Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Wife reveals Vegas massacre terror, how hero-husband saved her & her search for mystery man

Episode Date: October 5, 2017

Beri and Jason Adams described how they escaped the intense gunfire raining down on them at the Harvest 91 festival in Las Vegas Sunday. "We were pretty much caged in there, there was no way out," Jason says. People were so desperate to flee, they left behind shows, purses and sunglasses. Once out, they flagged down a passing car, driven by a young man named Eric. If you know Eric, let us know at [e-mail]. Investigative reporter Art Harris, psycho analyst Dr. Bethany Marshall and crime scene investigator Sheryl McCollum also discuss the latest in the probe. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. February 2004, Maura Murray empties her bank account, drives four hours from school, crashes her car, and vanishes. Join the search as an investigative reporter uncovers new evidence, interrogates new witnesses, traces down new leads in this riveting new investigative series, The Disappearance of Maura Murray, Saturdays, 7, 6 Central and 9, 8 Central on Oxygen, the new network for crime. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph, Channel 132. A chillingly meticulous plan put together by Stephen Paddock, which included weapons modified into machine guns.

Authorities recovering a total of 47 firearms, including that startling arsenal found in his hotel room. Thousands of rounds of ammunition. He fired off and on for somewhere between 9 and 11 minutes. 47 firearms have been recovered. These firearms were recovered from three different locations. It was a hotel security guard who may have stopped the slaughter. He was advancing towards the room when the suspect fired through the door at the security guard. Panic was able to shoot the guard through the door. He was able to provide additional information to the police

on exactly which room that we were looking at. That wounded security guard providing crucial intelligence to SWAT teams, who about an hour later breached that door. Breach, breach, breach. All eyes on Las Vegas, Nevada as we try to unravel what happened to so many victims. Joining me, Art Harris, investigative reporter, five-time Emmy Award winner, Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst out of L.A., death scene investigator, Joe Scott Morgan, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University. And joining me right now is a very special guest,

a woman who was there and lived to tell the tale. Barry Adams is joining us. She was there at that Country Music Festival, heard the shots, and survived, and she is joining us now. Barry, thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me. Barry, as now the news is that possibly

this guy's girlfriend knew what was going on and took a flight out of town just after the shooter funnels her $100,000. I'd like to hear in your own words what happened just as Jason Aldean took the stage. Okay, so Jason came on stage and he did two songs and then he talked just a little bit basically about how he was not going to be talking or, you know, doing a lot of dancing. He was just going to be playing music. And then he proceeded to do two more songs and it was in I believe that fourth song that you started to hear the gunfire and he stopped and he turned around and he ran off stage. When you first heard the gunfire joining me is Barry Adams who lived through the Vegas massacre. When you first heard it, I've listened to it over and over, Barry. It sounds like popping, like fireworks or something.

It did sound a little bit like fireworks, but I think that I quickly knew that it was not fireworks because it was in perfect succession. So, you know, I've been around guns. I've been around gunfire. And I knew that that's not what was happening. What did you do? You hear this.

And what happened? I turned around and looked at my husband and we knelt down on the ground and we immediately prayed. And then I kind of got up underneath him. He got on top of me. I pulled out my phone and I text my boys. So you hear gunfire and drop to your knees and pray. Immediately, immediately. What did you say? Well, I first prayed that this was not gunfire, but I knew in the back of my head that it was. And then I just prayed that God would be with us because I knew that I couldn't do this on my own. Barry, where were you positioned?

Where were you sitting? If you're facing the stage, we were standing to the left side. And we were very close, maybe 10 or 15 yards from the stage. So we were very close to the stage. After you had knelt down and prayed, what happened then? Well, like I said, my husband kind of got on top of me. I pulled out my phone. I was on my knees.

And I texted my boys and my mom that I loved them more than they knew. And then he finished emptying that clip. And so we had about 10 or 15 seconds. And I told my husband, we got to get out of here. We have to run. Wait, wait, it's hard for me to take it in. I remember the moment a doctor doctors had told me that they had found a mass on my ovaries and that it had grown very, very aggressively. And I had to leave the doctor. I remember it was pouring rain, and I went to pick the children up. I think there were about three at play school. And I remember that moment thinking, how many more days will I be able to pick them up?

