Who Is Marilou Danley, Girlfriend Of Las Vegas Shooter Stephen Paddock?

Marilou Danley, the girlfriend and roommate of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, has come in for questioning regarding the mass shooting.

WHO IS MARILOU DANLEY

Danley, 62, had been overseas in the Philippines since Sept. 25, roughly a week before the shooting, and made her way back to the United States on Tuesday night. She is one of the few people that could have known about Paddock’s attack on Sunday night where he killed 58 people. Danley is considered a “person of interest,” though she has not been charged with any crime.

Paddock recently wired thousands of dollars to the Philippines, according to law enforcement officials. Danely flew from Manila to Los Angeles on Tuesday and was met by federal agents. NBC News posted a short clip of her in a wheelchair being escorted by security officers.

Family and friends of Danley say they were shocked to see her name in conjunction with the shooting. “She’s probably one of the most happy, outgoing, full-of-life people I’ve ever known,” said Danley’s former step-daughter Dionne Waltrip told the New York Times. “Everyone who has ever met her likes her.”

Danley is thought to have been born in the Philippines, and also spent many years in Australia, was married there, and is an Australian citizen. She married Geary Danley (Waltrip’s father) in 1990, moved to Memphis, and were together for 25 years. Both Marilou and Geary had children from previous relationships – Waltrip was 20 when her father married Marilou. She has a daughter who now lives in California.

Danley worked retail jobs, but was working at a casino in Nevada where she and Geary retired. Before their marriage ended, Marilou met Paddock at this casino, where he was a high-limit player. She eventually became his regular host. “Then she was just gone one day,” said executive casino host John Weinreich. “I asked some fellow workers and they said she went off with Stephen.” She divorced Geary in 2015 and listed her address a condo in Reno owned by Paddock in her divorce papers.

On her own, Danley was considered friendly, but also a bit of a question mark. “She was always gone,” said acquaintance Connie Allred. “She’s a hard one to keep track of. We’d be in Zumba and then all of a sudden she would say, ‘I’m leaving for a couple months,’ and then she’d be back and then she’s traveling other places.”

Paddock’s youngest brother Eric Paddock says his brother loved Danley, and that she made sacrifices for him. Though Paddock was a multimillionaire, Eric doesn’t think Danley was with him for his money. “She was probably one of the only people I’ve ever seen that he’d go out of his way to do a little thing for,” he said. “He went out of his way to be nice to her. This is not something Steve does — go out of his way. Steve expected people to wait on him for the most part. But he waited on her sometimes. He would do what she wanted to do. He would defer to her in the way that he wouldn’t to the rest of humanity. Even me.”