After the bullets
America reels in shock as mass killer’s girlfriend flies back to face questions
DOZENS of bodies lie prone on the ground in the horrific aftermath of the mass shooting in Las Vegas.
America was last night still struggling to come to terms with the latest gun atrocity as the girlfriend of killer Stephen Paddock was being questioned by the FBI over the massacre.
Marilou Danley arrived back in the US on a flight from the Philippines on Tuesday night to be immediately met by federal agents at Los Angeles airport.
It is hoped she may shed new light on what turned the former accountant into the country’s biggest single mass murderer. The FBI admit they have still not found a motive for why the high-stakes gambler “snapped”.
Filipino Danley was seen in arrivals in a wheelchair being pushed by an airport assistant.
The 62-year-old was wearing
a hat and light blue jacket, and was pushing a black suitcase in front of her. It is not clear why she was in the wheelchair. An officer revealed she voluntarily returned to the US in a bid to “clear her name” of any involvement in Sunday’s shooting, after her status was upgraded by police to “person of interest”.
Millionaire real estate broker, Paddock, 64, shot dead 58 concert-goers at the Route 91
music festival and injured another 527.
It emerged yesterday he had bought 33 rifles in the past year. After carrying out the atrocity, he turned one of the 23 guns he had with him in the Mandalay Bay hotel on himself. Since the attack, Danley’s siblings have insisted she was unaware of Paddock’s motives.
Speaking in Australia, where they live, one sister said: “I know she didn’t know anything as well, like us. She was sent awayso she will be not there to interfere with what he’s planning.
“In that sense, I thank him for sparing my sister’s life,” she said, adding her sister was “really in love with Steve”.
The other sister said Danley “didn’t even know she was going to the Philippines, until Steve said, ‘Marilou, I found you a cheap ticket to the Philippines’”. She added: “No one can put the puzzles together, no one except Marilou.”
Investigators are still trying to trace the $100,000 Paddock transferred to the Philippines in the days before the shooting.
The questioning of Danley came as President Trump and First Lady Melania visited Las Vegas yesterday, and met Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval.
Caught between the latest gruesome mass shooting and a Republican-led Congress that wants to ease restrictions on firearms, Trump offered sympathy to the victims, but did not propose any changes to gun laws.