Probe turns to gunman’s girlfriend

LAS VEGAS — The investigation into the motives of a Las Vegas retiree who killed 59 people in the bloodiest mass shooting in modern US history turned on Tuesday to the gunman’s girlfriend in the Philippines, where she showed up after the massacre, authorities said.

Stephen Paddock left no clear clues as to why he staged his attack on an outdoor concert below the high-rise building.

But law enforcement authorities are hoping to obtain some answers from a woman identified as Paddock’s live-in companion, Marilou Danley, who Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said was a “person of interest” in the investigation.

Lombardo, who on Monday said Danley was believed to be in Tokyo, told reporters on Tuesday she had been located in the Philippines, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation was in the process of trying to bring her back to the US.

“We are in conversations with her,” he said at an afternoon news briefing. But he reiterated police had no other suspects in the shooting itself.

Danley, an Australian citizen reported to have been born in the Philippines, had been sharing Paddock’s condo at a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada, about 90 miles (145 km) northeast of Las Vegas, according to police and public records.

Investigators are examining a $100,000 wire transfer Paddock, 64, sent to an account in the Philippines that “appears to have been intended” for Danley, according to a senior US homeland security official who spoke to Reuters on Tuesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators also have uncovered evidence that Paddock may have rehearsed his plans at other venues before ultimately carrying out his attack on the Route 91 Harvest country music festival.