What's going to happen? Am I going to see them grow up? What's going to happen? Am I going to see them grow up? And I remember that moment when they came running to me that morning at play school. And I'm just trying to get a mental picture of you, Barry, texting your children that you love them and your family. I mean, what was going through your mind? That I had to get back to my boys. That's where I was running to. I was running to my boys. How old are they? 14 and 16 years old.

Just really right when they need you the most. Yeah. I mean, anybody can change a diaper or give a baby a bottle, but it's when they're growing up and they need their mother and they need their father to guide them and help them to get them across the finish line that's when i think they need you the most barry what what did you text them i love you more than you know that was it when you were texting your children, what was happening around you? What did you see?

What did you hear? Um, I heard gunshots was the, the loudest and, uh, people were screaming. And, uh,

by the time we got over the, the, uh, first and second fence, you could hear people starting, starting to break windows out of the buildings to try to get inside of buildings. People were putting people in the back of trucks.

Yeah, people were hurt. It just, it sounded like the closest thing I could imagine to being in a war. It was very disorienting. It was dark and the gunshots were reverberating. So you couldn't tell where they were coming from. So you could have been running toward the shooter. You don't really know if you're running toward or away. You were just trying to get out. What was the crowd doing? A lot of people were just trying to get down, which didn't help anybody because the gunshots were coming from above.

But, you know, when you hear gunshots, you think get down. I had actually read or watched, I can't remember, active shooter training. And I remember it was shocking to me because I, my first thought was always to get down or to play dead. And he said, that's actually not what you need to do. If you're in an open space, you need to run. So that came in very handy for me because I knew to run. And I think a lot of people did not. I just don't know you had the presence of mind to even think. You know, it just came, it was in the back of my head. And I had talked to my boys about it. Unfortunately,

you know, hey, this is what you need to do. If you're ever in a situation with a shooter, we had gone over it, what you needed to do in the different situations. And it just came. It just came forward, you know. So what did you do to try and escape uh well the first time we ran we ran to a bar area where they were serving food and we jumped over it and got underneath that and then we realized that there was no hard surface it was just cloth and canvas so then we ran to so that was not going to protect you so So you had to keep going. And when you ran to the beverage area, what did you see around you? The people behind the counter were not, they, no, a lot of people were not responding. They just, they were not, they didn't understand

what was happening. And even one of the guys behind the counter looked at me and said, it's just a speaker. I said, it's not a speaker and you need to run. They just didn't understand what was happening. So we ran from that area when it stopped again to the fence. And the fence was about 10 feet high. So I couldn't get my boots into the fence to scale it there happened to be a gator like an atv there I climbed up on the gator and then I was able to get over the fence the first fence um and then and all this time the shots are still ringing out

constant with only a 10 or 15 second stop in between. It was horrifying. You just thought they're coming and there's more than one and you don't know where it's coming from. So then we get to another fence and people had pushed that fence down and we're going over that fence and a girl had her foot caught in it, her leg. and my husband stopped and helped her get her leg out because she was literally just pinned and trapped there. People were going over her. I hope you remember that in the future when you look at it like every wife does. Why did I marry him?

Do you remember that moment that he stopped and he helped that woman get her leg out? Yeah. I think it all the time. And I look at my husband and I remember when he saved me from drowning one time, he risked his own life to save me. And I remember that when I feel like D I V O R C E. So your husband actually stopped and helped another person get their leg out. Yes. and you saw so much of that people were very very kind people were trying not to trample each other they were covering each other everybody was really working together it was it was good that was good i just can't imagine it

was dark you heard the gunfire. It wasn't stopping. A lot of people were screaming. A lot of people didn't even know what was going on and said, oh, it's the speakers. Okay, so you get over the second fence. Then what happens? Well, by then, I started to struggle a little bit because I think I had so much adrenaline in me. I started to have trouble breathing. I started to have trouble breathing. I started to have trouble walking.

I just, I was shutting down and my husband just kept, you know, at that point he was keeping me going, you know, I didn't think I could run any further, but he, um, he kept me going and we were going down a street and we just saw this. How was he keeping you going? He was just pulling me. He was just pulling my arm and saying, come on, we got to keep going. We got to keep going. You can do it. We got to keep going. And then we saw a guy.

