Law&Crime Sidebar - 11-Year-Old Cheerleader Murdered Inside Las Vegas Casino: Cops

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

A Utah mother's fight to keep custody of her daughter ended in tragedy at a Las Vegas hotel during a cheer competition. Police say 11-year-old Addi Smith was killed by her mother, Tawnia McGeehan. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber unpacks the explosive, years-long court battle between McGeehan and Addi's father with private investigator Ashton Packe.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Share a little extra love this February and wrap yourself—or someone you care about—in comfort that truly feels special. Head to https://cozyearth.com and use code LAWANDCRIME for up to 20% off.And if you get a Post-Purchase Survey, be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth on Law&Crime!HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A missing person's case of the Las Vegas strip quickly turned into a nightmare scenario. A Utah mother accused of killing her own 11-year-old daughter inside a popular hotel and casino before turning the weapon on herself. And it all happened while this mother-daughter duo were in Vegas for a big cheerleading competition. What could have led a mother to do this to her own daughter? We're taking a look at the background. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

The entire cheer community and cheer world was shocked. You hear the tragic news of the Young Life Lost from the Utah Stream program. 11-year-old Addie Smith died in a Las Vegas hotel room last week, and it was reportedly at the hands of her own mother, Tanya McGeehan. They lived in the Salt Lake City area, but were in Vegas for a big cheerleading competition. But a shadow fell over the final days of the All-Star Nationals, as words spread that a member of a Utah cheer group had been killed. And to the entire Utah Stream and Cheer Fusion program,

on behalf of all of us here at Jams, we're going to send Utah Stream at Addy's medal and a national championship jacket. We dedicate our final day of All-Star Nationals to Addy. Tragedy struck on Sunday, February 15th, when there was concern that Addy and her mom, might be missing. They hadn't shown up to the events that were being put on by JAMS, cheer, and dance. Addy and McGee, they were staying at the nearby Rio Hotel and Casino.

Mother and daughter had checked in the day before on Saturday, and Addy's team performed that day at the competition. According to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, when the pair didn't show up for the Sunday's events, authorities and hotel management started getting calls to do a welfare check. The details of the call are, at approximately 10.45 this morning, MPD dispatch received a call for service for I checked the welfare of a mother and her daughter. Officers arrived, met up with security, went up to the room, and attempted to contact a mother and daughter in their room. They knocked several times and they called into the room without any answer. At that point of time, without anything else and no other information and nothing else

suspicious, those officers advised security and they cleared from the call. Security continued to get information from family and friends asking them to attempt to locate the mother and daughter inside the casino. At approximately 2.30 in the afternoon, security went back up to the room to attempt to locate the mother and child again. They knocked several times. They also called into the room without success. At that point of time, security decided to make entry into the room, where when they entered the room, they located two, deceased females. They immediately backed up and called 911. Patrol arrived. It secured the scene. Homicide detectives have been notified and we're currently on scene investigating the crime. It appears the preliminary details that we know so far are it appears that the mother and daughter

came here for in down for a dance competition or a cheer competition. Sometime last night the mother shot her daughter and then she, shot herself. Now Lieutenant Price confirmed that some sort of note was found in the hotel room, although he didn't specify its contents. He also said during the news conference that no one so far had reported hearing gunshots. And as condolences poured in from cheer groups from all over the country, new details started coming to light about the background, about McGeehan's fight to keep custody of her daughter, which had apparently been ongoing since Addie was just two years old. Now, to be clear as we go through this, we don't know exactly.

what led to this, what would cause a mother to kill her own daughter, but just something to keep in mind as we give the context to this. So according to Utah court records, McGeehan and her husband, Brad Smith, got divorced in 2015 and shared custody of Addy. But the relationship was reportedly tumultuous. The court had to step in to even kind of keep the peace here. In fact, things were so bad that a judge had to lay out exactly how custody swaps would even work. There are hundreds and hundreds docket entries related to McGeehan and Smith's divorce, and most of the filings are under seal, but we got our hands on the latest decree from a Utah judge which has details on the ex's custody arrangement, and it is very clear from those filings that the relationship between the two was

acrimonious to say the least. The documents indicate that Smith was awarded sole custody of Addy in 2020, and a judge found in October of that year that, quote, petitioner, so meaning McGeehan, is subjecting the child to behavior that is on the spectrum of parental alienation. It also states that, quote, petitioner has committed domestic abuse in the presence of the minor child. As part of that ruling McGeehan had to be supervised by court-designated family members when she even spent time with Addie. All right, before we go any further into this, got to mention something.

