The girlfriend of Las Vegas mass murderer Stephen Paddock told the FBI he had developed ‘mental health symptoms’ and would scream at night, it has emerged.
Marilou Danley, 62, said Paddock, 64, ‘would lie in bed, just moaning and screaming, “Oh my God,”‘ according to an ex-FBI official briefed on the situation.
Investigators – who interviewed Danley after she arrived back in the US from the Philippines on Tuesday night – believe that he may have been in ‘mental or physical anguish,’ that official and another ex-FBI source told NBC News.
However, they said that detectives are still no closer to determining Paddock’s motive for the deranged shooting spree that saw him killing 59 people, including himself, and injuring 489 others.
Las Vegas mass killer Stephen Paddock (left) would scream in the night, his girlfriend, Marylou Danley (right, with Paddock) told the FBI. She said he’d had ‘mental health symptoms’. FBI say he could have been in ‘mental or physical anguish’
Danley has been speaking to the FBI since she was pictured here arriving at LAX on Tuesday night. Investigators don’t think that Paddock’s mental health had deteriorated to the point that it would have factored into his mass murder, however
Paddock’s hotel room was filled with guns, many with bump-stocks that would allow for automatic rates of fire. This was the scene after cops busted open his door to find him dead. He killed 58 people and wounded 489 others at Sunday’s festival
While Danley’s remarks suggest that Paddock was not well, investigators do not believe that his mind had deteriorated enough to set up and execute his elaborate mass-murder plan, which saw him firing on a crowd of 22,000 people at a country music festival.
Other areas now under investigation are the hour-long gap between 10:15pm, when Paddock unloaded more than 200 rounds into the hall outside his room, wounding a security guard, and 11:20pm, when police breached the room and found Paddock dead on the floor.
Paddock did not fire at all during that time. It was suggested by Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo that he may have been trying to devise a way to escape.
They are also looking at ‘six media devices’ left behind by Paddock, including his web browsing history.
His web history also led to the discovery, announced today, that he had apparently been scoping out other major events over the past year.
In August he booked a hotel room overlooking Lollapalooza in Chicago – the massively popular rock event that saw appearances by The Killers, Chance the Rapper and Muse, and that was visited by Malia Obama.
According to TMZ, Paddock – who lived in Nevada, 90 minutes from Las Vegas – booked two rooms at the Blackstone Hotel, overlooking Grant Park, where Lollapalooza has been held since 2005.
He made the booking using Expedia and insisted on a ‘view room’ that would overlook the festival, which ran on August 3-6, and also demanded he be notified in advance if such a room was unavailable.
However, officials said that he did not show up to the hotel for the booking.
He also researched possible locations in Boston online, according to multiple reports.
Anonymous officials said that Paddock looked for hotels near Fenway Park, where the Red Sox play and the Boston Center for the Arts.
It was not known if the gunman went as far as making any reservations, but an officer speaking to NBC News under condition of anonymity said that no hotels give a view over the park.
It also emerged Thursday that Paddock had rented two rooms at the Blackstone Hotel (left) in Chicago on August 3-6 – in time for the Lollapalooza festival. Seen right is the festival from the Blackstone. Cops said he never turned to to the booking
This view shows show Paddock would have had an excellent vantage point over the festival – and could theoretically have opened fire on festivalgoers. Chillingly, his hotel aligns almost perfectly with the Children’s Stage
‘We are aware of the media reports and have been in communication with our federal partners,’ a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department said.
‘As you saw earlier this week the city conducts extensive public safety planning and training around major events, in close coordination with our law enforcement partners, to ensure public safety.’
It was confirmed by Lombardo yesterday that Paddock had also hired out a condo overlooking another Las Vegas festival, Life is Beautiful, which ran on September 22-24.
Depending on its precise position and elevation, the condo, which he booked on Airbnb, could have allowed him to open fire on the main stage, as well as several blocks of the 15-block festival.
It’s unclear whether he had intended to attack that event, and if so why he had not done so.
Coincidentally, performers at Life is Beautiful included Muse and Chance the Rapper, who both played the main stage – and were also at Lollapalooza.