Deadly fire exposes wealthy man's secret underground tunnels

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Six bricks short of a full load

A police report says Beckwitt told investigators how he tried to preserve his project’s secrecy when he brought Khafra there. Beckwitt said he would rent a car, pick Khafra up and drive him to Manassas, Virginia, where he had the younger man don ‘‘blackout glasses’’ before driving him around for about an hour. Khafra spent days at a time working, eating and sleeping in the tunnels. He had his cellphone with him, but Beckwitt used internet ‘‘spoofing’’ to make it appear he was in Virginia, according to Montgomery County prosecutor Douglas Wink. ...

Beckwitt lived alone in ‘‘extreme hoarder conditions,’’ forcing the men to navigate a maze of junk and trash, Wink said. The tunnels had lights, an air circulation system and a heater powered by a ‘‘haphazard daisy chain’’ of power strips that created a fire risk, the prosecutor said. ...

Wink said Beckwitt had a ‘‘paranoid fixation’’ on a possible nuclear attack by North Korea.