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Their classic cuddle blanket is like the softest thing I've ever owned. Plus Cozy Earth has a 10-year warranty. So this comfort is going to last you a decade. So just your share a little extra love this February, wrap yourself, someone you love and comfort. Head on over to cozy earth.com and use code long crime for up to 20% off. Later on, a judge found McGeehan's behavior had improved. The custody agreement was modified to be 50-50, so one week on, one week off. According to the filing, quote, exchanges are to take place at AS's school when in session, that during times in which school is not in session, exchange will take place at the

Heron Police Department. So obviously, at places where nothing bad, go down. The court documents even lay out exactly how the custody exchanges are supposed to happen. Quote, the parties are to park five parking stalls away from one another, and AS will walk herself to the receiving parent's car. Neither party is to videotape the child's exchanges. It almost feels like a hostage swap. According to the judge's ruling, each parent was entitled to two weeks of uninterrupted time with Addie during the summer when she was out of school. There were also rules for how Addie would communicate with one parent if she was staying with the other, for example,

quote, during the regular parent time, each party will make AS available for FaceTime with the other parent on Tuesday nights at 6 p.m. If either parent fails to initiate the call by 6.15 p.m., they shall forfeit the FaceTime call for that day. And you can tell that every little thing seemed to be a source of contention between McGeehan and Smith, and the court had to intervene on multiple occasions. All communication between Addie's parents had to be via an app specifically used in custody situations. This is according to court documents. At school events or other gatherings, the parents were forbidden from approaching one another, but at the same time, it was required that Addy be allowed to speak with whomever didn't have custody of her at that time. Both parents

were also responsible for splitting the costs of any extracurricular activities like cheerleading and dance. We know that sports and hobbies like those can get expensive quite quickly, especially when it comes to things like traveling for competitions. But again, I say all that to say, we do not know exactly what led to this. I will tell you, Smith's brother started a GoFundMe page to raise money for Addie's funeral expenses. On the page, he wrote, my brother Brad is facing an unimaginable loss after his daughter, Addy was tragically taken from our family. This heartbreaking event has left the family in deep shock and grief, struggling to come to terms with the sudden loss of Addy in such a way.

In the midst of this tragedy, we are reaching out to the community to help Brad and his family navigate the difficult days ahead. The funds raised will be transferred to Brad and go directly toward covering funeral expenses and providing much-needed support for Brad and his family. With so much to process emotionally and financially, every contribution will help ease the burden

and allow the family to focus on healing. Your kindness and generosity can make a real difference as they work through this painful time. Utah Extreme Cheer announced on their Facebook page that all classes were canceled for the rest of the week. Her former cheer group, Fusion Cheer, held a vigil on Monday night to remember her. Emily Morgan, who owns Utah Fusion All-Stars, coached Addie during her first year of cheer. This is according to Media Outlet, KUTV, and she told the outlet, quote, she would learn her part.

She took a lot of pride in what she was doing. As a coach, that's the dream. And because of that attitude, I always knew she was going to go far in this experience. In Shirulina, you need every single person on your team, and if they are not there, there is a void. I think that everybody feels that void, whether you're on her team right now or you've been on her team before. I want to bring on Ashton Pack, private investigator, talk about this. Ashton, this is an incredibly sad case. I do wonder, would a private investigator come into a case like this afterwards to try to piece together aspects of this to understand what happened?

Well, it's something that could happen. I mean, ultimately, you know, people come to guys like me after law enforcement has concluded their investigation. And sometimes, you know, certain jurisdictions don't have the vast resources like what we have available here in Las Vegas. Yeah, sometimes there are incidents where a private investigator like myself might be able to come in and help put some things together. The problem with working on the civilian side now as a private eye is you don't have the power of the subpoena unless there's an active case going within a court. where I'm working for an attorney. Law enforcement has all the tools and the resources, and it's just a matter of how much they're going to pour into a case such as this. And this seems to be a case where it's clear what happened. What's not clear is the why. So I do wonder whether you're an investigator working with law enforcement, you're a private investigator.

How do you find out the why of something like this? Yeah, we are obsessed with the why in this country, and I get it because what would bring a mother to do something so, horrific to their daughter, to her daughter like this. And yeah, you're right. I mean, at the end of the day, homicide's job is to determine, you know, what was the cause of death? Was it a homicide, which is the death by at the hands of another human? Was there a murder or a manslaughter committed? Yes, this was a murder. And ultimately, who are the perpetrators? Well, we know who the perpetrator is. This is unfortunately an open and shut case. And I'm sure there are a few things that homicide

detectives will want to kind of piece together. They'll do a toxicology screening. They'll do anything that was found in the room, an analysis of evidence that was at the scene. But it's really looking to point to see, is there anyone else that was involved with this crime, the crime of murder? And I'm pretty certain. I'm fairly certain. I never want to assume, but I can presume here that this case is going to be closed fairly quickly. But as far as motive is concerned, yeah, we might not really truly ever know. I know there was a note left. I'm sure they can piece together. Some investigator could piece together through talking to family, friends, cohorts, people who were associates as to what we're. was going on in this person's life that would lead them to do such a horrific violent act to their child?

