After Naomi Irion, 18, was abducted from a Walmart parking lot in Fernley, Nevada, on March 12, authorities recovered her remains on Wednesday.
Her remains were found from a grave site in the area of Coal Canyon Road within Churchill County less than a month after she went missing. After the search got over, the victim's brother, Casey Valley, voiced concern about local authorities' initial handling of her sister's missing case.
Valley told Fox News that if a be-on-the-lookout alert had been sent out on March 13, and if a "missing persons report had been filed, like the Lyon County Sheriff's Office is procedurally obligated to do, then it wouldn't have taken so long to … get started on this case." He said that he doesn't know what the time of death for his sister is, but "there's a chance that law enforcement could have found her alive."
When Irion did not return home after March 12, her brother said that he called her in as a missing person the following day around 9.30 pm. Two hours later a deputy called him, but did not file a missing persons report until the next day around 9 pm. Then Valley filed a complaint with the agency on March 16, which was a day after authorities found her vehicle. He said that later on, "a lot of" Lyon County deputies personally apologized to him, and said that his complaint was "well-received."
He shared that doesn't have anything against Lyon County, and he is thankful for them answering his texts at 3 am and calling him when there's an important update. He doesn't want any "defund the police" talk to be attached to the case, and said that this is about the "police needing more resources."
His sister lived with him in his Nevada home after she moved in with him in August 2021. Valley said that he got hands on the security camera footage from the Walmart parking lot where his sister was last seen. She regularly parked her car at Walmart before boarding an employee bus to her job at a Panasonic factory in the early morning. The surveillance footage showed a suspect walking to the Walmart parking lot from a nearby homeless camp on March 12 and getting into the driver's seat of Irion's car. Then the suspect drove away in an "unknown direction with Naomi in the passenger seat."
Her kidnapping suspect Troy Driver's bail was set at $750,000 during a hearing on Wednesday. The 41-year-old local mine worker was arrested on March 25 and was initially charged with her abduction, but on Friday he was charged with her murder, reported Daily Mail.
According to Fox News, he now faces charges of murder with destruction of evidence and use of a deadly weapon, robbery. Driver, who is currently in custody, will next be in court on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, to highlight families' correct instincts in missing persons cases, Irion's family has started using the hashtag #TrustTheFamily on social media.
