He was kind, caring, quiet, says Marilou
MARILOU Danley yesterday said she knew her partner Stephen Paddock as a “kind, caring, quiet man” and denied any knowledge of his plans to slaughter dozens in Las Vegas.
The Australian grandmother, who once lived on the Gold Coast, spent yesterday being questioned by the FBI in Los Angeles about Paddock’s rampage after returning to the US the night before.
Authorities had described her as “a person of interest” in their investigation into what drove Paddock to commit America’s deadliest mass shooting, killing 59 and injuring 489 in a hail of automatic gunfire from his hotel window into a country music concert.
“I knew Stephen Paddock as a kind, caring, quiet man,” Ms Danley said in a statement read by her lawyer. Ms Danley met FBI agents on her arrival to the US on Tuesday from the Philippines. She said her partner gave her the tickets for a holiday in her birth country last month and transferred $100,000 to her account as “a gift”.
“I was grateful, but honestly, I was worried, that first, the unexpected trip home, and then the money, was a way of breaking up with me,” she said.
“It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone. He never said anything to me or took any action that I was aware of that I understood in any way to be a warning that something horrible like this was going to happen.”
Ms Danley and Paddock were in a relationship for several years and lived together in two Nevada homes, in Reno and Las Vegas. Both houses were raided on Monday and police seized dozens of weapons, boxes of ammunition and some explosives. Neighbours and friends yesterday painted contrasting portraits of the former casino hostess, who lived for a decade in Nerang, holds an Australian passport and visits family there.
In Sparks, near Reno, where she lived with her then-husband Geary Danley until 2013, she was remembered for the parties she used to hold for local kids at her house at the end of a cul-de-sac. “She was such a super nice lady,” said neighbour Christine Riley, whose children with husband Troy visited her home. “She made such a great effort with the neighbourhood kids. She was such a well-loved lady.”
When Ms Danley moved in with Paddock – whom she had met while working as a “high roller hostess” at Reno’s Atlantis Casino – she was a “a different person” to the woman described by the Rileys.
“She didn’t want to interact at all with us,” said neighbour Susan Page, who lived next door to the couple in a retirement village in Verdi, Reno.
“I felt he (Paddock) was rude,” said Ms Page, adding he would go out of his way to ignore friendly greetings.
Ms Page said yesterday she watched as the pair separately moved out of their home over a few days in August, shortly after he bought a white van.
“I couldn’t understand why an old man with no children would buy this kind of ‘mom’ car,” she said.
“But now, with all the guns he had and what he was planning – I guess it makes sense.”
She said Paddock moved out mid-August and was followed shortly afterwards by Ms Danley, who had spent three days packing her car.
“I had the feeling she was packing to go camping, she had a lot of things packed on top of the car,” she said.
A former colleague at Atlantis casino, where Ms Danley and Paddock met, said it “wasn’t unusual” for hostesses to form relationships with their high roller clients.
“They are there to serve every need of the high roller, 24 hours a day,” said Pamela Stanislau, who worked at the casino for four years until 2010.
“A hostess is a person who caters to their every demand at any moment they want, night or day, be it food, be it a private lap dance with a girl. The hostess will call and make arrangements for anything they want.”