When someone fails to show up for a scheduled event, there is a specific type of absence that occurs. Not the ambiguous absence of a missed call or a delayed response, but the tangible, unsettling kind where others are already assembled and waiting and the person who ought to be there just isn’t. On the morning of February 15, 2026, Addi Smith was absent from a cheerleading competition in Las Vegas. Her coach bided her time. The coach then requested a welfare check.
Eleven-year-old Addilyn Smith, also referred to as Addi, was a member of Utah Xtreme Cheer, a team from Salt Lake City that had come to Las Vegas for a national competition. Tawnia McGeehan, her mother, had accompanied her on the journey. They were staying at the Rio Hotel & Casino on West Flamingo Road, which is well-known to anyone who has visited that area of Las Vegas. It is a sizable hotel that is located just off the main strip and welcomes thousands of visitors each week without much fanfare. Something had already gone horribly wrong in one of its rooms on the morning of February 15.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Victim — Child | Addilyn “Addi” Smith, 11 years old |
| Victim — Mother | Tawnia McGeehan, age 34–38 (reported variously) |
| Home State | Utah |
| Incident Date | February 15, 2026 |
| Location | Rio Hotel & Casino, West Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Reason for Travel | National cheerleading competition (Utah Xtreme Cheer) |
| Discovery | Hotel welfare check; bodies found at approximately 2:35 p.m. |
| Cause of Death | McGeehan: gunshot wound to head (ruled suicide); Addi’s ruling pending |
| Investigating Agency | Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) |
| Custody History | McGeehan and Addi’s father Brad Smith divorced in 2015; contentious custody battle; McGeehan temporarily lost custody in 2017, regained joint custody in 2020 |
| Note | A written note was found at the scene; contents not released publicly |
| Motive | Under investigation; not publicly confirmed |
| Reference Website | KSNV News3LV – Las Vegas Police Release 911 Calls |
Around 10:45 a.m., police were first called to the scene. For fifteen to twenty minutes, officers called out and knocked on the door of the room. There was no reply. Officers cleared the call since there were no obvious indications of imminent danger, such as no sounds or disturbances coming from the hallway. A welfare check at a hotel where someone is just not answering the door is not, by itself, unusual. It’s one of those decisions that, in hindsight, carries a great deal of weight but is understandable in the moment. People have deep sleep. People are taking showers. Doors are ignored by people. There was no justification for the officers to compel entry.
In the hours that followed, more family members and friends asked hotel security to see how the mother and daughter were doing. Fire officials informed dispatchers at around 2:26 p.m. that a note had been discovered on the door and that there might have been a suicide attempt. At 2:27 p.m., security came into the room. Dispatchers were informed that a child and an adult woman had been discovered dead by 2:35 p.m. The mother had shot her daughter before shooting herself, according to Lieutenant Robert Price of the LVMPD Homicide Section. There was a written message at the location. Price declined to discuss the contents of that note at the time, and they have not been made public. He stated that the investigation was still underway.
The Clark County Coroner determined that McGeehan’s manner of death was suicide and that his cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. At the time of reporting, Addi’s formal decision was still pending. The victims’ identities have been confirmed by court records, family members, and reporting from local and national media, but the investigation has not officially named them—police protocol when next-of-kin notification is ongoing.
The public record does include a long history of legal disputes. Brad Smith, the father of McGeehan and Addi, had been embroiled in a contentious custody battle for almost ten years after their 2015 divorce, according to court records that Fox News Digital examined. For custody transfers, courts had established comprehensive exchange procedures. Before being given joint custody of Addi in 2020, McGeehan had briefly lost custody of her in 2017. It would be unfair to draw too direct a connection between legal history and what transpired on February 15 because family court cases, by their very nature, produce documents that can make a private life appear to be a series of conflicts. However, the larger picture, which includes a mother navigating years of challenging co-parenting and allegedly receiving “mean” texts from other parents on Addi’s cheer squad in the days leading up to the trip, suggests that she was under a lot of pressure in a way that people around her might not have fully comprehended.
Utah Xtreme Cheer’s social media post was succinct and unvarnished, much like genuine grief usually is. “We are completely heartbroken,” the post stated. “Words cannot adequately describe the situation. She will always be a member of the UXC family and was incredibly loved.” A family member created a GoFundMe page that detailed “deep shock and grief.”” One of the concerned voices in the 911 call logs is Addi’s father, Brad Smith, who reportedly called 911 that morning to ask for assistance in finding his daughter.
What motivated McGeehan to choose that hotel room is still unknown. Eventually, the note she left behind might provide an explanation, or it might not. Seldom do these cases have a clear single cause. What’s left is an eleven-year-old girl who went to a cheer competition in Las Vegas, her loving mother, and a tragedy that took place over the course of about four hours while the hallway outside their hotel room remained silent.
