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Details of texts emerge after Utah 'dance mom' murdered daughter, 11, before turning gun on herself
Details of a text exchange between a Utah dance mom involved in a suspected murder suicide have been released following the tragic incident.
Authorities say 38-year-old Tawnia McGeehan fatally shot her daughter, Addi Smith, before dying by suicide inside a room at the Rio Hotel, Las Vegas.
The pair had made the trip for a dance competition they never attended. Their bodies were discovered Sunday after worried relatives requested a welfare check when they could not reach them, per the Daily Mail.
Behind the tragedy were recent tensions within Addi’s cheer team and a nearly decade-long custody fight between McGeehan and her ex-husband, Bradley Smith, that had resulted in strict court-ordered guidelines.
Tensions within Utah Xtreme Cheer in the weeks before the trip
In the weeks leading up to the competition, McGeehan had been dealing with conflict involving other parents connected to Addi’s team, Utah Xtreme Cheer.
According to her mother, Connie McGeehan, there had been ongoing friction with “one or two” other women whose daughters were also on the team.
“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 New York Post.
She said that during a recent competition, another child was dropped during a routine and some parents blamed Addi.
She said: “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.
“Cheer was her and Addi’s life. I think something happened the day before [they died] that made her spiral.”
A source close to the team confirmed there had been a recent “confrontation” between McGeehan and another mother in the waiting room.
Team owner Kory Uyetake acknowledged to The New York Post that there had been “comments back and forth” between McGeehan and some other parents.
However, he said everything appeared normal on Saturday after the group traveled from Utah to Nevada for the competition.
Addi, who was in her first season with the team, “loved it,” he said, adding she “was the first [to practice] every time … She was a beautiful girl and she didn’t deserve this.”
Following her death, Utah Xtreme Cheer shared a public tribute.
“With the heaviest hearts, we share the devastating news that our sweet athlete Addi has passed away.
“We are completely heartbroken. No words do the situation justice. She was so beyond loved, and she will always be a part of the UXC family.
“Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers and continue to send them love as they navigate this unimaginable loss.
“We ask that you respect their privacy during this time. Addi, we love you tremendously.”
A bitter custody fight marked by strict court rules
The Las Vegas tragedy also came after years of contentious legal battles between McGeehan and her estranged ex-husband, Bradley Smith.
The couple divorced in 2015 under circumstances that court records show were contentious. In August 2016, Smith listed his old wedding ring for sale on Facebook, writing in the ad: “I only wore the ring for a year.”
For nine years, the former couple remained locked in legal disputes over Addi’s custody. A ruling issued in May 2024 set detailed restrictions designed to keep the parents separated during exchanges.
Under that order, they were required to meet outside Addi’s school and park five spaces apart. Addi was to walk between the vehicles on her own. When school was not in session, exchanges were scheduled outside the Herriman Police Department in Utah at 9:00AM every Monday.
The court prohibited either parent from filming exchanges or approaching the other at school events. Both were ordered to “encourage and accept” a positive relationship between Addi and the other parent and to shield her from their “personal conflicts.”
They were also required to make Addi available for FaceTime calls every Tuesday and Friday at 6:00PM, with a 15-minute window to initiate the call or lose it for the day.
The judge barred either parent from criticizing the other in front of Addi and extended that restriction to family members.
“If a parent is unable to restrain a third party from making such remarks, that parent shall remove the child from the presence of that person”, the judge said.
Communication between McGeehan and Smith was limited to the Family Wizard app, with text messages allowed only in the case of an emergency involving Addi.
Financial issues also surfaced. Smith was ordered to pay $288 per month in child support and, as of February 2024, was more than $9,600 behind.
When the couple initially divorced, Addi lived with McGeehan and both parents shared joint custody. That changed in December 2020, when a judge granted Smith sole custody after finding McGeehan had engaged in “behavior that is on the spectrum of parental alienation.”
The court also determined that McGeehan “has committed domestic abuse in the presence of the minor child.”
Most of the roughly 350 filings related to the case remain under seal.
Smith remarried in 2020 to McKennly. Social media photos suggest Addi had a close relationship with her stepmother, who referred to the 11-year-old as “my daughter.”
On Sunday, when McGeehan and Addi did not show up at the competition, McKennly posted a photo of them online seeking help, writing: “My daughter Addi and her mom [are] missing please share post and call or text with any information thank you!”
Welfare check at Rio hotel ended in tragedy
Relatives raised the alarm Sunday morning when the mother and daughter failed to appear at the competition and could not be reached.
Police officers and hotel security first went to the room around 10:45AM Sunday in response to a welfare check. Officers knocked repeatedly and called out for more than 15 minutes but left after receiving no answer, per ABC4.
After additional calls from relatives of both McGeehan and Smith, hotel security returned around 2:30PM When there was still no response, personnel entered the room and found the bodies inside. Authorities said there were no reports of gunshots.
A note was recovered from the room, though its contents have not been released as the investigation continues. Connie McGeehan said authorities have not shared the contents with her.
“We had no idea [Tawnia] was contemplating this,” she said, adding: “I thought she was doing OK, she’d been having some of the cheer moms over and making things with the kids."
Connie said her daughter had struggled with depression her entire life but appeared to be improving, particularly after the nine-year custody battle ended in 2024. She said Tawnia and Addi had been living with her and other family members in her seven-bedroom home in Salt Lake City.
According to Connie, Tawnia seemed upbeat before leaving for Las Vegas. She had made gifts for the team, bought new clothes for the trip, and posted early morning photos of “Addi doing backflips” in their hotel room at 5:00AM Sunday.
“They just looked like they were happy but then there was one pic of Addi and Tawnia together and I thought something doesn’t look like right. The look was off, something had happened. Something was off,” she told The New York Post.
Connie also said she was unaware her daughter owned a firearm or had transported it across state lines.
“[We’ve since learned] she bought it over a year ago,” she said.
Friends and family say Addi loved gymnastics and her friends. As her grandmother put it, “Addi loved her gymnastics, she loved her friends, she always seemed happy no matter what,” she said.
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