He just saw a guy, a young guy drive down the street and he just flagged him down and said, hey, you know, I'll give you 40 bucks if you'll just take us back to our hotel right now. And the guy said, what's going on? And he said, you know, there's a shooting and just please take us back to our hotel. And it was just a young kid. And he said, sure. And we got in the car and he took us back to our hotel, which was not on the strip. It was a couple blocks away. He would not take our money. And before he left, he said, you know, I just I live in that

area. And I'm going to go back and see if I can get some more people out of there. I mean, that's incredible. Whoever he is, God bless him. Because no one will ever know that that guy was helping people. Can I ask you something? What went through your mind when you saw your boys again? I don't know if there's any words. I was just so thankful for that opportunity, you know, just the opportunity to continue to do this, to be their mom. I want to pause and thank our partner who is making our SiriusXM 132 program possible.

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Joining me right now is a very special guest, a woman who was there, Las Vegas, Nevada, and lived to tell the tale. Terry, when you now hear that you and your husband were victims of the biggest mass shooting in U.S. history, what do you think? What do you feel? I don't know. I think I'm still in a little bit of shock. You know, I'm still just, it's surreal. Like it happened, but it didn't happen. And that's so strange. It's such. Like it happened, but it didn't happen. And that's so strange. It's such a strange feeling. I know in my mind that there are people that are not going home to their families. It's just, I mean, there's no rhyme or reason to, you know, what happened.

It's just, it's sad. It's so sad. And I don't know how to explain it to my boys you know we're doing the best we can but it's really hard you know my main concern was we didn't sleep all night and I wanted to make sure that I called and got a hold of my oldest son before he got up for school and looked at his phone or turned on the TV and just experienced the, you know, that feeling. I wanted just him to know that we were okay. We were coming home.

What did your sons do when they saw their mom? They just hugged me. They just hugged me and hugged me. They didn't cry, but my son texts me, you know, several times when he went back to school the next day to make sure I was okay, so I knew it was on their mind. Before this incident, they would always tell me, don't mom me, you're so crazy, you warned me about all this stuff, and you're so overprotective.

I don't think they're going to. You know, I just want to rip this earpiece out and run to my children right now and my husband and my mom just thinking what went through your mind and what went through your heart and when you wanted to just stop running and hide the way you said just and to look back and think so many other people didn't make it and people that are wounded may still pass away. The death count can go up. It's just, and then of course you're going to wonder why did I make it and they didn't make it. What about all the other parents that didn't make it?

Exactly. I just am grateful that you did now your husband jason right is he right there with you yes can he pick up for a sec sure hold on hello okay jason i'm just hearing from your, Barry, about what you did during the shooting. When you first heard the bullets, what did you think it was? You know, I actually thought it was a helicopter because the way that it was reverberating off all the buildings was a very odd sound. And it was really tough to tell what it was. We heard gunshots.

We know what gunshots sound like, but hearing him in succession like that, like, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta, it almost sounded like some kind of helicopter was trying to take off. And a lot of people were looking that direction. So when did you realize they were actually bullets? I think we finally realized it was bullets when Jason Aldean actually missed the lyric and was looking left. And he kind of stopped singing, but the band was playing. And then he ducked and ran off the stage is when we kind of were like, this is something really serious. What did you do when you saw Aldine leave the stage?

Thank God, because he's an open target too, right up there on the stage. What did you do? Well, she turned around on me immediately, and then she, I mean, like she told you on the phone here, that it was just amazing to see her kneel down and immediately start praying, and I knelt down with her and started praying as well. And then I saw other people around to start to kneel, and that's when she crawled up underneath me, and I kind of covered her to kind of see.

We thought the shooter was ground level. We had no idea the shooter was, you know, elevated position. So as far as we knew, he was walking through the gates you know shot security guards and was working his way through the crowd so we thought as you know low as possible would be the best scenario but after that first you know 60 rounds or whatever he was shooting it could have been 100 rounds so all we know was done that's when we got up and she looked at me and said, we got to run. And so we ran and she literally dove behind this counter that was, we thought was a hard surface on the outside, but we found out once we got behind it, that it was actually just made of cloth.

