Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Suspect In Naomi Irion's Disappearance Arrested, But Search Is Still On For Missing 18-Year-Old
Naomi Irion was last seen in a Walmart parking lot as an unknown man got into her car with her and drove off. Troy Driver has been arrested in the case.
A suspect has been arrested in the disappearance of Nevada teenager Naomi Irion, but investigators are still searching for the missing 18-year-old.
The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of 41-year-old Troy Driver on Friday.
Investigators also seized a “truck in question” and took it into evidence.
“This is still a very active investigation and more information will be released as it becomes available,” the sheriff’s office said. “Naomi has still not been located and we are continuing to search for her and information.”
More than 150 community volunteers gathered behind the Love’s Truck Stop in Fernley Saturday to continue searching for Irion, who disappeared just before 5:30 a.m. on March 12 while waiting at a Fernley Walmart for a shuttle to her job, according to local station KOLO.
Before the search began, Irion’s brother and mother addressed the crowd and her father led the volunteers in a prayer.
A Lyon County Sheriff’s deputy later came to the scene to investigate an item found by the volunteers, but it’s not clear whether it was related to the case.
According to the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office, a person was seen on surveillance footage “walking from a nearby ‘homeless camp’ lurking in vehicles" just before Irion disappeared.
Lyon County Sheriff’s Detective Erik Kusmerz said at a press conference on Tuesday that Irion was captured on surveillance footage pulling into the parking lot around 5 a.m., CNN reports.
As she waited in her car for the shuttle to her job at Panasonic Energy of North America, Kusmerz said she was active on social media from 5:09 a.m. to 5:23 a.m. before surveillance footage showed the unknown suspect getting into her car at 5:24 a.m. and driving out of the parking lot one minute later.
Three days later, Irion’s blue 1992 Mercury Sable was found abandoned next to the Sherman Williams Western Emulsion Plant, not far from the Walmart, according to the FBI.
Evidence discovered inside the vehicle suggested her disappearance had been “criminal in nature,” authorities said.
Irion’s older brother, Casey Valley, told Fox News that he reported his sister missing on Sunday night March 13 after she had failed to show up to work for two days.
The next day, after he got off work, he drove to the Walmart and asked their security department to show him their surveillance footage and saw an unknown man getting into his sister’s vehicle.
“It was just this sinking feeling and I immediately ran out of the Walmart and called the Lyon County Sheriff’s Department,” he said.
He described his sister as a “very compassionate” and “very loving” person who would do whatever she could to help others.
Before Driver’s arrest, investigators had been searching for a dark, 2020 or newer Chevrolet 2500 High Country Silverado truck they believed could be connected to the teenager’s disappearance.
The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office said they had impounded a truck that “was possibly involved” in the teenager’s disappearance on Friday.
Few details about Driver have been released to the public.
Valley told Fox News Digital that he doesn’t “know anything more” about Driver than anyone else.
Valley said her family plans to continue organizing searches to try to find Irion until they learn “something concrete” from investigators.
