UPDATE: 7:30 p.m. PT — In a statement read by her lawyer on Wednesday, Marilou Danley said she was “devastated” by the deaths and injuries in Sunday’s shooting in Las Vegas. She said Stephen Paddock “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.”
Marilou Danley, the girlfriend of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, returned to the United States from the Philippines on Tuesday night and was escorted by authorities for questioning, unnamed sources told CNN.
Danley reportedly arrived at Los Angeles International Airport from the Philippines at about 7:30 p.m. PT and was being escorted by the FBI in the city as Las Vegas police planned to question her there.
She was not under arrest.
Coverage of the Las Vegas shooting on Globalnews.ca:
Danley is considered a “person of interest” in the investigation into the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
Fifty-nine people were killed after Paddock fired a semi-automatic gun on to a crowd of 22,000 people from his 32nd-floor hotel room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on Sunday night.
Danley was in the Philippines at the time of the attack; she had arrived there from Hong Kong on Sept. 25, said Philippines immigration spokeswoman Antonette Mangrobang.
READ MORE: Las Vegas shooting: First look inside gunman Stephen Paddock’s hotel room
She reportedly returned to the U.S. on Tuesday to clear her name of any connection to the shooting.
Police hope she can provide some answers as to why Paddock carried out the attack.
The pair had shared a condo in Mesquite, Nev.
Paddock reportedly used Danley’s identification when he checked into the Mandalay Bay hotel.
Authorities are also looking into a $100,000 money transfer that Paddock had made to the Philippines in the days before the attack took place.
An unnamed official said investigators were working under an assumption that the money would serve as a form of life insurance payment for Danley.
In an interview with an Australian news network, Danley’s sisters, who were not identified, say they believe Paddock sent her away so he could carry out the deadly rampage.
“She was sent away. She was away so that she will not be there to interfere with what he’s planning,” a sister said.
According to Australia Seven News, the sisters said Danley was wired $127,000.
“She didn’t even know that she was going to the Philippines until Steve said ‘Marilou, I found you a cheap ticket to the Philippines,” a sister claimed.
They said Danley is “a good person” and the shooting rampage may not have happened if their sister was there.
“Maybe if Marilou was there this maybe as well didn’t happen because she won’t let it happen,” a sister said.
- With files from Global News reporter Adam Frisk, Reuters and The Associated Press