Unsealed Documents Show The Las Vegas Shooter's Girlfriend Acted Swiftly - The Two-Way - NPR

Unsealed Documents Show The Las Vegas Shooter's Girlfriend Acted S... https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/14/578020814/unsea...
Newly released court documents suggest the Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, acted quickly after the Oct. 1
shooting to conceal her relationship with Paddock.
Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images
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Newly released court documents show the Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend deleted her
Facebook account before police announced the identity of the gunman behind the
deadliest mass shooting in modern history.
Marilou Danley was in the Philippines visiting family when Stephen Paddock killed 58
people and injured another 557 in the Oct. 1 attack. She made changes to her Facebook
account's privacy and personal settings at 12:30 a.m., about 2 1/2 hours after the first
volley of bullets rained down on people attending a music festival on the Las Vegas
strip. The first calls about the shooting rolled in at 10:08 p.m., according to police.
At 2:46 a.m., her account was deleted entirely.
But it wasn't until nearly an hour after that — 3:30 a.m. — that police released
Paddock's name to the public.
As the New York Post reports, the documents suggest Danley acted quickly after the
shooting to conceal her relationship with Paddock.
Danley, who also lived with Paddock, has been adamant that she knew nothing about
his plans to conduct the attack.
Several hundred pages, including more than a dozen search warrants and affidavits,
were unsealed Friday by a U.S. judge in Nevada in response to a lawsuit filed by
several media outlets, despite requests from law enforcement agencies that they
remain sealed.
The documents lay out what investigators had learned about Paddock in the days
following the shooting. But they do not provide a motive for what prompted the 64-
year-old professional gambler to murder and terrorize concertgoers from 32nd floor of
the Mandalay Bay hotel before killing himself.
One affidavit includes email exchanges between centralpark1@live.com, a Microsoft

account that FBI authorities believe belonged to Paddock, and
centralpark4804@gmail.com. (It is unclear if the FBI knows who is responsible for the
latter account.) The messages were sent on July 6, 2017.
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The affidavit reads:
"...[centralpark1@live.com] sent an email to centralpark4804@gmail.com which

read, 'try an ar before u buy. we have huge selection. located in the las vegas area,'
Later the day, an email was received back from centralpark4804@gmail.com to
[centralpark1@live.com] that read, 'we have a wide variety of optics and
ammunition to try.' And lastly, [centralpark1@live.com sent an email to
centralpark4804@gmail.com that read, 'for a thrill try out bumpfire ar's with a
100 round magazine.' Investigators believe these communications may have been
related to the eventual attack that occurred at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas."
The exchanges took place nearly three months before the onslaught. And CNN reports
that "investigators at the time of the filing had been unable to determine if Paddock
was sending emails between two accounts both belonging to himself, or was
communicating with someone else."
In addition to the two email addresses, the FBI requested and was granted warrants to
search Paddock and Danley's Facebook and Instagram accounts. Paddock's Amazon
account is also under investigation, as well as a locked phone that was found in his
room at the Mandalay Bay.
The FBI has said repeatedly that Paddock acted alone. Danley has not been charged
with a crime. She has been questioned by investigators several times.
The New York Post reports, "a Nevada judge is due to hear arguments Tuesday about
whether Las Vegas police search warrant documents should remain sealed."
Correction
Jan. 14, 2018
A previous version of this story was missing the 12:30 a.m. time stamp, when investigators noted that the privacy
settings on Marilou Danley's Facebook account had been changed.
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Unsealed Documents Show The Las Vegas Shooter's Girlfriend Acted Swiftly - The Two-Way - NPR

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Unsealed Documents Show The Las Vegas Shooter's Girlfriend Acted S... https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/14/578020814/unsea...

At 2:46 a.m., her account was deleted entirely.

One affidavit includes email exchanges between centralpark1@live.com, a Microsoft

The affidavit reads:

"...[centralpark1@live.com] sent an email to centralpark4804@gmail.com which

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