Shooter’s gal says she had no idea of plan, prays for victims
THE GIRLFRIEND of Las Vegas killer Stephen Paddock broke her silence Wednesday, saying she had no idea her boyfriend was planning a mass murder.
“It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone,” Marilou Danley said in a statement read by defense lawyer Matthew Lombard after her meeting with FBI and Las Vegas Police investigators in Los Angeles. “I knew Stephen Paddock as a kind, caring, quiet man.”
Danley expressed condolences to the victims.
“I have faith in God, and I will continue to pray for everyone who has been harmed or hurt,” she said. “I am a mother and a grandmother, and my heart breaks for all who have lost loved ones.”
Danley said she refrained from speaking out before Wednesday because she was cooperating with authorities.
“I voluntarily flew back to America because I know that the FBI and Las Vegas Police Department wanted to talk to me. And I wanted to talk to them,” she said.
Danley said she was out of the country on a trip paid for by Paddock.
She thought the trip was Paddock’s way of breaking up with her, she said.
Danley arrived in Los Angeles Tuesday night and met with investigators at the FBI headquarters in that city for several hours Wednesday.
The 62-year-old woman was thousands of miles away in the Philippines when police first revealed her identity and said she might hold the key to why Paddock set up a sniper’s nest on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and rained death on a country music festival.
Before she met with investigators, ABC News reported she told her brother she had a “clean conscience” and wanted to clear her name.
“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,’” her brother, Reynaldo Bustos, told ABC News.
Danley’s two sisters told Australia’s 7 News they believe Paddock surprised her with a solo ticket to the island nation to keep her in the dark about his terror attack.
“She was away so that she will be not there to interfere with what he’s planning,” one of the sisters said through tears, her face blurred to protect her identity.
The sisters said the sudden trip two weeks ago caught them all by surprise. They said Paddock also wired $127,000 to an overseas account for Danley.
“She didn't even know that she’s going to the Philippines until Steve said, ‘Oh, Marilou, I found you a cheap ticket to the Philippines,’” the sister said.
“He sent her away so that he can plan what he’s planning without interruptions. In that sense, I thank him for sparing my sister’s life," she said.
The sisters told Channel 7 they believe Danley, who moved to the U.S. in 1989, knew that Paddock had guns — but not that many.
“He done this solely himself," the sister said.
“Marilou seems madly in love with Steve, you know?” the sister said. “If Marilou was there, this maybe as well didn't happen because she won't let it happen. She would definitely stop something, whatever what he was planning.”
Speaking to The New York Times, Eric Paddock said Danley was one of the few people the killer seemed to love.
“She was probably one of the only people I’ve ever seen that he’d go out his way to do a little thing for,” the younger brother said. “He went out of his way to be nice to her. This is not something Steve does — go out of his way.”
Stephen Paddock left behind an arsenal of 47 weapons at three locations, including two homes and his hotel room, but no immediate clues to suggest a motive, authorities have said.
Paddock killed at least 58 innocent people before taking his own life moments before a team of police officers stormed his hideout at the hotel on the Vegas Strip.