Found Deceased NV - Mother and young daughter: Tawnia McGeehan and Addi Smith missing in Las Vegas after not arriving for cheer competition. February 14, 2026

[keek]

Although court documents may not tell the whole story, there is documentation that the courts did find problematic behavior from the mom:

Docs reveal longtime custody dispute after mother, daughter found dead in Las Vegas hotel

A mother shot and killed her 11-year-old daughter before turning the gun on herself in a Las Vegas hotel room over the weekend in an apparent murder-suicide, police said.

www.fox5vegas.com

McGeehan temporarily lost custody of Addi in 2020 after the court determined she had acted in ways that could alienate the child from the father. Documents also revealed she had committed domestic abuse in front of Addi and said McGeehan’s ability to co-parent was in serious question.

It was clear re the mother and look what 'the mother did'. Enough said. IMO

 

[georgiajean]

Custody battles can be so ugly. And it does not excuse this person for what they did (killing their child).

I do wonder where the truth was in the years of custody issues. Anger and hurt can cause people to be adamant about "winning" instead of putting the child's needs first. No child needs to see their parents at war constantly.

I wonder what caused the parents to split up originally?
When did the new wife enter the picture?

 

[Detectivediva]

For those of you questioning why no one seemed to notice the gunshots, a silencer could have been used.

 

[HoneyBunOne]

For those of you questioning why no one seemed to notice the gunshots, a silencer could have been used.

I learnt on this site that a silencer doesn't silence a gunshot sound enough to not be heard.

 

[Detectivediva]

I learnt on this site that a silencer doesn't silence a gunshot sound enough to not be heard.

Admittedly so, but it certainly would help.

 

[websleuth314]

Exclusive | Utah dance mom ‘spiraled’ after getting ‘mean’ texts from another parent before murder-suicide: sources

“There’s one or two ladies that she never got along with and it got really bad a month ago,” Connie McGeehan, 61, told The Post.

nypost.com

Tawnia McGeehan, 38, had been having problems with “one or two” other women with daughters in the Utah Xtreme Cheer (UXC) team, of which her daughter, Addi Smith, was a part, according to her mother.

“There’s one or two ladies that she never got along with, and it got really bad a month ago,” Connie McGeehan, 61, claimed to The Post.

“In the last comp they had, another girl got dropped and some of the moms were saying it was because of Addi. They were texting [Tawnia] mean stuff and blaming Addi.

 

[airportwoman]

I am struck by the fact that two shots were reportedly fired, and they went unnoticed. I don't know if this speaks to the fact that the hotel itself is noisy, that the floor where the room is located was empty when it happened, or that people assumed it was a movie or some other banging noise coming from the room.

I'm thinking the "mother" may have used a silencer.

 

[icerink47]

The fact that the car was still in the hotel parking lot is very concerning. That suggests they didn’t plan to go far, if at all. I hope LE is pulling camera footage from the hotel and surrounding areas.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

At first, I was thinking this act to be an act of premeditated vengeance. Learning more and more, I see more of the troubled woman.
This new added speculation of nastiness do add additional spotlight on the competitiveness of mothers of these pre-teen girls....
We've seen movies of this stuff. And I really hope it does not become front and center in this sad sad story.
moo.

I do wonder why she bought a gun "a year ago".

 

[Sarahlou]

Disgusting. The poor girl, had her whole life ahead of her. Nobody has the right to take that away.

 

[Athos65]

I'm thinking the "mother" may have used a silencer.

I am uncomfortable with the use of "mother"...granted, Ms. McGeehan committed a heinous act taking her daughter's life, but it seems up to that point, while struggling with depression and mental issues, she was close to the child.

Who knows, really, what was happening to Ms. McGeehan? Who knows, really, what any of us are experiencing or how well or poorly we manage our struggles? There is the inevitable fact that she murdered her child, and that is unforgivable. We can "backseat drive" and say "she should've " this, or that, or the other, but we were not inside her head or within her circumstances.

None of us are born knowing how to be mothers. It is an ongoing process; my youngest is in his 30s, and I'm still learning. And, mind you, I was not very young when he was born. A mother is, ultimately, a human being who enters this relationship with a child (whether by giving birth, adopting, fostering, voluntarily, by accident...so many factors) while carrying with her the frailties, concerns, fears, strengths, experiences of her lifetime until that moment. If she had some sort of trauma, regardless of the joy she felt in her mothering experience, that's in there as well.

My opinion, and I agree its value and soundness is debatable, is based on experience. My mother was mentally ill from childhood, and it impacted all her children; some of us turned out mentally healthy, and some of us didn't. We have all, in one or another way, inadvertently, even without realizing, repeating patterns we experienced. Some of us caught it in time, and some of us remain oblivious.

I grieve this child because she was an innocent, but I also feel for a young woman who obviously, perhaps while cycling through feelings she couldn't control and had not sought help for, reached the moment when her child's life was expendable. Even her mom didn't know it was as bad as this, and she had obviously shared with her mother her concerns and her difficulties with other cheer moms.

Some people can find their way out of the darkness, some people generate their own darkness, and others can't escape it. That a child's life has been cut tragically short because of her mother's mental health issues (because that is what it was, ultimately, that caused this...along with a gun she shouldn't have had) is inexcusable.

This is just my opinion, of course. I, personally and on this Ash Wednesday, cannot erase the entire endeavor of her life with Addi. What she did was horrible. That she did it in a spirit of evil and hate for her child, I doubt...I hope it's not true.

 

[Athos65]

Disgusting. The poor girl, had her whole life ahead of her. Nobody has the right to take that away.

No, that's absolutely true. That it was her mom who did it makes it even worse. I agree there is not a thing about this that isn't horrible.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

This case seems to be slow on the uptick here on WS. But social media is ablaze over it.

With all the accusations of the ongoing trauma in their lives, this case with such a black and white ending will be showing lots of "ugly gray" .

I am glad to see that Nate Eaton is covering it, and I always feel he is always fair and responsible in his coverage. He covers so much in those Western states.

We just have to give this story some time to sort itself out....... I am hoping we will see more coming out of East Idaho News.