The Utah mother who police say killed her 11-year-old daughter before taking her own life was previously engaged in a lengthy custody battle, according to court documents obtained by News 3.
The Clark County Coroner’s Office said Tawnia McGeehan, 34, of West Jordan, Utah, died by suicide. Official rulings for the cause and manner of death for 11-year-old Addilyn Smith were still pending as of Tuesday morning.
Utah County court records indicate McGeehan negotiated a divorce decree in 2017 after petitioning for a split from her husband two years earlier.
Addilyn was their only child born during the marriage, and McGeehan received slightly more parental time with their shared custody agreement.
Louis Schneider, a Las Vegas area attorney specializing in criminal and family law, was not involved in the divorce, but he reviewed the court filings and said the case was “all across the board.”
“The lawyers kept changing, and that’s never a good sign,” said Schneider.
In 2020, the ex-husband received a temporary order granting sole custody. The order stated that McGeehan was “subjecting the child to behavior that is on the spectrum of parental alienation” and had “committed domestic abuse in the presence of the minor child.”
McGeehan later filed for a temporary restraining order to receive supervised visitation with Addilyn in 2021.
Another order was issued in 2024 to modify the divorce decree, awarding joint custody of their child through alternating weeks. The ex-spouses were to exchange custody of Addilyn at her school, and when class wasn’t in session, at a police station.
The order required that McGeehan and her ex-husband park at least five spaces apart when exchanging custody, something Schneider noted was unusual.
“That’s a red flag,” the attorney said. “If you have to mandate five parking spaces, things are really having to be controlled here.”
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said they received a request to conduct a welfare check at the Rio on Sunday morning for the mother and daughter. Officers and security personnel knocked on their door and called into the room several times, but they did not receive an answer.
There was no reason at the time to believe either McGeehan or Addilyn was in danger, according to LVMPD, and the officers left the hotel. Later in the day, hotel security received more requests to check on them. The security officers decided to enter just before 2:30 p.m. and found them unresponsive.
Both McGeehan and Addilyn were pronounced dead at the scene. Homicide detectives determined McGeehan shot her daughter before taking her own life, according to LVMPD.
It’s unclear whether any changes were made to Addilyn’s custody since that 2024 order, though sources tell News 3 that McGeehan’s ex-husband called police to request a welfare check.
“Whatever happened in that hotel, I don’t know,” Schneider said. “But this case would not have been handled like this in Nevada.”
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