Everything was skeleton, if you know anything about these festivals, there's nothing hard surface. So then what happened? And once we were behind there, other women were literally jumping and diving and hitting, like sliding so hard across the countertops, their bodies were slamming into the, into the, into the food service, little trailers. And I was like, ladies, y'all need to be careful because at that point, you know, they could almost kill themselves or hurt themselves just the way that they were jumping and diving head first. And then I'm looking for something hard surface because I see that the fact that the outer part of the counter is just nothing but cloth.

And Barry's got her back up against it. And I said, baby, you can't stay up there. What if they could shoot straight through that surface? So I'm looking for something hard. There was a cooler I tried to roll in the way, but I quickly realized that that just wasn't going to work because at that moment in time, the second, you know, clips of bullets were starting to fly and, you know, people were running and screaming everywhere. And then we kind of both, I guess we both had decided that we have to get out of here at this point. And we had spent the last two evenings on that left side. And there's like a little tower in the corner. We both

just ran towards that tower. And there's a perimeter fence there. If a little tower in the corner. We both just ran towards that tower. And there's a perimeter fence there. If you guys have seen the news, we were pretty much caged in there. There was no way out. So there was only one exit. And it was back at the beginning. So there was this huge, you know, nine-foot fence there. And Barry started to run to the left.

And I called her back. I said, no, no, no. And I saw some people jumping up on top of a gator and springing over the fence. I said, we have to go this way. What's a gator? It's kind of like a four wheeler, but you know, it's, uh, people use them on farms or, you know, they also use them, you know, it's like an all terrain vehicle, but it's got a roof. Gotcha. So they climb up on that and then get over the fence. Because the fence was so high, there's no way she could have made it, you know, as a woman. And

there, and remember this is, there's a lot of women here. There was a lot of women at these concerts, women with their young children, as far as girls, teenagers that wanted to see country music. So that's what I was in fear of, is that there's women everywhere. So as we're going over, there's also other women going over the fence as well.

And there was another man on the other side that was trying to help some of the women drop because it's another you know nine foot drop on the other side barry actually tore up her leg a lot oh man she told you that she's got scrapes and bruises all the way down her right leg i know i know i saw a photo of what happened to her legs just totally destroyed trying to jump back over so you get up you get her and other people over the fence to take off running yeah we cross the other fence and then what happened well yeah we well the other fence was she was trying to go down towards the parking lot because again you still hear the bullets because it's just he's continually to unload bullets and we have no idea where this

person is or if there's more than one or whatever. It's just complete chaos at this point. And there's another perimeter fence that I see people pushing at that, at that same moment, like it's, it's already kind of down, but people are pushing. And this one lady was like trapped, all tangled up in the, in one of the wires. And as people are just flying past her, she stops. She's like, please help me. I'm like, my leg is caught. And, you know, people don't mean to push, but they're kind of pushing in that, in that situation. They're trying to get around you because they're just wanting to get away. So I'm untangling this lady's leg. And she is so thankful because, you know, once a mob of people run over you like that, you can just literally die just from being trampled and,

and, and being trapped up underneath, you know, this situation. So she got out and then there was, there was Nancy, there were shoes, purses, sunglasses. I mean, you taught everything just, just littered everywhere as people just dropping whatever they had in their hands and running. And we saw boots laying on the ground where people had literally ran out of their boots, just escaping the situation. Once we got over that, past that second fence, you know, like Barry was saying, her adrenaline has gone. She's wiped out, right? So we just continue to keep running down this road and people are breaking windows. It sounds like trying to get into some of these buildings that directly behind the uh the complex like maybe it's some

office suites or something just trying to seek shelter i don't know why but that was disorienting as well because you're thinking why are they breaking windows are they just trying to seek shelter and all this time you can hear bullets ringing out just bullets bullets bullets bullets with me is jason adams this is barry's, both survivors of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Jason, when you hear of things like that CBS lawyer, thank goodness CBS fired her. Yes. It says she really didn't have any sympathy for the victims because they're all probably gun-toting Republicans. I mean, why would somebody say something like that?

