Killer ‘sent Marilou away’
FORMER Queensland mum Marilou Danley was deliberately sent out of the US by boyfriend Stephen Paddock before he slaughtered innocent concertgoers in Las Vegas.
Her sisters, speaking for the first time, have insisted she knew nothing about the impending massacre and “seems madly in love with Steve”.
“She was sent away so that she will be not there to interfere with what he’s planning,” one of her Queensland-based sisters, understood to be Liza Werner, told Channel 7.
The sisters said Paddock, who wired $US100,000 to an account in the Philippines for former Nerang resident Marilou, had “done this solely himself”.
“She didn’t even know that she was going to the Philippines until Steve said: ‘Marilou I found you a cheap ticket to the Philippines’,” she said.
“There was no hint from her at all – she never said to anyone in the family there’s something wrong in the marriage.
“He sent her away … so that he can plan what he is planning without interruptions.
“In that sense I thank him for sparing my sister’s life. But that won’t be to compensate the 59 people’s lives.”
The sisters said the family had no idea why Paddock had opened fire on concertgoers at an outdoor country music festival, killing 59 and injuring 527, but insisted their sister would not have been part of it.
“If Marilou was there this maybe as well didn’t happen because she won’t let it happen. She would definitely stop stop something whatever he was planning,” they said.
Ms Danley was detained by FBI agents for questioning about the Mandalay Bay massacre as she arrived home in the US last night.
The 62-year-old was again labelled a “person of interest” in the investigation yesterday and authorities have not ruled out a terror link to her birth country, the Philippines, to where Paddock mysteriously wired $100,000 in the past weeks.
Police appealed for information about her whereabouts in the hours after Paddock was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. They found her casino-issued identification, known as a “player’s card”, in his room, which was littered with weapons and spent ammunition.
A frequent traveller who regularly returned to Australia, Ms Danley left America for Hong Kong on September 25.
Paddock’s Florida-based brother Eric Paddock yesterday disputed there was anything questionable about the six-figure wire transfer.
Mr Paddock said of Ms Danley his brother may have “manipulated her so she was far away from this and had money”.
Room with a killer view, P14-15