The tragic story of a Utah dance mom and her 11-year-old daughter, who were found dead in a suspected murder-suicide, has taken a disturbing turn. According to a family member, a heated exchange of texts with fellow cheer squad mothers preceded the incident.

Tawnia McGeehan, aged 38, and her daughter, Addi Smith, were discovered lifeless in their room at the Rio Hotel & Casino on Sunday afternoon, at approximately 2:30 p.m.

The reasons behind McGeehan’s alleged actions remain uncertain, particularly as she was involved in a contentious custody battle with her ex-husband. Nonetheless, tensions with other cheer moms may have played a role.

Connie McGeehan, Tawnia’s mother, revealed that members of the Utah Xtreme Cheer (UXC) team were sending harsh messages to her daughter. These messages seemed to target Addi after another team member’s recent competition withdrawal.

“There were one or two women she never saw eye-to-eye with, and things escalated about a month ago,” Connie shared with the New York Post.

“At the last competition, another girl was dropped, and some mothers blamed Addi,” Connie explained. “They sent [McGeehan] nasty messages, laying the blame on Addi.”

The 61-year-old mother and grandmother said she is now convinced something transpired in the mom group that made McGeehan ‘spiral.’ 

‘Cheer was her and Addi’s life,’ Connie said through tears. 

Tawnia McGeehan and her daughter, Addi Smith, were found fatally shot inside their Las Vegas hotel room on Sunday. They were in town from Utah for a cheer competition 

Addi’s mother was involved in a bitter text exchange with other cheer moms just before they were found dead, according to the girl’s grandmother, Connie McGeehan

Kory Uyetake, the owner of the UXC team, revealed that he also heard there had been ‘comments back and forth’ between Tawnia and other moms. 

Still, he said that nothing seemed out of the ordinary on Saturday when the team traveled to Nevada for the competition. 

Uyetake told The Post that Addi, who was in her first season on the team, ‘was the first [to practice] every time.’ 

‘She was a beautiful girl and she didn’t deserve this,’ he added.  

Another source close to the cheer team also revealed there was a recent ‘confrontation’ between Tawnia and another dance mom while they were in the team waiting room, per the outlet. 

Connie said her daughter and granddaughter were living in her seven-bedroom Salt Lake City home with her and other relatives for a while. 

‘Addi loved her gymnastics, she loved her friends, she always seemed happy no matter what,’ she said. 

According to Connie, McGeehan appeared to be in good spirits leading up to the weekend competition.  

She said she had made gifts for the team, bought new clothes for the trip, and even posted joyous pictures of ‘Addi doing backflips’ in their hotel room at 5am on Sunday – just hours before they were found dead.

Connie said: ‘They were texting [Tawnia] mean stuff and blaming Addi’ before the mother and father were found inside the hotel room 

McGeehan and Addi’s bodies were discovered inside their Las Vegas hotel room after they traveled to Sin City for a dance competition that they never showed up for. 

Police were notified of the mother and daughter missing after receiving a welfare check call on Sunday morning inside the resort. 

After arriving at the scene, they knocked on the door and called out to the room for more than 15 minutes before leaving.

Security inside the hotel then went up to the room in the early afternoon after receiving calls from their relatives. 

They too knocked on the door and, after not hearing any response, decided to enter, finding the two bodies inside.

Despite seeing the image of them in happier times just before Addi and her mother were discovered, Connie said another picture of the pair struck her as odd. 

‘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 right. The look was off, something had happened. Something was off,’ the grandmother told The Post. 

She said no one in the family knew McGeehan owned a gun or carried it on her. 

Connie said no one in the family knew McGeehan owned a gun or carried it on her

Kory Uyetake, the owner of the UXC team, said he also heard that there had been ‘comments back and forth’ between McGeehan and other moms. He described Addi as a ‘beautiful girl’ who ‘didn’t deserve this’ 

‘[We’ve since learned] she bought it over a year ago,’ Connie stated. 

After news of their tragic deaths came out, the Daily Mail uncovered that McGeehan was involved in a complex custody battle with her ex-husband and Addi’s father, Bradley. 

The pair had such a tumultuous relationship that they were ordered to park five spots apart from each other during custody handovers for their daughter. 

The pair divorced in 2015. It is unclear why, but the split was clearly acrimonious.

The former couple also spent nine years fighting for custody of Addi, leading to a list of rules to try to keep them apart as much as possible. 

In the most recent ruling, advising the parents to park spaces apart from each other, Addi was ordered to walk between the vehicles herself. 

When school was not in session, her parents were ordered to complete the handover outside the Herriman Police Department in Utah at 9am every Monday.

Both parents were warned in the custody ruling not to film the custody handovers and were banned from approaching one another at Addi’s school events. 

After news of their tragic deaths came out, the Daily Mail uncovered that McGeehan was involved in a complex custody battle with her ex-husband and Addi’s father, Bradley Smith 

The court ordered the two to ‘encourage and accept’ a positive relationship between Addi and the opposing parent and to keep their ‘personal conflicts’ away from the youngster.

They also had to make Addi available for FaceTime on Tuesday and Friday nights at 6pm. The parents were each given a 15-minute window to make the call or risk forfeiting it for the day.

The parents were forbidden from criticizing each other in front of Addi and banned from letting their relatives do the same in front of their daughter. 

The investigation into McGeehan and Addi’s deaths remains ongoing. 

The Daily Mail contacted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) for comment.