The Australian girlfriend of Las Vegas gunman claims she believed her then-boyfriend sent her to the Philippines and wired her $100,000 in order to break up with her.
Marilou Danley, 62, said in a statement through her lawyer that then-boyfriend Stephen Paddock, 64, had brought her a ‘cheap’ ticket to the Philippines two weeks ago, out of the blue.
According to Danley, he suggested she visit her family, something she was happy to do.
But when he wired the large sum of money to her during her time there, she began to worry that he was planning on breaking up with her.
She claims she had no idea that Paddock was planning Sunday’s rampage, which claimed 59 lives, including his own, and injured 527 people.
In a prepared statement read out by her lawyer, Matt Lombard, Danley said, ‘I knew Stephen Paddock as a kind, caring, quiet man. I loved him and hoped for a quiet future together with him. 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.’
The statement continued, ‘A little more than two weeks ago, Stephen said he found a cheap ticket for me to the Philippines and that he wanted me to take a trip to see my family. Like all Filipinos abroad, I was excited to go home and see family and friends. While there, he wired me money which he said was for me to buy a house for me and my family. I was grateful, but honestly I was worried that first, the unexpected trip home and then the money, was a way of breaking up with me. It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone.’
‘I have not made a statement until now because I am cooperating with the authorities and I voluntarily flew back to America because I knew that the FBI and Las Vegas police department wanted to talk to me – and I wanted to talk to them. I will cooperate fully with their investigation, and anything I can do to help ease suffering or help in any way, I will do.’
Lombard left without answering questions.
A law enforcement official said FBI agents began questioning Danley on Wednesday for clues to what drove Stephen Paddock to slaughter 59 people from his high-rise hotel suite.
The official said she was interviewed at the bureau’s field office in Los Angeles and was with her attorney.
Her sisters have since broken their silence, speaking to 7 News they insist Danley was unaware of Paddock’s motives, while her brother says she told him she has a ‘clean conscience’.
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