Well, that's the question. I mean, how much do they look at the timeline when was the gun, where was the gun obtained from, when was it brought? You know, was there, what was the circumstance, what did the surveillance footage reveal? What were the past conversations? What was her relationship like with her ex? I mean, how much do they do, you know, analysis of what led up to this? Again, it's a shame if this is an open and shut case, whereas there are so many still lingering questions here.

Yeah, it just depends on what the bosses want the detectives to do. You know, we live in a, this is a large city. It's a major metropolitan American city. There's no shortage of homicides in this city. And once a case is closed, those homicide detectives are unfortunately, tend to have to move on to the next case because that case is now pressing and has to be solved. So it just depends. Maybe they'll have someone in some kind of an intelligence unit, do some follow-up. Maybe they'll coordinate at the end of the day with some Utah law enforcement officers to see if they had any prior cases. They might put some kind of an after-action report together on this.

But usually homicide detectives will create just a documentation, like kind of an officer's report of what happened when there's really no, there's no submittal going to the district attorney's office. There's no criminal case that's being prepared for prosecution here. the perpetrators, you know, taken her life at her own hands. So yeah, it just depends. It's just a big, we don't know at this point. And it just kind of depends on what do the bosses at the police department want? And do we have time and resources to dedicate to a case that's pretty much solved? Is it strange this happened in a hotel room like this? I just think it's strange in general. What parent is parent, you know, I'm a father. I have, I have a daughter. I have two sons. We, we as a society, this is just just so perplexing to us.

How could this happen? Especially a mom. Usually infanticide is at the hands of a father. And when it's a mother, it's even more compounding to us as to how this could happen. So strange that it happened at all, you know, in a hotel room in Las Vegas. Of course it's strange. It's not the usual. It's not the norm. It's just how could a mom do this to her daughter? So if you were hired to look into this case, where would you start? I do believe sometimes private investigators can get information that law enforcement can, but where would you start? What would you be looking for?

How would you approach a case like this to try to understand more about it? Well, if I was hired and it was, you know, for the determination of, hey, why did mom likely do this? Again, I'm going to provide an assessment, and that assessment's going to be based off of interviews with people. Who knew mom best? Who knew the family? Are they willing to talk to me? Are these folks willing to engage with a private investigator and give statements?

You know, at the end of the day, there was a whole cheer competition. Is anyone within that organization willing to talk? We want to understand, you know, the motives behind this. So for me, it would be interviewing people, talking to people, trying to build rapport with those folks. And it's just time intensive. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of effort, especially if it's just myself. have a team of investigators, you know, assembled. Time and money is the only, it's the only

limit. You know, how much money are you willing to spend to find out the why? And ultimately, it just takes time to assess everything, put it together in a concise report and come up with some kind of a, this is what we assessed with a modicum of confidence. By the way, before we wrap things up, just one other interesting aspect is the ability of police to enter that hotel room and there were questions surrounding that. Can you explain it? Sure, yeah, law enforcement came out the first time under the call was a welfare check, which is 50 times a day all over. I mean, it's one of the most common calls law enforcement will get.

I got them all the time when I was a law enforcement officer. But ultimately, law enforcement has to weigh the intrusion into someone's Fourth Amendment rights to be safe in their place of where they're at. And your Fourth Amendment rights don't end when you go into a Las Vegas hotel. room. So, you know, law enforcement came out, hey, there's a welfare check. These people missed the cheer competition. We're concerned. And what is your frontline cop going to think to themselves? Oh, mom killed the daughter? It's just highly unlikely. It's more likely that, oh, they went hiking for the day and skipped out on the cheer competition. You know, I think ultimately, now, the security

guards, they're not law enforcement. Those are technically private citizens. They got pestered over the course of the day. Constant calls from people saying, hey, we're really worried. something's not right. They make entry. That's not a Fourth Amendment issue. They're private, citizens that work for the property. So that's when they went in the second time. But law enforcement has to weigh the totality of the circumstances. You know, do we have an exception to get, there's no crime to get a search warrant for? What is our exception to the search warrant rule? We're not hearing screaming. We're not, we don't think that there's, you know, anyone's in there needing immediate life-saving assistance. And they just probably thought to themselves,

what are the odds, especially, you know, being here in Las Vegas, a town built on odds. the odds that a mother would do such a horrific thing to her daughter. It was just they didn't think that that was the case of what they were dealing with. It's impossible to predict something like this. Ashton Pack, thanks for taking the time. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me back on. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can also follow us on NBC's Peacock as well. We've got Sidebar episodes up there as well. And if you want to follow me, check me out on Instagram X.

You can also follow my News Nation show, Jesse Weber Live Monday through Friday at 11 p.m. Eastern. See you next time.