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You are here: Home / Crime / Mother and Daughter Found Dead in Las Vegas Hotel Room in Apparent Murder-Suicide

Mother and Daughter Found Dead in Las Vegas Hotel Room in Apparent Murder-Suicide

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The Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, where police say a woman and her 11-year-old daughter were found dead inside a guest room in what authorities are investigating as a suspected murder-suicide.The Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, where police say a woman and her 11-year-old daughter were found dead inside a guest room in what authorities are investigating as a suspected murder-suicide. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police responded to a welfare check at the property after the pair failed to appear at a scheduled cheer competition. File photo: Pixel Doc, licensed.
LAS VEGAS, NV – A woman and her pre-teen daughter were found dead inside a hotel room at the Rio Hotel & Casino over the weekend in what police describe as a suspected murder-suicide, authorities said Monday.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) officers responded to a welfare check request at about 10:45 a.m. Sunday after family members expressed concern and the pair failed to appear for a scheduled cheer competition, the department said.

Upon arriving at the room, officers and hotel security knocked and called out several times but received no response, according to police. After they initially left the scene, continued prompting by relatives led security staff to re-check the room in the early afternoon. They forced entry and discovered the two bodies inside, police said.
You are here: Home / Crime / Mother and Daughter Found Dead in Las Vegas Hotel Room in Apparent Murder-Suicide

Mother and Daughter Found Dead in Las Vegas Hotel Room in Apparent Murder-Suicide

The Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, where police say a woman and her 11-year-old daughter were found dead inside a guest room in what authorities are investigating as a suspected murder-suicide.The Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, where police say a woman and her 11-year-old daughter were found dead inside a guest room in what authorities are investigating as a suspected murder-suicide. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police responded to a welfare check at the property after the pair failed to appear at a scheduled cheer competition. File photo: Pixel Doc, licensed.
LAS VEGAS, NV – A woman and her pre-teen daughter were found dead inside a hotel room at the Rio Hotel & Casino over the weekend in what police describe as a suspected murder-suicide, authorities said Monday.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) officers responded to a welfare check request at about 10:45 a.m. Sunday after family members expressed concern and the pair failed to appear for a scheduled cheer competition, the department said.

Upon arriving at the room, officers and hotel security knocked and called out several times but received no response, according to police. After they initially left the scene, continued prompting by relatives led security staff to re-check the room in the early afternoon. They forced entry and discovered the two bodies inside, police said.

Evidence Points to Murder-Suicide

Preliminary investigation by homicide detectives suggests the mother shot her daughter and subsequently killed herself late Saturday night, law enforcement officials told reporters. A note was found at the scene, though authorities have not released details about its contents.

Names of the victims were not immediately disclosed by police, but family and community groups identified the pair as Tawnia McGeehan and her daughter, 11-year-old Addi Smith, both from West Jordan, Utah. They had traveled to Nevada to attend a cheerleading competition with Utah Xtreme Cheer, and were last seen late Saturday evening near the New York-New York Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, according to posts shared by the cheer organization on social media.

Utah Xtreme Cheer later confirmed Addi’s death in a statement expressing profound grief and asking for privacy for the family. “With the heaviest hearts, we share the devastating news that our sweet athlete Addi has passed away,” the group wrote online.

Discovery and Response

The cause of the fatal shootings has been preliminarily classified as a murder-suicide by LVMPD homicide investigators, who said they believe the incident occurred sometime Saturday night, before the pair was reported missing.

Police officials have described the circumstances as “sad and tragic” and indicated that the investigation remains active, with further details expected to be released when available.

As of Monday, authorities had not released the weapon details or other forensic findings, and it was unclear whether neighboring guests heard any disturbance the night of the incident.

Community Response

Friends, family members and members of the cheer community had earlier circulated missing-persons alerts on social media after the pair did not show up for the event and could not be reached. Their belongings, including vehicle keys, reportedly remained at the hotel, prompting concern.

The tragic deaths have drawn attention to the pressures faced by traveling families and the wider issue of mental health, though investigators have not publicly commented on motive or contributing factors.

