Suspected Las Vegas gunman sent girlfriend away, sisters say

The suspected gunman in the attack that killed 59 people and wounded hundreds more in Las Vegas Sunday night sent his girlfriend away to the Philippines in the days leading up to the attack.

Fox News reported on Wednesday that Stephen Paddock sent his girlfriend, Marilou Danley, to her home country of the Philippines without any explanation before his murderous attack on concert attendees on the Las Vegas strip. Paddock also wired at least $100,000 to the country in the days before the shooting.

{mosads}

Hundreds of people were injured when Paddock allegedly opened fire from the window of a hotel room on a crowd attending a country music concert in the streets below.

Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said at a news conference that the number of weapons found showed that Paddock planned his attack extensively.

“The fact that he had the type of weaponry and the amount of weaponry in that [hotel] room — it was preplanned extensively,” Lombardo said. “I’m pretty sure he evaluated everything that he did in his actions.”

According to Danley’s sisters in the Philippines, Paddock sent the 62-year-old to her home country so she would not “interfere” with his planned attack.

“She was sent away. She was away so that she will not be there to interfere with what he’s planning,” one of Danley’s sisters said.

“No one can put the puzzles together,” she added. “No one except Marilou. Because Steve is not here to talk anymore. Only Marilou can maybe help.”

Federal authorities took Danley into questioning when she arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, but say they do not consider her a suspect in the investigation and have removed the “person of interest” designation from her name.

“[Danley] probably was even [more] shocked than us because she is … closer to him than us,” one of her sisters said on a local news station. “To be able to find out [that] the person you love and live with can do such a thing. And you thought you knew the person yourself.”

Danley, an Australian citizen, was born in the Philippines and lived in Mesquite, Nev., with Paddock.