Police said a mother and daughter died in an apparent murder-suicide during a competition weekend.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A Utah cheer organization that spent Sunday sharing a missing-person alert for one of its athletes said later that night the child had died, after Las Vegas police found a mother and preteen daughter dead inside a hotel room and began investigating an apparent murder-suicide.
The case moved quickly through the youth cheer community because competition weekends often involve dozens of traveling teams, group chats, and shared schedules. The mother and daughter were in Las Vegas for a cheer or dance competition, police said, but they never arrived and could not be reached. Authorities said the discovery came after repeated welfare check requests, and investigators recovered a note from the room as they worked to confirm identities and piece together the timeline.
Early Sunday, people connected to the pair grew alarmed when the child missed scheduled competition activities and neither she nor her mother answered calls or messages. Utah Xtreme Cheer, a competitive cheer program based in Utah, posted online that an athlete and her mother were missing and asked for help finding them. The alert spread across social media during the day as families traveled between hotels, venues, and practice spaces. A local report said the mother and daughter were believed to have last been seen at the New York-New York hotel, adding to the urgency as teammates and parents tried to narrow down where the pair might be.
While the missing alert circulated, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers were already responding to welfare check calls tied to the same situation, police said. Officers and hotel security went to a room at the Rio Hotel and Casino on Sunday morning around 10:45 a.m. and knocked multiple times without getting a response, officials said. Investigators later said they did not have enough information then to enter the room without permission. With family and friends continuing to request contact efforts, hotel security tried again later that afternoon. Around 2:30 p.m., security entered the room and found the mother and daughter dead, police said, prompting officers to open a homicide investigation.
Police said the evidence they saw suggested the mother shot and killed her daughter before taking her own life. Officials said they believed the deaths occurred sometime Saturday night, and they recovered a note from inside the room. Authorities did not describe the note’s contents, and they have not released details about the weapon. Police also did not say whether anyone nearby heard anything unusual or whether there were any signs that someone else had been in the room before security entered. Those questions, officials said, are part of what detectives will examine as they document the scene and confirm the timeline.
Police described the mother as in her mid-30s and the girl as a preteen. Officials said the family had been notified. In their early public statements, police said they were not releasing the victims’ names, and they did not confirm a home state. Even so, the story’s connection to the competition world became clear as Utah Xtreme Cheer later posted an update identifying the child as Addi and saying she had died. Another Utah program, Utah Fusion All-Stars, also posted condolences and referred to the child as Addi, describing her as a loved member of the gym community. Police have not formally confirmed the identifications in the public record.
The gap between the missing alert and the police confirmation added to the shock for families following along online. Many youth sports groups are used to last-minute changes, lost phones, and confusion during travel, and the early hours of the search included hopes that the pair had simply changed hotels or missed messages. When police confirmed the deaths, the same online networks that had shared the missing posts shifted to grief messages, with coaches and parents posting short tributes and condolences. Utah Xtreme Cheer’s message said the child was “beyond loved” and would remain part of the program’s family, reflecting the close bonds that often form in youth athletics.
Las Vegas police said the incident was confined to the hotel room and that there was no ongoing threat to the public. The Rio sits near West Flamingo Road and South Valley View Boulevard, a busy corridor that draws visitors during major weekends. Police said they would continue reviewing evidence and conducting follow-up work typical in suspected murder-suicide investigations, including confirming identities through official processes and coordinating with the coroner. Authorities also said they were not releasing additional details while the investigation continued.
As of Monday night, police said the case remained open and that further information would be released when it could be verified. The next expected milestone is formal identification and a final determination by the Clark County coroner, along with any additional updates from police as the timeline is confirmed.
Author note: Last updated Feb. 16, 2026.