A welfare check at a Las Vegas hotel turned into a homicide investigation after officers discovered an 11-year-old girl and her mother dead inside a room at the Rio Hotel & Casino.
According to Fox News, police say the mother shot her daughter before taking her own life.Â
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has not publicly identified the victims, but court records and family members named them as Tawnia McGeehan, 38, and her daughter, Addi Smith.
The two were in Las Vegas for a cheerleading competition when they failed to appear Sunday morning, prompting concern from relatives and others connected to the trip.
Investigators said officers first responded around 10:45 a.m. and knocked and called into the room for 15 to 20 minutes without a response before clearing the call.Â
Hotel security later received additional information from family and friends and returned around 2:30 p.m., when they entered the room and found both victims.
“The mother shot her daughter and then shot herself,” homicide Lt. Robert Price said at a Monday news conference. He said a note was recovered but declined to discuss its contents.
Court documents show McGeehan and Addi’s father, Brad Smith, had been locked in a nearly decade-long custody dispute following their 2015 divorce.Â
Judges issued detailed rules governing exchanges, including requiring the parents to park five spaces apart during school handoffs so Addi would walk between the vehicles alone. When school was out, exchanges were ordered to occur outside the Herriman Police Department at 9 a.m.
The court also barred the parents from filming exchanges and required them to communicate through a court-approved app.
In 2020, McGeehan temporarily lost custody after a judge found she had engaged in conduct that could alienate Addi from her father. By 2024, the parents reached a joint legal and physical custody arrangement, alternating weeks.
Family members said tensions had also surfaced within the girl’s cheer community. Connie McGeehan told the New York Post that some parents had sent her daughter’s mother “mean stuff and blaming Addi.”
“In the last comp they had, another girl got dropped, and some of the moms were saying it was because of Addi,” she said.
A cheer mom who spoke to Fox News Digital confirmed there had been friction among some parents but said the focus now is on helping children cope with the loss. She said her daughter plans to start a mental health awareness and suicide prevention effort at school in her friend’s honor.
The Clark County coroner ruled McGeehan’s death a suicide caused by a gunshot wound to the head. The child’s cause and manner of death remain pending.
Authorities said they have not determined a motive, and the investigation is ongoing.
