Authorities Turn Attention to Vegas Shooter's Girlfriend

Marilou Danley isn't a suspect but may be able to provide Stephen Paddock's motive
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 3, 2017 2:09 PM CDT
Stephen Paddock Wired $100K in Week Before Vegas Shooting
The Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, at left, with a broken window, stands next to the Luxor in Las Vegas, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017.   (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

The week before Stephen Paddock killed 59 people and wounded more than 500 while shooting at a country concert from a window in Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay, he wired $100,000 to an account in the Philippines, NBC News reports. It's unclear if the money was for his girlfriend, Marilou Danley, who was in the Philippines at the time of the shooting; her family; or something else. Authorities are hoping to get the answer to that question when Danley returns to the US. She is expected to arrive Wednesday. Here are more new developments on the worst mass shooting in US history:

  • NBC News also reports Paddock was gambling with at least $160,000 at Las Vegas casinos in the weeks leading up to the shooting, though it remains unclear if he was winning, losing, or a mix of both.
  • The Reno Gazette-Journal has more on Danley, 62, who worked as a high-limit hostess at a casino in Reno and lived in an apartment owned by Paddock during her divorce in 2015.
  • Exclusive photos obtained by Fox 25 show guns and ammunition scattered about the hotel room where Paddock opened fire on the crowd below.
  • Fox News has even more on Danley, who is not believed to have been involved in the shooting despite Paddock having some of her identification on him at the time of the shooting. But authorities are interested in interviewing her about a possible motive for the shooting.
  • The Islamic State claimed responsibility in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. The Atlantic reports this appears to have been one of the rare times ISIS falsely took credit for an incident, as Paddock's actions lack many hallmarks of those carried out by ISIS supporters, but it remains unclear why it did so.
  • Finally, the Guardian profiles Mesquite, Nevada, where Paddock and Danley lived in a 55-and-older community. The town is described as a 18,000-person "haven for gambling-obsessed retirees." Paddock, like most of its residents, was white and rich.
(More Stephen Paddock stories.)

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