The girlfriend of a retiree who killed 58 people and then himself in a shooting rampage in Las Vegas arrived from the Philippines in Los Angeles, where FBI agents hoped to question her about the massacre, law enforcement officials
said.
Marilou
Danley, who U.S. authorities have described as a “person of interest”
in the investigation, left Manila on Tuesday evening aboard Philippine
Airlines Flight PR 102, according to Philippines immigration spokeswoman
Antonette Mangrobang.
The non-stop flight
arrived as scheduled at about 7:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday (0230 GMT
Wednesday) at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), according to the
airline tracking website FlightAware.com and passengers from the flight.
Mangrobang told Reuters by text message there was no information about whether Danley was traveling with anyone else.
A
police official in Manila and a law enforcement official in the United
States, both speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that
Danley left the Philippines unescorted but was being met by Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in Los Angeles.
The U.S. source said Danley was not under arrest but that the FBI hoped she would consent to be interviewed voluntarily.
The
police official in Manila said Danley’s trip back to the United States
“was coordinated with FBI authorities” and that she was returning to
clear her name of any involvement in the deadliest mass shooting in
modern U.S. history.
Stephen Paddock, her
live-in companion who killed himself moments before police stormed the
Las Vegas hotel suite he had transformed into a sniper’s nest on Sunday
night, left no clear clues about why he staged his attack on an outdoor
concert below the high-rise building.
Law
enforcement authorities are hoping to obtain some answers from Danley,
who according to public records and police shared Paddock’s condo in a
retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada, about 90 miles (145 km)
northeast of Las Vegas.
The Philippine police
official said authorities in Manila were told that Paddock used
identification belonging to Danley, who has an Australian passport, when
checking in to the Las Vegas hotel.
Investigators
are also examining a $100,000 wire transfer that Paddock sent to an
account in the Philippines that appeared to be intended for Danley, a
senior U.S. homeland security official told Reuters on Tuesday.
The
official, who has been briefed regularly on the probe but spoke on
condition of anonymity, said investigators were working on the
assumption that the money was intended as a form of life insurance
payment to Danley.
The official said U.S.
authorities were eager to question Danley about whether Paddock
encouraged her to leave the United States before going on his rampage.
Danley
arrived in Manila on Sept. 15, more than two weeks before the mass
shooting in Las Vegas, then flew to Hong Kong on Sept. 22 and returned
in Manila on Sept. 25. She was there until she flew to LAX on Tuesday
night, according to a Philippine immigration official who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
Danley,
an Australian citizen aged 62 who is reported to have been born in the
Philippines, was not seen by reporters in any public area of the LAX
arrival terminal.
A flight attendant from the
plane declined to comment, as did an airline manager at the terminal,
citing privacy concerns, when asked if they had seen Danley. One
passenger told Reuters she overheard members of the flight crew saying
that one of them had escorted Danley from the plane.
The New York Times reported Danley has a daughter who lives in Los Angeles.(The Reuters)
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