Marilou Danley, the lover of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock has found ‘peace’ in her new life

Marilou Danley, the former Australian lover of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, has found a new life as the second anniversary of America’s worst mass shooting approaches. SEE THE PHOTOS

Exclusive: Australian grandmother Marilou Danley has told how she has found ‘peace’ just days away from the second anniversary of her lover’s mass murder of 58 people in Las Vegas.

Since the terrible events of October 1, 2017, when madman Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd of more than 20,000 concert goers from his room inside the Mandalay Bay hotel, the woman he was in a relationship with for four years has carved out a quiet life in an exclusive part of Los Angeles.

Marilou Danley, whose former lover Stephen Paddock carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. Picture: AP

Marilou Danley has told how she has found ‘peace’ just days away from the second anniversary of her lover’s mass murder of 58 people in Las Vegas. Picture: News Corp Australia

She regularly attends a Sunday service at her local Catholic church where she chats with several other worshippers.

Approached there by News Corp Australia, Ms Danley, who lived on the Gold Coast for a decade and holds dual Australian citizenship, said all she wanted to say was: “I’m in peace right now.”

Marilou Danley lived on the Gold Coast for a decade and holds dual Australian citizenship. Picture: News Corp Australia

In fact she repeated the phrase twice more, telling our reporter softly and slowly: “I’m in peace, I’m in peace.”

It is the first time she has commented about how she is coping with life after the tragedy.

Moments later she was picked up by her daughter who was driving an expensive SUV and driven back to a five-bed $A3.4million home they now share. The home is owned by Ms Danley’s daughter and son-in-law.

Marilou Danley has carved out a quiet life in an exclusive part of Los Angeles. Picture: News Corp Australia

Mother and daughter have also been spotted driving to a local Starbucks and a bagel store but Ms Danley keeps a low profile and rarely ventures out of the house by herself.

She and Paddock were regulars at their local Starbucks outlet inside a Nevada casino, where the gunman reportedly often berated her, saying on one occasion: “I’m paying for your drink, just like I’m paying for you.”

MORE NEWS

Ex-Tyrrell detective signs new tell-all deal

Canada murder: Family’s final wish as photos released

Financial abuse epidemic: ‘He took control of everything’

Ms Danley was in the Philippines at the time of the Las Vegas massacre, which remains the worst mass killing by a single gunman in America’s history.

Paddock had given her a plane ticket and $A150,000 as a gift, telling her to go and visit her family in the Philippines.

Marilou Danley who Las Vegas Police questioned after the shooting at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Picture: Facebook

Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest festival killing dozens and wounding hundreds. Photo: Courtesy of Eric Paddock via AP

As well as the 58 people shot dead, more than 800 were injured in the chaos, more than 400 as a direct result of his gunfire.

Paddock shot himself dead as police officers prepared to storm into his barricaded hotel room.

Ms Danley has never spoken publicly but was interviewed at length by FBI investigators and Las Vegas police as soon as she returned to America.

In the initial chaos of the shooting, authorities identified Ms Danley as a “person of interest” after it was revealed Paddock had used her casino ID card inside the Mandalay Bay.

People scramble for shelter at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after gun fire was heard in October 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo: David Becker

However, Las Vegas police and the FBI have since cleared her of any involvement in or knowledge of the shooting.

“I know and believe there was only one suspect who killed 58 people and injured hundreds more,” Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said in 2018.

“There was only one person responsible, and that was Stephen Paddock.”

Authorities could find no motive for Paddock’s rampage, but Ms Danley told investigators she had noticed his mental health deteriorating in the lead-up to the massacre.

People assist a wounded woman at the Tropicana during an active shooter situation on the Las Vegas Strip on Oct. 1, 2017. Photo: Chase Stevens

She said she believed there relationship was ending when he sent her to the Philippines as they had grown “distant” over the past year, according to reports released by investigators.

He was also “germaphobic” and increasingly controlling with her, not allowing Ms Danley to dye her hair or wear perfume. After the massacre Ms Danley was photographed on her return to the US in October 2017, looking frail in a wheelchair.

Since that time her appearance has changed dramatically.

Ms Danley became an Australian citizen after emigrating from the Philippines and has family members in both countries as well as the US.

Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock’s 32nd floor room of the Mandalay Bay hotel. Paddock began shooting into the crowd attending the Route 91 Music Festival from his hotel room Photo: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department

She lived with then husband Leslie Darcey in Nerang back in 1981.

By 1990 she had separated from the former boxer and was in the US where she married auditor Geary Danley but they split in 2013.

Soon afterwards she met Paddock while she was working as a high-roller hostess at Reno’s Atlantis Casino.

Ms Danley issued a statement soon after the slaughter denying any knowledge of what Paddock was planning.

“I knew Stephen Paddock as a kind, caring, quiet man,” she said.

“It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone. He never said anything to me or took any action that I was aware of that I understood in any way to be a warning that something horrible like this was going to happen.”