Suspect arrested in the case of missing teenager Naomi Irion

April 02, 2022

A suspect in the disappearance of 18-year-old Naomi Irion was arrested recently and has been charged with kidnapping. The suspect has been named as 41-year-old Troy Driver of Fallon, Nevada.

Naomi Irion went missing on March 12, 2022, from Fernley, Nevada after she was kidnapped in her own vehicle while parked outside of a Walmart store on Newlands Drive.

Naomi bought an energy drink from a gas station near the home she shared with her brother on the day she went missing, however no transactions have been made on her bank account since.

A surveillance video shows a male dressed in jeans and a hoody, around 6ft tall, forcing Naomi over into the passenger side and getting into the driver’s seat before taking off.

Irion was described as having dyed black hair and standing at 5’11” with a septum and nose piercing and a smiley face tattoo on her ankle. She had recently turned eighteen and had moved in with her brother, Casey Valley, in August of 2021. She was working at Panasonic Energy of North America, near Reno, Nevada.

Naomi Irion graduated from the American International School of Johannesburg in South Africa. According to the GoFundMe page set up by her sister, their parents currently live in South Africa where her father works for the U.S. Department of State in the U.S. Embassy.

Naomi regularly took the shuttle to work from the Walmart parking lot from which she disappeared.

The teenager usually showed up a little earlier than she needed to, to catch the shuttle, so she could chat with friends online and check her social media accounts. According to her brother, she would always park her car in the same place while she used her phone.

Naomi made it to the Fernley Walmart at 5:09am and browsed on her phone until 5:23am. She was still using her phone when the suspect approached her car.

Her vehicle was discovered three days later on March 15, approximately 2 miles away in an industrial area. Forensic evidence was recovered from the four door Sedan and has been expedited for testing. According to the missing teenager’s sister, who has been making videos about the case on TikTok, police said there was "evidence of criminal activity."

She added that police had described a vehicle of interest- a 2020 Chevrolet 2500 High Country, dark blue, 4-door pickup.

News 4 reports that on March 25, just under two weeks after Irion’s disappearance, the suspect was taken into custody at home near Alcorn Road by the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office.

According to a statement released on March 25, 2022, a truck has been located, impounded, and taken into evidence.

Driver is currently being held at the Lyon County Detention Center.

A look into Driver's history revealed that as a teenager, he committed several robberies in Ukiah, California, a city of Mendocino County, and was also involved in the murder of a drug dealer named Paul Rodriguez.

An article in the Ukiah Daily Journal, published July 31, 1997, details a story with the headline: Girl pleads guilty of murdering boyfriend. The article states that Alissa Marie Moore, 19, was sentenced to prison after she pleaded guilty to second degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Paul Steven Rodriguez, whom she shot in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun. Moore claimed to lure Rodriguez to the Schafer Ranch Road home of then-17-year-old Troy Edward Driver, whom the article states was waiting to face a hearing the following month to determine whether he would be charged as a child or adult for his involvement.

Troy Driver's older sister, then 20-year-old Sharla Driver, was sentenced to two years in county jail for her part in the murder of Rodriguez. She had pleaded guilty to being an accessory to second-degree murder as well as two counts of second-degree robbery. After Rodriguez was shot to death on the driveway of the Driver family home, Troy Driver, along with another male, helped put the victim's body into the trunk of a car. They then drove to a wooded area off Highway 128 and dumped the body.

Rodriguez was lured to the home under the pretence that he was helping to fix Driver's mother's car, which he was told was broken down in the driveway. While inspecting the vehicle he was shot in the back of the head by Moore.

A later Article in the Ukiah Daily detailed how Troy Driver was involved in a robbery at a convenience store. When asked why he took park in the robbery, he said he wanted to get money to pay for a ticket to Italy for his sister.

Driver also robbed a Circle K and a hardware store.

At the time of writing, Naomi has not yet been located and the search continues.

Naomi was wearing her work uniform at the time she went missing, including a blue shirt with a Panasonic logo, gray sweatpants and a gray cardigan. She was carrying a dark purse likely containing her AirPods and a fidget spinner.

Authorities ask that any information be reported to at the Lyon County Sheriff’s Department at 775-557-5206 ext. 2.

Those with information who want to remain anonymous can call or text Secret Witness at 775-322-4900 or go to secretwitness.com

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