An examination of Stephen Paddocks suitcases and bags: what the LVMPD and FBI's investigation missed, and why Paddock was not working alone.
A long, detailed, thread 🧵🪡 (1/26)
According to the official narrative set by the LVMPD and FBI Stephen Paddock acted as a lone-wolf shooter, without motive, firing upon the crowds of the Route 91 Harvest Festival from his rooms on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay.
Despite their insistence that Paddock acted as a lone wolf, what if we could prove that Paddock had worked with accomplices, using their own evidence, in the days leading up to the shooting?
Lets start with the "Criminal Investigative Report" which I will refer to as "FIT report" from the LVMPD (link: ) which is the final report from the Force Investigation Team lvmpd.com/about/news-eve…
The images I have attached to this thread over the last three posts can be found on pages 84-92 (highlights my own), from these images we can see a total of 10 suitcases, 1 duffel-bag, and 1 small black bag. Besides the images, they are sparsely mentioned in the FIT report.
Now that we have a visual understanding of the suitcases from the LVMPD lets compare that to the evidence recovered by the FBI. (link: pages 279-313)vault.fbi.gov/stephen-paddoc…
Creating tables we can see 11 suitcases, 1 duffel bag, and 1 small bag were recovered which shows 1 extra suitcase not visible from the FIT images. Along with this, the FBI adds an item location for each piece of evidence which I have grouped together.
Breaking down the locations, in location A1 we have 1 duffel bag and 3 suitcases, since there is only one duffel visible in the FIT images we know A1 is near the entertainment center. However, in the images we only see 2 suitcases, one of which is missing.
Vising the FIT report we see that they describe a suitcase in front of the entertainment center on the floor containing rifle cases. Why this suitcase is not imaged is unknown, but leaves room for speculation.
In A2 there is only one suitcase containing a towel. As far as I am aware, this item was not photographed or included in any photographs from the LVMPD or FBI. Based on proximity, I believe this item located around the bar/kitchenette area.
In A4 we have two suitcases recovered from the floor. These are easy to identify as these are the only suitcases described as containing magazines.
C1, referred to as the "Chaise Lounge", only has one small bag which I presume is the black bag on the floor here behind the shopping bags.
C2 is interesting as the one suitcase in this location is not imaged. Why it is not imaged is up to speculation but from looking at the images closely and based on approximation and description I believe the item highlighted below is the suitcase.
Lastly, C3 contains 3 items, 2 of which are missing from images. The one visible suitcase in C3 is in close proximity to Paddocks body and the only item described by the FBI as "from floor/near window".
One could argue these are the suitcases next to the bed, but the descriptions and contents of the suitcases are inconsistent between the FBI data and the description from the FIT report.
Overall, we can determine that the item in A4 is the "extra" item from the FBI report, with a definite total of 11 suitcases, one duffel-bag, and one small bag recovered from the crime scene.
Now that we have a consensus between the LVMPD and the FBI on the state of the suitcases found at the crime scene, lets compare that against surveillance camera footage released by the MGM.
For the MGM footage, I will reference the New York Times visual Investigation (link: ) which does a great job of compiling the footage and counting the suitcases, but not subtracting the suitcases Paddock leaves with.
Watching their video you can put together a timeline of when Paddock brought in and left the Mandalay Bay with suitcases/bags:
- Sep 25th, +5 suitcases, later leaves with -2
- 26th +7
- 27th, -2
- 28th, +3
- 30th, +4
- 10/1, +2 suitcases for a total of 17 suitcases
17 suitcases
If Paddock has 17 suitcases from the MGM surveillance footage, but the LVMPD and FBI only find 11 at the crime scene, that means 6 suitcases have gone missing in the days leading up to the shooting.
To get an idea of when 6 suitcases could have been handed out/picked up we can reference the Lock Interrogation Reports (LIR) from the FIT report starting on page 128. The LIR shows logs from the doors of the hotel rooms such as "opened from inside" "guest card accepted", etc.
Using the timestamps from the MGM surveillance footage we can remove times from the LIR that we can infer are Paddock entering/leaving with luggage. Once removed we are left with remaining times when suitcases may have been handed out/picked up. A few examples below
While its completely speculation at this point, one time period that stands out to me for suspicious activity is the night of the 28th, where according to the FIT Paddock is described as gambling "continuously" from 10PM until ~5AM the next day, despite the LIR showing otherwise
Additional candidates for these handoffs could be ~3:12-3:15PM and ~9:38PM on September 29th. Unfortunately, the data is only accurate down to 1 minute,but both these times seem to show unusual internal activity from both doors, which is odd if Paddock was alone.
In conclusion, when compiling the evidence from the LVMPD, MGM, and FBI we can create a timeline that is inconsistent with their conclusions, showing that evidence was missing from the crime scene which should have been present.
If the suitcases were simply removed by Paddock we have to wonder why the MGM wouldnt release that footage. To me, this points to the fact that Paddock was not working alone. Who he was working with? Thats the next question and a story for another day.
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