The pair had traveled to the Rio for a cheer competition before relatives and teammates reported them missing.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A Utah mother and her 11-year-old daughter who came to Las Vegas for a cheer competition were found dead inside a room at the Rio Hotel & Casino on Feb. 15, and police said the mother shot the girl before taking her own life.

The deaths quickly turned a weekend competition trip into a homicide investigation that stretched from the Las Vegas Strip to the Salt Lake Valley. Las Vegas police identified the case as a murder-suicide after a welfare check at the off-Strip resort, while Utah cheer gyms, family friends and local agencies began mourning Addilyn “Addi” Smith, a young athlete remembered by coaches as steady, kind and proud of her work. Investigators said a note was found, but they have not described a motive or released its contents.

Police said the mother, Tawnia McGeehan, 34, and Addi Smith, 11, had arrived in Las Vegas on Saturday for what detectives described as a dance or cheer competition. By Sunday morning, concern was growing. Lt. Robert Price of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said dispatch received a request for a welfare check at about 10:43 a.m. or 10:45 a.m. for a mother and daughter staying in the 3700 block of West Flamingo Road, the address of the Rio. Officers and hotel security went to the room, knocked several times and called the room phone, but got no response. Based on what they knew then, police did not believe either person was in immediate danger and cleared the call. As the day went on, more relatives and friends contacted the hotel, asking staff to try again. At about 2:27 p.m. or 2:30 p.m., security re-entered the picture, went back to the room, made more attempts to get an answer and then entered. Inside, staff found two females unresponsive and called 911.

Patrol officers and medical personnel returned, and both were pronounced dead at the scene. The homicide section took over. In a short public briefing that night, Price said detectives found apparent gunshot wounds on both and concluded from the preliminary evidence that McGeehan shot her daughter and then herself. He also said investigators recovered a note. Price called the case “sad and tragic” and said detectives’ hearts were with the family, but he declined to discuss the note or say what may have led to the shooting. He said no one in neighboring rooms reported hearing arguing or fighting before the bodies were found. By Feb. 17, the Clark County coroner had publicly identified the dead as McGeehan, of West Jordan, Utah, and Addilyn Smith, also of West Jordan. The coroner ruled McGeehan’s death a suicide. As of the early coroner updates cited by local outlets, the official cause and manner findings for Addi’s death were still pending, even as police publicly described the case as a murder-suicide.

The names had already spread online before the formal identification. Family members and cheer supporters circulated missing-person flyers saying the two had last been seen at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino at about 8 p.m. Saturday. Utah Xtreme Cheer, the West Jordan gym where Addi competed, posted first that one of its athletes and her mother were missing and that police had been contacted. Hours later, after authorities announced the deaths, the same gym posted a mourning message saying it was “completely heartbroken” and calling Addi a sweet athlete who was deeply loved. The gym’s earlier competition posts showed her team had been in Las Vegas for Day 1 of the event. The public timeline suggests the pair made the trip as planned, but Addi never appeared for the next day’s competition activities, prompting the alarms that led relatives, teammates and hotel staff to start searching. Police have not said exactly when the shooting happened, other than to indicate investigators believe it occurred sometime Saturday night.

As attention shifted from the hotel room to the family’s background, court records in Utah added more context to a long-running custody dispute involving Addi’s parents. Reporting based on those records showed the divorce case dates to 2015 and ended in a 2017 decree. The disputes did not end there. In separate Utah cases between 2017 and 2020, McGeehan faced charges tied to custodial interference and electronic harassment allegations. Some of those cases were dismissed, one was resolved through a plea in abeyance and another led to probation and a suspended jail sentence after a reduced conviction. A judge later denied an effort to expunge two dismissed counts, citing what the order described as an ongoing volatile relationship involving McGeehan, her ex-husband and his wife. In the divorce matter itself, court filings reviewed by Utah news outlets showed major custody changes over time. A December 2020 temporary order awarded Addi’s father sole physical custody for a period, with the judge writing that McGeehan had engaged in behavior meant to alienate the child from her father and had committed domestic abuse in the child’s presence. By May 2024, however, the most recent modification restored joint legal and joint physical custody on a week-on, week-off schedule, with detailed rules for exchanges at school or, when school was out, at the Herriman Police Department.

Those records do not explain what happened in Las Vegas, and investigators have not said they are treating the custody history as a direct cause of the shooting. Still, the documents show years of conflict around parenting time and communication, giving a fuller picture of the family circumstances before the trip. KSL reported that the last filing in the divorce case showed Addi’s father was behind on child support as of February 2024, while other records described repeated court intervention over custody exchanges, communication and decision-making. None of that has been linked by police to the final hours at the Rio. What is known is narrower and more immediate: a mother and daughter traveled from Utah to Clark County for a youth sports event, concerned relatives and teammates realized they were missing when Sunday plans fell apart, and hotel security found them dead after a second round of checks. Police have not said how McGeehan obtained the gun, whether it was legally possessed, or whether any surveillance video, phone records or digital messages have clarified the timeline. They have also not said whether the note addressed family issues, mental health, finances or the trip itself.

In Utah, the emotional fallout was immediate. Addi was remembered not as a headline but as a child known across a tight cheer network in West Jordan and South Jordan. She had been part of Utah Xtreme Cheer and had also trained at Utah Fusion All-Stars. On the night after the deaths became public, athletes, parents and coaches gathered in South Jordan to honor her life. Paper hearts were taped to gym doors, practices were canceled and grief counselors were brought in to support children and families trying to make sense of what had happened. Emily Morgan, owner of Utah Fusion All-Stars, said Addi took pride in learning her role and had the kind of attitude coaches hope to see in young athletes. Morgan said every person on a cheer team matters and that Addi’s absence left a void that could be felt by current teammates and those who had known her earlier. Salem police in Utah also publicly noted that Addi was the niece of one of the department’s sergeants, showing how far the loss reached beyond the gym floor. The Rio, in a statement to local television, said it was aware of the incident and directed questions to Las Vegas police, who continue to lead the case.

As of Monday, March 16, the central facts of the case were no longer in dispute, but several official pieces remained incomplete. Police had publicly described the deaths as a murder-suicide, the coroner had identified both people and ruled McGeehan’s death a suicide, and community memorials had begun in Utah. Authorities had not announced any further investigative findings, released the contents of the note or updated the coroner’s ruling on Addi beyond the initial pending status reported in the first days after the deaths.