Marilou Danley, considered a Person of Interest, in the Las Vegas massacre, returned to the States at 7:30 p.m. from the Philippines Tuesday evening and authorities will be speaking with her shortly or have spoken with her. NBC News posted a brief video that it said showed Ms. Danley in a wheelchair, being escorted by security officers.
EXCLUSIVE: Marilou Danley, girlfriend of the Las Vegas gunman, arrived at Los Angeles International Airport. More: https://t.co/LObba2CM6i pic.twitter.com/mpqNMKNqEJ
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 4, 2017
WHO IS MARILOU
Paddock met Marilou Danley several years ago while she was working as a high-limit hostess for Club Paradise at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, Nev., said his brother Eric Paddock. Reports indicate she was married at the time but took off with Paddock. The two gambled together.
Paddock had been married twice before.
Employees at a Starbucks in Mesquite, Nev., however, described the couple’s relationship as challenged. A supervisor at the coffee shop told the Los Angeles Times that Paddock often berated Danley in public. The Starbucks is the only one in the town of Mesquite and is inside the Virgin River Casino.
“It happened a lot,” Esperanza Mendoza, supervisor of the Starbucks, told the Times. He would verbally abuse her when Danley asked to use his casino card to buy food or other things inside the casino, Esperanza said.
“He would glare down at her and say — with a mean attitude — ‘You don’t need my casino card for this. I’m paying for your drink, just like I’m paying for you.’ Then she would softly say, ‘Okay’ and step back behind him. He was so rude to her in front of us.”
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Danley’s former stepdaughter described her as very well-liked by everyone. Neighbors said they kept to themselves.
She has ties to the Philippines and a number of reports said she was born there. Others said she was born in Indonesia. An Australian newspaper, Brisbane’s Courier-Mail, reported Monday that Danley was an “Australian citizen originally from the Philippines.” The Australian Associated Press reported that Danley was born in the Philippines and moved to Queensland in eastern Australia in the early 1980s. She left Australia for the U.S. in 1989, where she worked in casinos, it said. She is said to have family in both Australia and the Philippines.
A person listed as her witness in the divorce records insisted Danley isn’t connected with Paddock’s behavior.
“She had nothing to do with this psycho,” the man, who was not identified, told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “The poor lady, she is in the Philippines visiting family.”
Authorities have said Paddock has no links to international terrorist groups, despite ISIS claiming him as “a soldier” who converted to Islam months ago, The Associated Press reported.
Danley’s sisters said they believe he got her out of the country so she couldn’t interfere with what he was going to do. They said she did not know anything about his plans.
He encouraged her to take a trip.
According to one sister, Marilou “didn’t even know that she was going to the Philippines, until Steve said, ‘Marilou, I found you a cheap ticket to the Philippines.'”
She added Danley was likely “even (more) shocked than us” by his actions.
The Philippine Bureau of Immigration spokeswoman said Danley, who travels on an Australian passport, arrived in the Philippines from Tokyo on September 15. There had been communication between authorities in the Philippines, the FBI and the US Department of Homeland Security, the spokeswoman said.
Paddock wired $100,000 to the Philippines shortly before the mass shooting.
Nick Suarez told AFP news agency that the FBI, its US counterpart, had sought help in finding Danley. “Danley arrived in the Philippines last month and then there was a wire transfer to her account for $100,000 from Stephen,” he said. “The FBI has coordinated with the Philippine office of the Interpol to look for her.”
There were more than 100 suspicious activity reports of large cash transfers overseas and deposits in U.S. banks. The Paddock family referred questions about the money to a defense attorney.
The Courier Mail, a newspaper in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia, and posted pictures of a trip to Australia Paddock apparently took with Danley in 2013 to meet her family there.
He has also traveled to the Philippines where Danley has family.
LATEST INFORMATION ON PADDOCK
On Tuesday, officials offered new information on Paddock and how he planned the attack. An agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said that 47 firearms had now been found in three different locations, including the hotel room, and Verde and Mesquite, Nevada.
Of those weapons, 12 had devices known as bump stocks attached that allowed semi-automatic rifles to mimic fully automatic gunfire. The agent, Jill Snyder, said officials had determined the devices were legal. The weapons – rifles shotguns pistols – were purchased in Nevada, Utah, California and Texas, she said.
The sheriff’s office also released police body camera footage of officers responding during the shooting. The rapid gunfire bursts can be heard as officers shelter beside a wall and yell at civilians to “get back”. One video shows officers beside a patrol car when one is shot.
The first report to police came at 10.08pm and Paddock continued to fire for “somewhere between 9 and 11 minutes”, officials said.
Police also confirmed on Tuesday that Paddock had set up cameras inside and outside his room, including two in the hallway and one in the peephole of his hotel room door.
“I anticipate he was looking for anybody coming to take him into custody,” Lombardo said at an afternoon press conference.
The evidence offers an insight into Paddock’s careful planning of the shooting. Lombardo said: “I’m pretty sure he evaluated everything that he did in his actions, which is troubling.”
Paddock’s motive remains unknown. “This person may have been radicalized, unbeknownst to us, and we want to identify that source.”
The sheriff said the number of people injured would go down slightly because of some double counting. “We also had very heroic acts of people attending the event … Citizens providing medical aid and transport for people to get to the hospital.”
Lombardo added: “It’s an ongoing investigation and when I say I don’t know, I may know … I assure you this investigation is not ended with the demise of Mr Paddock.”