I don't know. I think if you look at the statement released by Jason Aldean, I think it really hits the mark when he talks about, we're not Republicans, we're not Democrats, we're all Americans. There's no black-white. I couldn't agree with him more. I mean, I just can't get over it. I mean, I love country music, and I wouldn't have a gun in the house for any reason. I'm a gun violence victim. Right.

And I think that's just so hurtful on top of everything else these victims have lived through. Well, I think you're profiling people. I actually had friends because the company that I work for is based out of California, and we had friends there from California. And, you know, there's a lot of Democrats in California. I just hate that people are not caring about the victims that have lived through so much. I've got to ask you, when you saw, when you realized that you guys were safe, that you and Barry were safe, that moment that you realized you were safe, what did you do?

I think we were just holding hands and comforting each other in the car and realizing that we had finally got away. This young man, his name was Eric, I forgot how to call, was able to pick us up on the street. And he was driving blind into it as well. He didn't know. We actually have his picture. She took his picture when we got out of the car because he was just such a good guy.

You send it to me, and I'll put it on Crime Online. We'll try to find him and thank him. Okay, yeah. Let me ask you a question. When you first saw your boys again back home, and I'll put it on Crime Online. We'll try to find him and thank him. Okay, yeah. Let me ask you a question. When you first saw your boys again back home, what went through your mind? What went through your heart?

I think that the moment we walked in, both boys had realized just the... Because for a long time, Nancy, we didn't realize what the severity of the situation was. We didn't realize how many people on the other side, like I told you some of my friends from California, they actually went through the other perimeter fence. They saw some of the carnage and just the destruction this man had caused. And, you know, it wasn't until the morning hours we realized just how bad it was. We buried it in sleep at all. You know, I have been through so many homicides and so many homicide scenes and autopsies.

And when you see bullets that have ripped through people's bodies and destroyed everything inside a human being, it's horrible. Jason. They're people just like you and me. I mean, these people with lives, with families, with children, you know, with mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters. And there they are. And, you know, they they didn't they were just out there just enjoying themselves. This was a family festival. They're playing cornhole. We were we were watching the line dancers just moments before on the on the other side, on the Mandalay Bay side, before we decided to walk over. We could have been right there in that path of destruction.

Jason, I got one more question for you. When you got down on your knees with your wife, Barry, and you prayed as the bullets were being fired, what did you pray? We just prayed that God be with us at that moment because we needed something. We needed some kind of comforting at that point because we knew that there was something really bad about to happen. We just prayed for God to be with us and for it not to be a gun. Please, God, don't let that be a gun because we knew that there were 30,000 plus people at that festival, men, women, children, and it was just, it could have

been something. It is something, just completely unimaginable destruction. Jason and Barry Adams, you really don't know what speaking to us and all of our listeners has meant to us. And I want to thank you. And you go be with your boys. Thank you. Art Harris, we now are hearing the girlfriend of the Vegas shooter was met by the FBI at LAX when she gets back from the Philippines in a wheelchair. She is a person of interest as details of her double life begin to emerge. What do we know, Art? Nancy, we know that Mary Lou Danley was living with the shooter,

Steven Paddock, in a small town outside Las Vegas, Keaton, Nevada. She took off for Japan shortly before this happened. And we know that this man was up in the 32nd floor suite that the hotel had comped him for because he was an avid gambler who frequented the people below we just heard from had no idea they were being shot at by a man who had 23 guns in his room they were retrofitted to fire hundreds of rounds a minute, and he was moving from gun to gun. Now, as far as Mary Lou Danley goes, we don't know. She's not considered to be connected to the crime, but he did wire this Stephen Paddock, retired CPA, 64 years old.

He did wire $100,000 to an unknown account in the Philippines where she is from. Well, we also know something else, Art, and I'm going to throw this to you, Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst out of L.A. We also know from her sister that she was purposefully sent away by the Vegas shooter who told her he got her some cheap flights home two weeks before the shooting. So he intentionally sent her away. Yeah, I think that's so interesting that he sent her away because it tells me that this is not something that came from out of the blue for him.

