Police stymied by gunman’s ‘secret life’
Girlfriend says she had no warning ‘something horrible like this was going to happen’
LAS VEGAS— The gunman behind the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history led a “secret life” that has so far thwarted investigators trying to figure out a motive for the attack, authorities said Wednesday.
In an effort to try to crack Stephen Paddock’s state of mind, the FBI spent hours interviewing his longtime girlfriend, who returned Tuesday from a weekslong overseas trip and said she had no inkling of the massacre he was plotting when he sent her to see family in her native Philippines.
“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,” Marilou Danley, 62, said in a statement read by her lawyer outside FBI headquarters in Los Angeles.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said it’s difficult to believe Paddock acted alone in the attack Sunday that killed 58 and injured nearly 500 people at a country music concert on the Las Vegas Strip.
“Maybe he’s a super guy,” Lombardo said before catching himself and calling it the wrong word. “You know, a super yay-hoo that was working out all this on his own. But it would be hard for me to believe that.”
Danley, whom authorities had previously called “a person of interest,” had been expected to provide insight into the mind of Paddock, a frustratingly opaque figure who carried out his high-rise massacre without leaving the plain-sight clues often found after major acts of bloodshed.
Lombardo said Wednesday that Paddock had 1,600 rounds of ammunition and several containers of an explosive commonly used in target shooting that totalled 23 kilograms in his car. But it wasn’t clear what, if anything, Paddock planned with the explosives, he said.
Paddock, who set up surveillance cameras in his room and to see anyone approaching outside, also had an escape plan, Lombardo said, though he fatally shot himself as police closed in on his luxury suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay resort casino. Lombardo declined to say what led authorities to believe he planned an escape.
The previous weekend, Paddock had rented a high-rise condo in a building that overlooked the Life is Beautiful alternative music festival featuring Chance the Rapper, Muse, Lorde and Blink-182, said Lombardo, who offered no other details about what led Paddock there.
On Sept. 28, the 64-year-old highstakes gambler and real estate inves- tor checked into Mandalay Bay and specifically requested an upper-floor room with a view of the Route 91 Harvest music festival, according to a person who has seen hotel records turned over to investigators.
Paddock wasn’t able to move into the room until Saturday, said the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly and disclosed the information to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The room, which goes for $590 (U.S.), was given to Paddock for free because he was a good customer.
Paddock wired $100,000 to the Philippines days before the shooting, said a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly because of the continuing investigation. Investigators are trying to trace that money.
Danley, who was overseas for more than two weeks, said she was initially pleased when she was wired money from Paddock to buy a house for her family in the Philippines. But she later feared it was a way to break up with her.
She said she loved Paddock as a “kind, caring, quiet man” and hoped they would have a future together. She said she was devastated by the carnage and would co-operate with authorities as they struggle to get inside Paddock’s mind.
In an interview with an Australian news station, two sisters of Danley’s said she had been sent to the Philippines two weeks before the shooting.
“He sent her away so that he can plan what he is planning without interruptions,” one sister said. “In that sense, I thank him for sparing my sister’s life.”
But she said that would not compensate for the dozens who were killed.
The two sisters were interviewed anonymously, their faces obscured. Danley’s sisters Liza Werner and Amelia Manango live in Australia.
“She didn’t even know she was going to the Philippines until Steve said, ‘Marilou, I found you a cheap ticket to the Philippines,’ ” one of the sisters said.
They said their sister was “madly in love” with Paddock and that she “probably was even more shocked than us” by the shooting. And they vouched for their sister’s character, calling her a “gentle soul.”
“He done this solely himself,” one said.
Reynaldo Bustos, her older brother, told ABC News that he called Danley after hearing about the shooting. “I called her up immediately and she said, ‘Relax, we shouldn’t worry about it. I’ll fix it. Do not panic. I have a clean conscience,’ ” he said.
While Paddock had a passion for high-stakes gambling at Nevada casinos, his game of choice was video poker, a relatively solitary pursuit with no dealer and no humans to play against.
And while neighbours described Paddock as friendly, he wasn’t close to them.
“He was a private guy. That’s why you can’t find out anything about him,” his brother Eric Paddock said from his home in Florida. As for what triggered the massacre, the brother said, “Something happened that drove him into the pit of hell.” Family members and former neighbours were shocked to see Danley’s name surface in connection with the shooting on news reports, as police sought to find her hours after Paddock killed himself in his hotel room.
“She’s probably one of the most happy, outgoing, full-of-life people I’ve ever known,” said Dionne Waltrip, Danley’s former stepdaughter, who lives outside Fayetteville, Ark. “Everyone who has ever met her likes her.”
Waltrip said her father, Geary Danley, travelled the world as an auditor for FedEx and met his future wife overseas.
Marilou Danley has ties to the Philippines and several news reports said she was born there. She spent many years in Australia, where news reports said she was married, and is an Australian citizen.
After meeting Geary Danley, she moved to Memphis, Tenn. The couple wed in 1990 and their marriage lasted 25 years.
Paddock had no known criminal history. Public records contained no indication of any financial problems, and his brother described him as a wealthy real estate investor.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump met with victims at a Las Vegas hospital Wednesday and then with police officers and dispatchers, praising them and the doctors who treated the wounded.
“Our souls are stricken with grief for every American who lost a husband or a wife, a mother or a father, a son or a daughter,” he said.
“We know that your sorrow feels endless. We stand together to help you carry your pain.” With files by the New York Times