Where is Omar Mateen’s Wife?

She suspected what her husband was planning, she knew he had the weapons, she drove him to the nightclub and dropped him off: Noor Salman, wife of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, had all the hallmarks of a willing accomplice to her husband’s jihadist slaughter — and now she’s nowhere to be found.

After Mateen entered the gay Pulse nightclub and killed 49 people while wounding 53 others on June 12, an intense public debate over his motives shrouded the lesser details of the lethal night. While Republicans lampooned the FBI and Democrats for implying the mass shooting was a hate crime, rather than a clear act of radical Islamic terrorism, the woman who drove Mateen to the night club quietly faded into the shadows.

“I believe she was going to travel but I do not know exactly her location now,” Lynch said.

Reports indicated Salman knew of her husband’s deadly plans and chose not to report them to the authorities. NBC News was the first outlet to report that Salman feared her husband would carry out the attack and claimed to have made some effort to stop him. But Salman did nothing to warn the police of her husband’s intentions. When the FBI first questioned Salman, she admitted to bringing Mateen ammunition and a holster.

“It is a possibility that the wife of Orlando shooter, Noor Salman, could be charged in connection with the attack at Pulse nightclub” because she failed to tell police about her husband’s plans, NBC investigative reporter Tom Winter said at the time.

But Salman essentially fell off the map in the weeks and months following the shooting. Even Attorney General Loretta Lynch admitted in late June that the FBI wasn’t aware of Salman’s exact whereabouts.

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“Has the shooter’s wife left the state of Florida?” a reporter asked Lynch during a press conference in June.

“Right now, I don’t know exactly the answer to that,” Lynch replied. “I believe she was going to travel but I do not know exactly her location now.”

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Why were Salman’s exact whereabouts unknown at the time, and why are they unknown and unreported now? If Salman is charged in connection with her husband’s attack, shouldn’t law enforcement officials and federal authorities know where she is and what her case status is?

The local police department referred LifeZette to the FBI, who is handling the investigation. In response to an inquiry, Special Agent Amy Pittman, the media coordinator for the Tampa FBI, told LifeZette that the FBI could not comment on the case because it “has an active investigation into the Pulse nightclub shooting.”