The girlfriend of the Las Vegas mass shooter has returned to the United States after traveling abroad for the week and will now be at the center of the investigation into the horrific attack as authorities try to pin down a motive for Stephen Paddock’s deadly rampage.
Paddock’s girlfriend, 62-year-old Marilou Danley, was in the Philippines at the time of the shooting. She was greeted by FBI agents at Los Angeles’ airport late Tuesday night and will be questioned about the mass shooting, the Associated Press reports.
Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, who has described Danley as a “person of interest” in the attack, said that law enforcement anticipates “some information from her shortly,” adding that he is “absolutely” sure that authorities will be able to determine Paddock’s motive.
Danley, for her part, arrived in the Philippines on Sept. 15, according to immigration documents, and then left Sept. 22 before returning three days later on a flight from Hong Kong. Danley was traveling on an Australian passport.
Philippines immigration-bureau spokesperson Antonette Mangrobang offered assurances that authorities there were working with U.S. officials on the case.
“From the very beginning, we have been providing them necessary information that would aid their investigation,” Mangrobang said.
Danley’s siblings, who live in Australia, did an interview with a local channel, saying that they believe Paddock, 64, sent their sister away so that she could not interfere with what he was planning.
The sisters, whose names were not given and whose faces were blocked in the interview, said that Danley could not have possibly known what Paddock was going to do, describing their sister as a “good person” who would have stopped Paddock had she been there, AP notes.
Another sister said that they believed Danley knew about Paddock’s guns, but not how many he had.
“She probably was even [more] shocked than us because she is more closer to him than us,” her sister said.
Paddock transferred some $100,000 to the Philippines in the days before the shooting, authorities say. Investigators are still trying to trace the money, as well as look over other financial reports that indicate Paddock gambled more than $10,000 a day.
Lombardo also noted that investigators were handling the investigation carefully in case criminal charges could be brought against someone else.
“This investigation is not ended with the demise of Mr. Paddock,” the sheriff said. “Did this person get radicalized unbeknownst to us? And we want to identify that source.”
President Donald Trump is expected to travel to Las Vegas on Wednesday to meet with public officials, first responders and some of the more than 500 people who were injured in the shooting.
Read more at the Chicago Tribune.