He was planning this for a long, long time, Nancy. This was not spontaneous. And, you know, all the reports I read, people are saying, we don't know what the motive is. It's inexplicable that somebody would have done this. Nancy, I feel like I do know what the motive is. If you really know anything about the psychopathic mind, and we talked about this a lot over the years, psychopaths are prone to boredom. They have inner emptiness. It's a part of the character pathology. It's the same character pathology as the serial killer. So you know how serial killers can just pop up, kill somebody,

go into hiding for months or years, then they pop up and they kill again. It's because the fantasies about killing are in a sense their antidote to the inner deadness and the inner boredom. They have a very rich fantasy life. So I think with Stephen Paddock, he was probably one of these people who was sort of like a thrill seeker through the gambling and some of his other activities, and that the collecting of the guns was a part of his secret life designed to be very stimulating and fantasy-filled for him. And when he finally got to the point where he got up

the courage to commit the crime, to perpetrate the crime and to fulfill all of these fantasies, that's when he sent her out of the country. Take a listen to what the Vegas gunman's girlfriend's lawyer, that's right, she's all lawyered up, has to say. I have a statement to read from my client, Mary Lou Danley. I am devastated by the deaths and injuries that have occurred. And my prayers go out to the victims and their families and all those who have been hurt by these awful events. Americans strewn across a field along with trash, food, shoes as people literally ran out of their shoes trying to get away. A complete nightmare for everyone attending that country music festival. And now it is emerging that according to some police, the Vegas killer had to have an accomplice.

Quote, he had to have help at some point. Because this guy's level of planning, the firearms, ammunition, all point to an accomplice, say police, as they search for a mystery woman that was with him, according to eyewitnesseses during his last days. First of all, we know the girlfriend had been shuttled off back home thousands of miles away. That he had gotten her a ticket and had her leave. But what, if anything, did she know about his plans? Steven Paddock planned to escape after shooting dead nearly 60 people, injuring hundreds, say cops. How do they know that?

Joining me right now, investigative reporter, five-time Emmy Award winner, Art Harris. Cheryl McCollum, crime scene investigator, director of the Cold Case Institute, and psychoanalyst out of L.A., Dr. Bethany Marshall. Also with me, Alan Duke, the Duke joining me from L.A. Art Harris, why do they believe that he had an accomplice and an escape route? Nancy, they believe that he had an accomplice because there was too much meticulous planning going on. He had put two cameras outside in the hall to monitor people coming up at him. That would indicate he was not only suspecting someone would try to breach his room, but maybe figure out how to get out. The other thing, he had amassed more than 27 guns. Well, he bought most of, almost 30 guns

in the last year at different shops, different gun stores, Vegas, Utah, California, and to spread it out so people would not associate him as amassing an amount from one store. And to do this, get it back to Nevada, get it down to the room in 10 suitcases up to the room, Nancy. Art, he bought 33 rifles in one month alone. 33 rifles in one month alone. Here's the thing about that. People are now claiming that he was in some sort of a fugue state, the depression that he was spiraling down. You know what, Dr. Bethany Marshall? I don't give a flying fig about that because he was not insane at the time of the murders.

He had this so well planned. Insanity, under our legal definition, is knowing right from wrong. And he knew what he was doing was wrong at the time he did it, Bethany. Well, he knew it was wrong because he installed the cameras, right? So he didn't want to be caught. So that implies a knowledge of right and wrong. But Nancy, this is not mental illness. And because an enormous amount of energy went into the planning. It takes so much time and so much energy to purchase all those guns. So the idea that he would be depressed or in a fugue state would not match up with somebody who took that much time.

Let's talk about a potential woman who was seen with Paddock in the days before the shooting while his girlfriend was out of the country. Is she connected to the single worst shooting incident in U.S. history? Cops now asking for your help to find this woman. We know that a room service receipt indicated two people were eating in his room. What do we know about her being spotted by other eyewitnesses, Art Harris? Well, Nancy, their reports are just trickling in, but someone in the hotel, but very little at this point. They are trying to connect

anyone who had any contact with him. Remember, this was a high roller, Nancy. He frequented this hotel quite a bit, spent more than a million dollars there, so much that they had comped him a free suite, which is common with big gamblers. So he had met Mary Lou Danley, his girlfriend, at a casino in Reno. So he was a, you could call him a night prowler probably at the casino here, knew a lot of people in a very cursory way from his gambling. So they've got to rule all those people out, people who came in contact with him at bars, at the tables, and in the hotel. You know, I think he had planned an even bigger assault. Cheryl McCollum, crime scene investigator and the director of the Cold Case Institute, because in his car, we now know he had two 50-pound tens of the explosive Tannerite.

