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, who was in the Philippines visiting family when Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured another 557 in the attack, started making changes to her Facebook account 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 rolled in at 10:08 p.m., according to police.
At 12:30 a.m., Danley's Facebook account was set to private.
At 2:46 a.m. — about two hours and 15 minutes later — her account was deleted entirely.
But it wasn't until an 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 [email protected], a Microsoft account that FBI authorities believe belonged to Paddock, and [email protected]. (It is unclear if the FBI knows who is responsible for the latter account.) The messages were sent on July 6, 2017,
The affidavit reads:
"...[[email protected]] sent an email to [email protected] 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 [email protected] to [[email protected]] that read, 'we have a wide variety of optics and ammunition to try.' And lastly, [[email protected] sent an email to [email protected] 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 were 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."
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