Trouble in Paradise, Part 1

>>> i remember the night was very dark. we pulled into his home.

>>> una persecuci?n en la jungla

>> the jungle started to infect him. almost like a virus.

>> bond girls ? two of those. one with a hint of danger.

>> he just leaned against the wall and said "do it."

>> secret potions, strange disguises. at the center of it all, a case of murder. an american living in paradise. his killer? that's the mystery.

>> i would like to see some -- some justice.

>> was the millionaire behind it?

>> neither you nor anybody representing you went over to greg faull's house and shot him through the head?

>> no, sir.

>> he may have eluded the police, but he didn't elude us.

>> this may be one of your best interviews or one of your worst. you will not believe what happened.

>> i'm lester holt . this james bond tale may be headed for hollywood, but first it's on "dateline." keith morrison with " trouble in paradise ."

>> is there a soul alive who hasn't on some noisy, stressed out, whacked out daydreamed of chucking it?

>> escaping to the place nature surely intended for you, completely free. fantasy, of course, for all, but a very, very few. this is the story of two who did it, who escaped. though, has to be said, on behalf of them both, be careful what you wish for.

>> get red for serious heart of darkness [ bleep ].

>> heart of darkness ? oh, yes. a strange tale about a gazillion air named john mcafee when the silicon valley started making millionaires by the dozen and greg faull, a man who earned his money the old-fashioned way with bricks and mortar as a contractor in florida. two americans from opposite ends of the country, so different, and yet their paths crossed purely by chance here on this little strip of paradise, this baking powder beach in the south american country of belize . one would lose his life here. the other, some say, lost his mind.

>> do you think i want everybody going mcafee's insane? he's lost his mind? do you think i like that? do you think that helps me?

>> of course, it was all over the name.

>> the global game of hide and seek with john mcafee has riveted the country.

>> john mcafee says he will not turn himself into police.

>> the story about murder in the tropics and the eccentric millionaire who went into hiding claiming he had nothing to hide.

>> there will be no charges. i am not involved.

>> but there is more to it than that, much more.

>> that's where john lives.

>> as we discovered do during our own search in central america for the merck you arial mr. mcafee, sensational detail, the guards, it is guns and the harem of teenage girls .

>> how many women did he have in there?

>> sometimes five, six.

>> at the same time?

>> lost in the maelstrom of sex, drugs and corruption in a country the size of of bakersfield, california, was him. the other american, greg faull. the one who still stares back at you from old pictures.

>> we got to know greg because after working for 12 hours a day he would come up to our bar and hang out and talk and close it down.

>> jeff spiegel is an american ex-pat himself. his ticket to paradise, a restaurant and bar called the rojo lounge which just happened to be at center stage of our story here on ambergris caye , an island off the coast of belize and greg faull, said jeff, was right out of central casting .

>> greg had three birds and the first time he walked up to the bar with mow, beach bar, caribbean guy with a tommy bahama t-shirt, board shorts and parrot on his shoulder and i turned to him and said you realize, greg , you've become that guy. every bar has one. you're now that guy.

>> greg faull had been working hard all his life to be that guy. from the time he was a skinny 10-year-old with a new bike living on florida's east coast with his dad.

>> i bought him a really, really nice ten- speed bicycle , germa know made and so forth, and it was the nicest bicycle in school, and he really enjoyed it, and he came home one day without the bicycle. and he was carrying a chain saw . i said, greg , where's your bike? he said, dad, i traded it for a chain saw . i said why did you do that? he said, dad, i can't make any money with a bicycle, but i can buy wood with a chain saw and i can sell it to everyone in the neighborhood and that's what he did.

>> greg was a lot like his father, which is to say he was all in all of the time. when he went fishing he started earlier than everybody else and stayed later and generally won first prize.

>> he caught the biggest big-eye tuna that has been caught in port canaveral . it weighed 110 pounds, and to my knowledge the record still stands. after a stint in the navy greg went to night school and got his contracting license and built big things , for disney world , businesses, custom mcmansions for rich people and then about 12 years ago greg heard about belize .

>> and he liked it. he liked the beach, and he liked everything in belize and he said i then discovered that it had the lowest crime rate in central america , and it was english-speaking and he said what more can i want, dad?

>> he was sold. greg bought a piece of beachfront property and started building a home on it. he told me that he wanted to retire in belize , and i have the house down there and one of these days that's going to be my retirement home .

>> early in 2012 the rue ins of his second behind him and his 52nd birthday looming ahead, greg finally did it. he chucked it all and hoisted a pirate flag in his belizean paradise.

>> i said do you have room for me and he said part-time, but he had planned it for a long time.

>> by the time he stepped off his yacht in belize last june he'd already hired shane and brittany mccann to help him put his plan in motion.

>> greg hired us to manage his home. he was working on it to turn it into a vacation rental property and the idea was that he would go sailing or even take the guests fishing or, you know, not be around or be around so that we could rent out the home.

>> he had a big 51-foot sail boat . he wanted to just --

>> go sailing.

>> go sailing.

>> as the summer of 2012 wore on, greg settled into a happy routine at the rojo lounge where finley holiday tended bar.

>> at first he was the pirate of the neighborhood with his parrot and every day he would come here, drink rum, drink rum, party, super fun guy.

>> a happy man except there was this one irritant. 100 yards or so up the beach, in fact, smack-dab in the middle of greg 's nightly walk from the beach house to the rojo was him, the neighbor, john mcafee . the issue was dogs. mcafee kept nearly a dozen of them on his property. loud and mangy muts who frequently ran free snarling and snapping at anybody who tried to get past them.

>> the dogs were jumping fences and biting people and barking nonstop.

>> faull felt he worked too hard and come too far to put up with that.

>> he was in our office and he said he was going put a stop to what was going on. it didn't matter what it took, he was going put an end to it.

>> so now, beginning to last november, recently launched the life he always dreamed of, greg faull headed on a collision course with one of the richest men in the country. no idea what was about to happen.

>> in fact, no one could have predicted what was ahead. darkness was about to fall on this sunny stretch of paradise. a murder mystery and an international man hunt that would fascinate the world. later, you'll hear from the man at the center and what an encounter that will be.

>> we had some serious, serious, serious adventure.

>> when " trouble in paradise " continues.