It was in, wait a minute, it was in two 20-pound tens and one 10-pound ten. He also had 1,600 rounds of ammunition. If he had shot his car or somehow set his car on fire, Cheryl, you know what would have happened. It would have been so disastrous, Nancy. It's beyond our comprehension. He also, there's a theory that he might have tried to hit some aviation tanks full of fuel. And again, you're talking about taking out thousands of people at that point. All eyes now on the girlfriend. Take a listen to what else her lawyer has to say. I have a statement to read from my client, Mary Lou Danley. I am devastated by the deaths and injuries that have occurred, and my prayers go out to the victims and their families and all those

who have been hurt by these awful events. I have faith in God and I will continue to pray for everyone who has been harmed or hurt. I am a mother and a grandmother and my heart breaks for all who have lost loved ones. I knew Steven Paddock as a kind, caring, quiet man. I loved him and hoped for a quiet future together with him. He never said anything to me or took any action that I was aware of that I understood in any way to be a warning that something horrible like this was going to happen. A little more than two weeks ago, Stephen told me he found a cheap ticket

for me to the Philippines and that he wanted me to take a trip home to see my family. Like all Filipinos abroad, I was excited to go home and see family and friends. While there, he wired me money, which he said was for me to buy a house for me and my family. I was grateful, but honestly, I was worried that first the unexpected trip home and then the money was a way of breaking up with me. It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone. I have not made a statement until now because I have been cooperating with the authorities and I voluntarily flew back to America because I know that the FBI and Las Vegas Police Department wanted to talk to me and I

want to talk to them. I will cooperate fully with their investigation. Anything I can do to help ease suffering and help in any way, I will do. Please respect my privacy and my family's privacy. Thank you. You know, Cheryl McCollum, the reason that they are believing he must have had an accomplice is because of all of this ammo. I mean, how did he get it up to his room? I'm wondering, Cheryl, if he didn't do it in phases, like check in with two bags, then go out to his car and bring in more, right? I have no doubt he teeth-milled it.

Again, Nancy, the largest crime scene I've ever been a part of was the Olympics. And as you well know, there was planning. They were patient, or he was patient. I have no doubt all three, you know, the 33 guns are going to come back to him. The room is his. The planning was his. It's all going to come back to him. The room is his. The planning was his. It's all going to point to him. He did this by himself.

So what do you make of the girlfriend's claim, Dr. Bethany Marshall, that she thought he sent her away to break up with her? Well, it was a beautifully crafted statement. And I'm sure she was helped by her attorney that he was a kind and quiet man. She didn't know that he was planning to do this. She thought that he was going to break up with her. But I'm very disturbed by something her brother said on GMA yesterday. The brother said that when he called Mary Lou to let her know what Stephen had done, one of her first comments was, I have a clear conscience. That was a very odd response. Not, oh my God, what? What do you mean?

Or he killed dozens of people? Or what are you talking about? That was not her first response. It was, I have a clean conscience. So it tells me that while she may not have been consciously aware that he was planning this, she knew at some unconscious or disavowed level that something very strange was going on in her household. You cannot tell me that a woman can live in a house with that many guns that are being stockpiled. And she's not thinking about it. She's not wondering about it. And Nancy, I don't know if you've seen the pictures of the home that they shared, but it looks like the garage is barricaded in front. I've been looking at that picture over and over again, the image of the home, and it doesn't look like there's a regular garage door. It looks like it's been replaced

with some kind of a barricade. So how can she go in and out of the house and not notice that a whole section of the house has been barricaded or closed off? Now I'm taking a look at this level of planning, guys. I mean, the SWAT team noticed that two cameras were placed on a room service car outside of Paddock's suite. And one was in the peephole of the door. There was also a baby monitor camera in the family area of this hotel room. It must have been a big suite. What did that mean? Was he using these to see people as they approached?

