The dance mom in an apparent murder-suicide with her 11-year-old daughter at a cheer competition in Las Vegas had been getting “mean” texts from other parents in their team, The Post has learned.
Tawnia McGeehan, 38, had been having problems with “one or two” other ladies 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, told 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.
“Cheer was her and Addi’s life. I think something happened the day before [they died] that made her spiral.”
A source close to UXC confirmed there had recently been a “confrontation” between Tawnia and another of the cheer moms in the team waiting room.
Tawnia had “struggled with depression her whole life,” according to her mother, but appeared to be “turning a corner,” especially since ending a nine-year custody battle for Addi with ex-husband, Brad Smith, in 2024.
UXC team owner Kory Uyetake told The Post he was aware there had been “comments back and forth” between Tawnia and some of the other moms, but that everything seemed normal on Saturday after the team traveled from Utah to Nevada for the competition.
Addi was in her first season as a member on the team and “loved it”, he said, adding she “was the first [to practice] every time … She was a beautiful girl and she didn’t deserve this.”
Tawnia and Addi’s bodies were discovered at the Rio hotel and casino Sunday along with a note after they failed to appear at the cheer competition and worried family called for a welfare check.
Connie, who has a seven-bedroom home in Salt Lake City, said Tawnia and Addi had been living with her and other family members for some time.
“Addi loved her gymnastics, she loved her friends, she always seemed happy no matter what,” she said.
According to Connie, Tawnia seemed in good spirits when they left for the cheer competition and had made gifts for the cheer team members, bought new clothes for the trip and posted happy snaps of “Addi doing backflips” in their hotel room at 5am 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 Post through tears.
Police officers and hotel security first went to the mom and daughter’s room at about 10:45 a.m. Sunday after a welfare check request.
They knocked several times but left when no one answered, police said. Hotel security personnel then returned after repeated requests to check the room and made the grim discovery around 2.30 p.m.
The alarm was also raised by Addi’s stepmom, McKennly Smith, who shared a missing poster and a note saying: “My daughter Addi and her mom [are] missing please share post and call or text with any information thank you!”
Connie told The Post authorities have not yet shared the contents of the note they found 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 she wasn’t aware Tawnia owned a gun, let alone carried it interstate.
“[We’ve since learned] she bought it over a year ago,” she said.
Homicide detectives are still probing the case. The Post has reached out to the Las Vegas Metropolitan police department for additional information.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org