LAS VEGAS (AP) - FBI agents questioned the Las Vegas gunman's girlfriend on Wednesday as they struggled to get inside the mind of Stephen Paddock, a frustratingly opaque figure who carried out his high-rise massacre without leaving the plain-sight clues often found after major acts of bloodshed.
Three days after Paddock gunned down 59 people, Marilou Danley was interviewed at the FBI's office in Los Angeles and had her attorney with her, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Danley, 62, who has been called a "person of interest" by investigators, was met by federal agents Tuesday night when she arrived at the Los Angeles airport from her native Philippines after more than two weeks abroad.
Investigators are busy reconstructing Paddock's life, behavior and the people he encountered in the weeks leading up to the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said. That includes examining his computer and cellphone.
But as of Wednesday, investigators were unable to explain what led Paddock to rain heavy fire down on a country music festival Sunday night from the windows of his 32nd-floor room at the Mandalay Bay hotel casino. More than 500 people were injured.
"This individual and this attack didn't leave the sort of immediately accessible thumbprints that you find on some mass casualty attacks," McCabe said.
The 64-year-old retired accountant quietly stockpiled an arsenal of high-powered weapons while pursuing a passion for high-stakes gambling at Nevada casinos, where his game of choice was video poker, a relatively solitary pursuit, with no dealer and no humans to play against.
Neighbors described Paddock as friendly, but he wasn't close to them.
"He was a private guy. That's why you can't find out anything about him," his brother, Eric Paddock, said from his home in Florida. As for what triggered the massacre, the brother said: "Something happened that drove him into the pit of hell."
Occasionally, Paddock shared news of his gambling winnings, his brother said, recalling a photo text message he received showing a $40,000 payout.
It was in a casino where Paddock met his girlfriend, who was a high-limit hostess for Club Paradise at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, Eric Paddock said.
"They were adorable - big man, tiny woman. He loved her. He doted on her," he said.
Danley's sisters in Australia said that they believe she was unaware of Paddock's murderous plans and that he sent her away so she wouldn't interfere.
In a TV interview in Australia, the sisters - whose faces were obscured and their names withheld - called Danley "a good person" who would have stopped Paddock had she been there.
"She didn't even know that she was going to the Philippines until Steve said, 'Marilou, I found you a cheap ticket to the Philippines,'" said one of the sisters, who live near Brisbane.
A receptionist at the office of Los Angeles-based criminal defense attorney Matthew Lombard confirmed he was representing Danley but would not comment further.
Paddock wired $100,000 to the Philippines days before the shooting, a U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly because of the continuing investigation said on condition of anonymity.
Investigators are trying to trace that money and are also looking into a dozen financial reports filed in recent weeks when Paddock bought more than $10,000 in casino chips.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump met privately with victims of the shooting at a Las Vegas hospital Wednesday.
"It's a very sad thing. We are going to pay our respects and to see the police who have done really a fantastic job in a very short time," Trump said before leaving the White House. He said authorities were "learning a lot more" about the gunman.
Paddock had no known criminal history. Public records contained no indication of any financial problems, and his brother described him as a wealthy real estate investor.
He had stockpiled 47 guns since 1982 and bought 33 of them, mostly rifles, over the past year alone, right up until three days before the attack, Jill Snyder, an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told CBS on Wednesday.
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Melley reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Jim Gomez and Teresa Cerojano in Manila, Philippines; Michael Balsamo, Brian Skoloff, Regina Garcia Cano and Sally Ho in Las Vegas; Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles; and Eric Tucker, Sadie Gurman and Tami Abdollah in Washington contributed to this report.
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