“That name should be dead… so why is Blackridge standing in my unit?” They mocked the new girl — until they saw the DEVGRU trident on her arm… and realized she wasn’t there to fit in. She was there to expose a betrayal that could trigger a nuclear trap.  The forward base near the Belarus border wasn’t built for drama. It was steel walls, mud-soaked boots, and radios hissing through cold dawns. Task Unit Seven didn’t get surprises.  Until she stepped off the transport.  Small. Controlled. Eyes that scanned exits before faces.  “Name,” Captain Owen Strickland demanded after reading the transfer sheet twice.  “Petty Officer Talia Blackridge, sir.”  The room shifted.  Thirty-six years earlier, a Blackridge had dragged Strickland out of a kill zone. Three years ago, that same man was declared KIA. Flag folded. Funeral attended. File closed.
“Say your name,” Captain Owen Strickland ordered.  “Petty Officer Talia Blackridge, sir.”  The room shifted.  Strickland had buried a Blackridge once. A man who pulled him out of a kill zone and was declared KIA years later. Memorial attended. Flag folded. Case closed.  Except now his last name was standing in front of him. Alive. Young. Impossible.  The team didn’t buy it. They mocked her. Tested her. Threw her into a 12-hour armory breakdown meant to break anyone.  She finished it flawlessly.  And when her sleeve shifted, they saw it.  The trident.  DEVGRU.  SEAL Team Six.  Silence swallowed the room.  Strickland stepped closer — and that’s when she said it.  “I’m not here to impress you. I’m here to find out who betrayed my father.”
I begged my landlord for mercy… and accidentally sent the message to a billionaire CEO. The next reply changed my life — and took me to Dubai as his “fiancée.”  I hadn’t eaten in two days.  My rent was overdue. My cupboard was empty. Even the salt was gone. So I did what pride-hungry people eventually do — I typed a desperate message.  Please don’t throw me out. I’m still job hunting. I promise I’ll pay. God will bless you.  I hit send.  Then I looked at the number.  It wasn’t my landlord.  It was a stranger.  I almost died of shame.  Across the city, Damalair Adabio — billionaire, CEO, allergic to nonsense — stepped out of his marble bathroom and opened my message.
She texted her landlord begging not to be thrown out… and accidentally sent it to a billionaire CEO instead. Minutes later, he offered her $7 MILLION to be his fake fiancée on a Dubai trip — and what happened that night changed everything.  Ouchi hadn’t eaten since yesterday. She stood barefoot in her tiny one-room apartment, holding an empty pot like proof that life had officially humbled her. No rice. No beans. No noodles. Even the salt had “relocated.”  Then her landlord called.  Final warning. Pay this week — or get out.  Desperate, fighting tears, she typed a long message begging for more time. She poured in everything — her degree, her job search, her faith, her pride.  She hit send.  And froze.  Wrong number.  Not her landlord.  A complete stranger.  She had just begged someone she didn’t know for mercy.  Across the city, billionaire CEO Damalair Adabio stepped out of a marble bathroom into a home that screamed wealth. Betrayed by his PA. Pressured by investors. Invited to a high-stakes Dubai business summit where every powerful man would show up with a stunning partner on his arm.  His phone buzzed.  He read her message once.  Then again.  It wasn’t manipulation. It wasn’t a scam pitch.  It was raw. Embarrassingly real.  “Wrong number,” he muttered… then paused. “Or maybe perfect timing.”
The avalanche hit without warning — white, violent, unstoppable. When it settled, rifles were missing. Packs were gone. And Claire was nowhere to be found.  They dug.  They found scraps of her gear.  Then their team leader made the call no one wants to make: “She’s dead. We move.”  They pulled out with wounded men and a storm closing in — leaving their medic behind.  But Claire wasn’t dead.  She woke up buried in ice, shoulder shattered, air running out. No radio. No weapon. Just darkness and pressure and the memory of one rule from survival school: panic kills faster than cold.  She dug with numb hands until she broke through into a full Arctic storm.  And that’s when she heard it.  Gunfire.  Her Rangers were still out there — taking contact, without their medic.  What she did next is the part they don’t put in the official report.  Because hours later, through the whiteout, a single figure emerged from the storm…  Carrying four Rangers.
“She’s dead.” They left the SEAL sniper under ten feet of Alaskan snow and moved on with the mission… Hours later, in the middle of a whiteout, she walked back into the fight — carrying four Rangers on her shoulders.  November 2018. A Ranger platoon out of Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson lifted into the Brooks Range for a hostage rescue that had to be finished before a blizzard locked the mountains down for days.  Attached to them? A Navy medic — Hospital Corpsman First Class Claire Maddox.  Quiet. Compact. Instantly underestimated.  Some Rangers glanced at her PT scores and made up their minds. The team leader, Staff Sergeant Tyler Kane, kept it professional but distant. “Stay close. Don’t slow us down.”  Claire didn’t argue. She checked radios. Tourniquets. Chest seals. IV warmers. Cold-weather meds. She studied wind angles and ridgelines the way other people read street signs.  Insertion was clean.  The mountain wasn’t.  They moved across a knife-edge locals called Devil’s Spine when visibility collapsed into gray static. Then came the sound no one forgets — a deep, hollow crack above them.
Naval Station Norfolk was silent except for the click of metal around Lieutenant Kara Wynn’s wrists.  The charge? Abandoning her overwatch position during an operation near Kandahar. Prosecutors claimed she “froze.” That because she didn’t fire, three Marines died.  The headlines were already brutal: Female SEAL cracks under pressure.  In dress whites, Kara didn’t flinch when they called her a coward. Didn’t react when they hinted her record was exaggerated. She just sat there, posture perfect, as the bailiff locked the cuffs.  “Standard procedure,” the judge said.  The prosecutor smirked.  Then the courtroom doors opened.  Not a clerk. Not a late observer.  A four-star admiral.