Did his exit plan involve the security guard? Remember Jesus Campos, who was investigating the gunfire separate from the police he approached paddock's room and saw the camera saw the camera then paddock started firing he fired over 200 rounds through his hotel door into the hallway incredible i just i know people are looking for the reasons why. And of course, under the law, prosecutors do not have to show motive or show why. But we can't help Cheryl McCollum to try to figure it out. Absolutely. And Nancy, I remember something you said a long time ago.

You said, I'm never going to be able to accept any motive they give me. And that's how I feel today. There's nothing anybody could possibly say that I would accept as a reason for doing what he did. And I'm going to tell you again, he acted alone. He was the only one in that room. He's the only one they found. He's the only one that fired any of those weapons. They'll be the only fingerprints on them, period. He did it. Why do you think they insist on saying that he had an accomplice, Cheryl? He may have had some help getting some things to the room. He may have had some help, you know, stocking the things in his car. But I'm talking about actually firing and murdering people. He did that. He did it. And when they got close enough to him, it took his own life, like the punk he was. Question to you, Cheryl, what do you believe

is the nature of the girlfriend's involvement? I believe that she is the only person that can tell us unequivocally what his last month, weeks, days, and hours were like. He was literally descending in hell. What would have been the clues, Dr. Bethany? Well, I heard one report that he was sort of acting paranoid. He was becoming disheveled. So I would say in a case like that, it's a really good question. I would look for poor grooming. I would look for a paranoid thought process. I would look for unexplained absences, a lot of money leaving their bank accounts. I would think about how he was talking about people in that household? Because, you know, these shooters, they really romanticize and they plan and they love the process of getting ready to carry out the mass murder. So

was he talking about gun violence? Was he watching violent programs? Was he romanticizing violence in any particular way? That's what I would want to know from her. Can I throw one thing in, Nancy? Yeah, go ahead. And the other planning, he was a loner. He hated people. Seeing people in the neighborhood had built a fence that was so ugly, the rest of the neighbors signed a petition, one report had, for him to take it down.

His comment was, I don't want to see anybody and I don't want anyone watching me. And he picked this cul-de-sac, this house on a cul-de-sac, police believe, because it was away from everything and faced an expanse of emptiness out back. He paid cash for this house, $365,000, right there on the spot, picked it out because of the location, police believe. It was a way it was hidden. He could carry out whatever nefarious activities he was planning there. Well, right now, investigators calling on everyone's help as they try to identify a mystery woman

allegedly seen with the Vegas killer in the days leading up to the massacre. Several law enforcement are now saying they don't know if she has a connection to the attack, but they want to speak with her as they piece together a timeline. So, Art Harris, how are they going about finding this mystery woman? Las Vegas is one of those places. I've been there a number of times, conventions and reporting. Every place has a camera, it seems. And like the Atlanta Olympics, Cheryl, you may remember, the way they pieced together little photo snippets of the bomber there, like they will here,

they went over every frame of every camera that they could find in the hotel, outside the hotel. So they will have a lot of video to go over and see what frames are other people in with him and try to identify those people. So it's a long, tedious process, a lot of stuff to look at, as you know, but they're going to find somebody, and they're going to put this together. I'm fascinated, though, by his upbringing, Nancy. As his brother said, we were poor. We traveled because my father was a bank robber.

They never knew him. And so I am wondering what his upbringing may have had to do with this. He was a petty bank robber who made headlines as a bank robber. This is going to sure one-up Daddy. My God, I will show you. I'll make a headline that's bigger than anything you ever did. You abandoned us. You got any help from you.

I had to take care of my mother. His brother said that he had managed his mother's money, so she's now comfortable and retired in Florida. He had taken care of business. But maybe this was one unfinished piece of business that had been swirling around in his head for many, many years. And he was not going to go out with a whimper but a bang, bang, bang. The investigation into the Las Vegas massacre goes on. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off.

Goodbye, friend. Do you find yourself obsessing over unsolved mysteries? Do you wish there was a group of people just like you to talk motives and alibis with? If so, join the CrimeCon Cold Case Club and work alongside experts and fellow crime sleuths to help uncover new leads and theories in the cold cases they adopt. Their first cold case focuses on the mysterious disappearance of nursing student Mara Murray in 2004, and it's free to join thanks to Oxygen. Sign up now or find more info at club.crimecon.com.

That's club.crimecon.com. This is an iHeart Podcast.