Las Vegas shooting: Marilou Danley’s last known visit to Queensland in 2012
LAS Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock wired $US100,000 to an account in the home country of his live-in girlfriend in the week before he carried out the worst mass shooting in US history.
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LAS Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock wired $US100,000 to an account in the Philippines in the week before he carried out the worst mass shooting in US history.
His girlfriend Marilou Danley, a former Queensland resident, is being brought back to the US from the Philippines by the FBI.
Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters on Tuesday that Ms Danley was “a person of interest” in the Sunday night attack, which left 59 dead and more than 500 injured after Paddock used high-powered firearms from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino to shoot concertgoers below before killing himself.
Sheriff Lombardo said on Tuesday in the US Ms Danley was in the Philippines at the time of the massacre and remains there.
Sheriff Lombardo spoke after a report by the investigations team at American network NBC that Paddock wired money to an account in Ms Danley’s country of birth.
NBC quoted Paddock’s brother Eric: “One hundred thousand dollars isn’t that huge amount of money,” he said. “Condemn Steve for gambling. Steve took care of the people he loved. He made me and my family wealthy.”
Paddock may have “manipulated her so that she was far away from this and had money,” Eric Paddock said. “As he was descending into hell ... he wanted to take care of her.”
Meanwhile, senior law enforcement officials told NBC News that Paddock gambled with at least $160,000 in the past several weeks at Las Vegas casinos.
The news comes as pictures were released showing Paddock knew Ms Danley’s family intimately, meeting them years ago.
The lone-wolf gunman was introduced to family as Ms Danley’s boyfriend.
Sharing a traditional meal in 2013, understood to be on a trip to the Philippines, he smiled for photos as he ate seafood and rice.
The nephew of Marilou Danley says he met her partner Stephen Paddock twice last year and on both times he was kind and respectful.
Jordan Knights, 23, from Beenleigh, said he travelled to Las Vegas in October last year where he was introduced to Paddock by his aunty.
The pair went to family lunches at a casino.
“He was a normal person pretty much,” Mr Knights said.
“It’s just weird, crazy (what has happened). It’s hectic shit.”
Mr Knights, who lives with his mother and Marilou’s sister Amelia Manango, south of Brisbane, said there was no suggestion Paddock was a religious man.
He said Paddock was friendly towards him and Marilou.
“I wouldn’t have a clue (if he had been radicalised by Islam),” Mr Knights said.
Mr Knights said he and his family had not had time to process the tragedy.
He said he hasn’t spoken properly to his mother since Sunday and had not been in contact with Marilou since his trip to Las Vegas.
Police have said Marilou had no involvement in the shooting but want to talk to her about Paddock, the worst mass shooter in the United States.
The picture emerged after another showed Marilou Danley’s last known visit to Queensland.
Taken in 2012, the family photograph shows her as a loving daughter, visiting her sick mum in hospital.
Ms Danley was thrust into the spotlight on Monday night when US authorities at first described her as a person of interest in the Las Vegas massacre, and then cleared her of any involvement.
She was out of the country when gunman Stephen Paddock – believed to be her boyfriend – opened fire on a country music festival from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, killing at least 59 people.
Long before her face was flashed around the world, Ms Danley had made a life on the Gold Coast.
Friends told The Courier-Mail that during about a decade in Australia she had been married to a Queensland man who worked in advertising.
Ms Danley had worked with her husband for at least some of the time as a bookkeeper, and had also had a role during Expo 88 in Brisbane, friends said.
Together they raised her daughter from a previous relationship and Ms Danley became an Australian citizen.
Not long after Expo she moved to the US, where she had remarried a man by the name of Geary Danley. According to her LinkedIn profile she worked as a “high-limit hostess” for several years at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa.
US media reports said she and Mr Geary divorced in 2015, although they remained friends online.
Other family members had moved to Queensland, including her mother, who arrived in 1985 and settled in Beenleigh.
Online, family members refer to Ms Danley’s mum simply as Nanay, or “mother”. She remained in Queensland until her death, believed to have been in 2012.
Her previous Queensland husband has since died. But at two sisters also lived in Queensland. One, Liza Werner, who remains in Australia, declined to comment.
“I can’t say anything. I’m sorry, sorry,” she said when contacted by The Courier-Mail on Monday night.
Property records indicate she lived with Paddock at Mesquite, Nevada.
US authorities want to interview her in depth for her insights on Paddock, who is now responsible for the worst mass shooting in US history.
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