Vegas gunman’s girlfriend told investigators her fingerprints would probably be on ammo. And they were
January 13, 2018 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Her fingerprints were on the ammunition. Her casino players’ card was found in his room. Investigators scoured her social media accounts and emails — one of which he, Stephen Paddock, had access to.
Marilou Danley may not have been present when Paddock unleashed a furious barrage of bullets down on a crowd of 20,000 at a Las Vegas country music festival, killing 58 people and wounding more than 500 others, but her links to his life seemed to be everywhere.
The facts about Danley were among the details revealed when a U.S. District Court judge in Las Vegas unsealed more than 300 pages of search warrants and affidavits at the request of several media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times. The request was unopposed by prosecutors.
But why the 64-year-old Paddock shot up the Route 91 Harvest festival on Oct. 1 remains a mystery, and the search warrants — despite revealing his large cache of weaponry — raise more questions than answers about his actions and motive.
Paddock came to Las Vegas with an arsenal — more than 20 firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and spent casings were found in his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino. Other search warrants revealed more than 1,000 rounds and 100 pounds of explosive material in his car.
Authorities also recovered 18 firearms and more than 1,000 rounds at Paddock’s house in Mesquite, Nev. A “large quantity of firearms” was recovered from another residence he had in Reno.
The search warrants also covered electronic accounts and social media accounts of Paddock and Danley. They revealed an exchange about a money wire transfer. Danley returned from a trip to the Philippines days after the shooting, but wasn’t arrested when she arrived in the United States.
According to an affidavit, Danley was identified early on “as the most likely person who aided or abetted Stephen Paddock based on her informing law enforcement that her fingerprints would likely be found on the ammunition used during the attack.”
Centerpark4804@gmail.com that read “we have a wide variety of optics and ammunition to try.”
Then Paddock sent an email to centralpark4804@gmail.com that read: “for a thrill try out bumpfire ar’s with 100 round magazine.”
In the affidavit, investigators said they believed the communications may have been related to the eventual attack. Authorities have said Paddock used a “bump stock,” a device that can make semiautomatic guns mimic the rapid fire of automatic weapons.
But FBI investigators appeared perplexed by the exchange.
“Investigators have been unable to figure out why Stephen Paddock would be exchanging messages related to weapons that were utilized in the attack between two of his email accounts. Conversely, if the Target Account was not controlled by Stephen Paddock, investigators need to determine who was communicating with him about weapons that were used in the attack,” according to a warrant.
There was also a warrant that revealed Paddock’s room at Mandalay Bay had three cellphones. Two were unlocked, but “neither contained significant information that allowed investigators to determine the full scope of Stephen Paddock’s planning and preparation for the attack.”
The third phone, however, was unable to be unlocked, the affidavit said.
david.montero@latimes.com
Twitter: @davemontero
UPDATES:
10:05 p.m.: The story was updated with additional details from court records about Marilou Danley.
7:10 p.m.: The story was updated with details from the warrants about weapons and ammunition.
The story was originally published at 5:05 p.m.
