October 05, 2017•Update: October 05, 2017
By Canberk Yuksel
NEW YORK
The gunman behind the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history sent his live-in girlfriend overseas before committing the massacre, her family said Wednesday.
Last Sunday, Stephen Paddock fired on thousands attending a concert in Las Vegas from his room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino across the street, killing 59 people and injuring more than 500 before turning his gun on himself.
Marilou Danley, 62, arrived back in the U.S. late Tuesday at Los Angeles International Airport from the Philippines and was being questioned by the FBI.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, who heads the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, declared Danley a ‘person of interest’ Tuesday, meaning officials entertain the possibility that she played a passive role in the massacre.
One of Danley's sisters, who asked not to be named, told a CNN affiliate in Australia that Danley did not know where she was going when Paddock, 64, told her to leave the country.
"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'," the sister said.
Additionally, her sisters said Paddock wired Danley $127,000, without elaborating.
Officers found Paddock’s dead body alongside the dozens of weapons he managed to bring inside his room at the Mandalay Bay Resort, including several assault rifles he modified to shoot at a faster rate, like an automatic rifle.
Authorities are still trying to figure out what motivated Paddock, who has no evident criminal history, to carry out the shooting.
"Of all the people that they have interviewed...no one can put the puzzles together -- no one -- except Marilou, because Steve is not here to talk anymore. Only Marilou can maybe help," Danley's sister said.
President Donald Trump, who was visiting Los Angeles on Wednesday in the wake of the shooting, told reporters before departing the White House that it was a "very, very sad day for me personally.
"It's a very sad thing. We are going to pay our respects and to see the police who have done really a fantastic job in a very short time."
