Marilou Danley: What did she know and when did she know it?
By Cristina DC Pastor
The name Marilou – a charming nickname for someone called Maria Lourdes – was the first indication the Las Vegas gunman’s companion was likely a Filipina. It was quickly picked up by Filipinos on social media who began to toss the curious question: Could she be Filipina?
Marilou Danley initially became a “person of interest” when Stephen Paddock opened fire on a country music concert in Las Vegas on October 1, killing 59 people and injuring at least 500 others. Reports are now saying that Danley has been located, cleared of any participation in the mass shooting, and is “no longer a person of interest.” Paddock, a resident of Nevada, has killed himself in the hotel room where he sprayed the concert crowd with bullets, a horrific act of mass murder said to be the deadliest in U.S. history.
Whether Marilou was indeed cleared of everything that had to do with Paddock’s rampage has yet to be officially stated. She is said to be in the Philippines so she couldn’t have been a direct participant in the shooting, but questions remain: What is she doing in the Philippines? Does she know about Paddock’s plans? What does she know about him stockpiling weapons? The questions asked of Richard Nixon in Watergate are now being asked of Marilou Danley: What did she know and when did she know it? The investigation continues.
This initial photo of Marilou was issued by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police.
This much we know now about the 62-year-old Filipina who is at the center of massive and intense speculation about the Vegas attack, much of the information coming from the Reno Gazette-Journal and the Washington Post.
Marilou was previously married to an Australian man, Geary Danley, and they lived in Indonesia before moving to the U.S. This explains the initially mistaken report identifying Marilou as an Indonesian woman. The couple married in Las Vegas in 1990, and divorced in 2015. Reports say Marilou started living in a condominium owned by Paddock in 2013. It does not say they lived together at the time.
The two began to live together in Nevada around 2015. It appeared like they moved around a couple of times ending up in a retirement community in Southern Nevada. Neighbors described the couple as reclusive who mostly kept to themselves, although Marilou – who neighbors believed was the girlfriend — would occasionally speak to neighbors. Paddock was seen as “aggressively unfriendly.”
The National Federation of Filipino American Associations or NaFFAA issued a statement condemning the Las Vegas shooting.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the innocent lives lost and wounded in the shooting,” said NaFFAA National Chairman Brendan Flores, who is from Clark County in Nevada, home to 145,000 Filipino Americans. “We must join together in the spirit of community to act as lights in the face of darkness.”
There was no mention of Marilou Danley in the NaFFAA statement, acknowledging her Filipino ethnicity.
© 2017 The FilAm
