's family didn't consider his autopsy to have been done thoroughly, and so they requested another exam. That ask was denied by a local judge, and when the family appealed the decision, the judge in those proceedings ruled McAfee's body couldn't be released to them until the appeals process was over, their lawyer tells Reuters. The news agency notes his widow is now circulating a petition to "help pressure" Spanish authorities to conduct an independent autopsy so she can finally reclaim his body.
"The longer this takes, as John's body slowly decays in a government morgue, the less accurate the findings will become," the petition reads. "Obviously!" She added, per Twitter on Thursday: "(It's) difficult to put into words what life has been like this past year. I still can't believe John is gone." Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the regional government's justice division notes it's unusual for bodies that have been reclaimed to remain at the morgue for such an extended period of time. (More John McAfee stories.)